Sage Payroll Year end

Payroll New Year

1. Check you’ re using the correct version.

Before you start processing the new tax year, you must have installed the update for the 2026/27 tax year, V32.00.299 or V32.00.300.

2. Update your employees’ tax codes.

For the 2026/27 tax year, the personal allowance and emergency tax code remains the same at £25,570 and 1257L. This means you do not need to change your employees’ tax codes unless informed by HMRC.

You do however need to remove the week 1 / month 1 flag on any employees’ tax codes before processing in the new tax year.

3. Small employers’ relief

If you are eligible for Small Employers’ Relief (SER) (previous years gross National Insurance must be less than £45,000), you need to set your Sage Payroll to calculate and claim it.

1. Click Company then
2. Select the Eligible for Small Employers’ Relief
3. Click OK
4. Apply for Employment Allowance

TIP: make sure your process date is set to 6/04/2026 before completing this.

In the 2026/27 tax year the employment allowance remains as £10,500 for eligible employers to reduce their annual Employers National Insurance liability by up to £10,500.

Submit the Employer Payment Summary (EPS) for Employment Allowance

1. Click Company, then click Settings.
2. Select the Eligible for Employment Allowance check box and click Submit.

• Where this button is missing, you have already applied.
• If you need to submit another application, select Settings, then continue to Step 3.
• If you are ready to start claiming it in your software, skip to the enable Employment Allowance

3. Select Continue then Submit.
4. Select Submit again, then allow the submission to complete.
5. Print the submission log if required, then select Close.

At this stage, HMRC receives an EPS with Employment Allowance application.

• If your application is unsuccessful, you receive a notification in your IR Secure Mailbox within five working days.
• If you do not hear back from HMRC, then your application has been successful, and you can then select the Eligible for Employment Allowance check box within Company then Settings. Once you select this check box, your software is set up to calculate Employer Allowance.

Memo

If you select the Eligible for Employment Allowance check box after you have already processed one or more tax months, you must re-run your P32 for each month of the tax year starting from month 1. Sage 50 Payroll then calculated the Employment Allowance due in each period and records these values in Company Settings > HMRC Payments of your software.

6. Pensions module

If you use the pension module, when you process the first period of the new tax year, Sage prompts to check your pension contribution rates are correct.

Pensions Data Exchange

If you use the Pensions Data Exchange (PDX) to send data to your provider, there are some additional steps to complete at the start of the tax year, to make sure that the dates align etc.

5. New legislation for 2025/2025 tax year

There are a few changes to payroll legislation in the new tax year, including a change to the National Minimum Wage from 1 April and the most significant changes is to the rules on Statutory Sick Pay etc.

If you need help running your payroll year end routine or setting up for the new Payroll year or need any other help or advice with your payroll, please contact us

Sage 50 Accounts

You might want to add your own Chart of Accounts just to report on specific nominal codes.  You can have numerous Charts of Accounts.

Add a Chart of Account

1. Go to Nominal codes > then click Chart of accounts.
2. Click Add and enter a name for the new chart of accounts Add.
3. Add the nominal codes you wish to, in the chart of accounts, then click Save.
4. If you are not adding all your nominal codes to your chart of accounts, or you are going to come back and finish it later, you will get a warning message “Incomplete chart of accounts.” Click OK.

Note If you do not add all the nominal ranges, the chart shows as PARTIAL in the Chart of Accounts window after saving.

Edit

You can edit any chart of accounts.

1. Highlight the relevant chart of accounts and click Edit.
2. You can change the name of the chart of accounts and add more nominal codes or delete nominal codes, change the grouping of the nominal codes as required.
3. Click Save when finished.

Delete a chart of accounts

If you have a chart of accounts that you have created that you no longer need and want to delete it.

1. Highlight the relevant chart of accounts.
2. Click
3. Click Yes to confirm that you are sure you wish to delete the relevant chart of accounts.

Set a default chart of accounts

Sage uses the default chart of accounts to populate your reports automatically.  You can change this to suit your needs if you have set up your own chart of accounts layout.

1. Highlight the relevant chart of accounts.
2. Click Make Default then click OK.

If you would like help with creating, amending, or deleting a chart of accounts, or if you need any other help with your Sage 50 Accounts, please contact us