Home | Support | IRIS Payroll Basics FAQs

IRIS Payroll Basics FAQs

In this section we will keep you updated with common questions asked about the software and latest legislation.

Contents

Top FAQs

I have just installed IRIS Payroll Basics and I don’t know the password to login.

Please contact our sales team who will be able to provide you with your password:

Tel: 0344 815 5766

I am getting a message that says “Licensed user limit reached”. What should I do?

You probably didn’t exit IRIS Payroll Basics cleanly the last time you used it. Log in again but this time enter the administrator password (this will be ‘admin’ unless you have changed it). Click on the Operator/Groups menu and select Clear Operator Locks. Log out of the admin screen then log back in to IRIS Payroll Basics as normal.

Whay have not got a P60 for some of my employees?

P60s will only be printed for current employees. This is correct according to legislation. You must give the P60s to your employees before 31 May.

I am trying to pay SSP but it is coming up with no entitlement, what am I doing wrong?

There are various reasons this might occur:

  • The employee has not been on the payroll very long. IRIS Payroll Basics needs 8 weeks’ previous gross pay to work out an average for SSP. You can either manually enter the SSP or enter some previous gross pay in the employee’s record.
  • If the employee has an average gross pay that is less than the Lower Earnings Limit, they wouldn’t qualify for SSP. You would need to Issue the employee with an SSP1 form
  • The employee may not have 4 consecutive qualifying days. Again, they would not qualify for SSP
  • You may have entered sickness into the absence diary and omitted the weekends. The weekends need to flagged as sick if they form part of the period of incapacity, even if Saturday and Sunday are non-qualifying days 

How do I set up an existing director mid year?

In the Employee’s Record card there is a ‘Director?’ tick box on the ‘Tax/NI’ tab. When you tick the box, the following question is asked: “Enter the tax week number that this person was made a director”.

You must enter the tax week number that the employee was appointed a director. Even for monthly paid directors you should still enter the week number. This will set the start point for the director’s pro-rata year.

I am trying to alter a payment and/or deduction but the drop down menus are inactive.

IRIS Payroll Basics will only allow ONE payment and ONE deduction. You can’t amend either and no more are allowed to be added.

I am paying people in week 1. Why is the system saying nobody found to pay?

The year end restart has not been done or has not been completed.

How many times can I re run my payroll?

You can re-run or undo and run the current payroll as many times as you need to, until you are satisfied it is correct. You would not be able to do this once you have started running a payroll for the next period, i.e. You can re-run payroll week dozens of times if you want to, but run payroll for week 9 and you will be unable to rerun payroll in week 8.

Administration

How do I log into Admin?

The DEFAULT password is Admin.

If you have set your own Admin password use that. If you cannot remember your password, ou will need to request a break in password.

This should be provided with the company letter head and signed by the senior payroll decision maker. This could then be scanned and emailed to payroll@iris.co.uk or faxed through on 0844 815 5670.

Can I back up to a CD from Payroll Basics?

You are not able to back up directly onto a CD using the normal Back-up & Restore facility. However, if you have the software required, you could back up to another location and use your CD writer to put it onto a disk.

How do I restore my back ups to a new installtion of IRIS Payroll Basics?

Install IRIS Payroll Basics and then restore the file via File > Backup & Restore > Restore Company data. You will need to browse to the folder where the backup is contained.

How are backup files named?

0001DATA.ZIP. By default the backup will be placed in the program installation folder, C:\Program Files\IRIS Software Ltd\IRIS Payroll Basics.

When and why do I need to run a datafile rebuild?

On occasions the data files for a company may become corrupted. This can happen if the computer is turned off during a payroll run or if there is a power failure. If this happens it may be possible to recover the data files without having to restore them from a backup. Log into Admin, go to File / Companies / Rebuild. Choose the company and click OK, say yes to compacting the Data files. If this has not resolved your data corruption please contact Support.

We recommend you regularly run a data file rebuild and compact as part of your normal housekeeping procedures

Company

Where can I find the copy of my company I took during the year end restart?

It is stored in a folder called Last Year, this folder will be stored in C:\Program Files\IRIS Software Ltd\IRIS Payroll Basics\Last Year. To return to your previous years data, first make sure you have a back-up of your current position. From the drop down menu select File > Use Last Years Company Data. To return to the current tax year simply untick this option from the File menu.

Director

How do I set up an existing Director mid year?

In the Employee’s Record > Tax/NI Details tab there is a Director? tick box. When you tick the box, the following question is asked: “Enter the tax week number that this person was made a director”.

You must enter the tax week number that the employee was appointed a director. Even for monthly paid directors you should still enter the week number. This will set the start point for the director’s pro-rata year. 

What do I do when an employee is not longer a Director?

Do nothing! The rules state that when a director finishes or ceases to become a director they should continue to pay NI in the same way until the end of the year. If the employee pays more NI during the year than the annual limits, they could be entitled to a refund. They are responsible for claiming this back from HMRC.

Why is my Director not paying any NI?

Remember, if you flag someone as a director from the start of the Tax Year they will be subject to annual earnings limits. This means they will not pay any NI until they earn over the current Annual Earnings Threshold. Once they reach this they will pay NI on all of their NI able earnings until they reach the Annual Upper Earnings Limit.

Employees

What is the difference between setting an employees as a leaver and removing an emplyee?

You should only remove an employee when there is a mistake on the record or under instruction from Support. Year end details are kept for people who are set as leavers but not for those who are removed. Removing an Employee has the effect of deleting them as if they had never existed.

A new employee has employment elsewhere – do I have to deduct Tax and NI at the full rate?

This FAQ is assuming you have just taken on a new employee and they already hold a full time position in another company. If you have taken on an employee and it is their second job you need to do the following.

You need to deduct NI as normal, the rate deducted will be determined depending on which NI Table letter the employee has been assigned, this is commonly Letter A.

For tax purposes you need to set the tax code to 0T (zero Tee). This will tax from any earnings with no free pay allowances.

What is the difference between a casual and an occasional employee?

Casual and Occasional are both used when an employee works for short periods throughout the year but you don’t issue a P45 after each period of work. The difference is how tax refunds are treated when the employee is not working. If you run a payroll for a casual employee with zero pay he/she will receive a tax refund. If you run a payroll for a occasional employee with zero pay he won’t receive a tax refund (it will be included the next time you process the payroll).

How do I change a weekly employee to be monthly?

The first thing to consider is whether the month they are next due to be paid will overlap any tax weeks already paid on the Tax Calendar. If not go to the Period Tab card in the Employee record, select the monthly option and set next tax period to the appropriate month.

Installation

How do I move my data to another location?

Go into the Company menu and select Alter Company Details. On the first tab you will see a Drive/Directory for Data. This specifies where the company data is held. Change the Drive for Data to the new location and say OK. You will then be asked “The Datafile location has changed, do you want to move the data files now?” or “You have altered the ‘Drive for Data’ field. Do you want to move the data base to its new location?”. Say Yes.

How do I find the program location for Payroll Basics?

Go to the Help menu and select About IRIS Payroll Basics. Click the button More Details and you will see the program.

National Insurance

What method is used for NI calculations?

IRIS Payroll Basics uses the exact percentage method of calculating NI contributions.

Why is there a difference in the NI calculation when compared to the tables?

This is because we use the Exact Percentage method for calculating NI on the payroll. You will normally see 1 to 2 pence difference between the tables and exact percent. This is not a problem as long as you do not change methods more than once mid-tax year.

Online Filing

I am trying to submit online and getting ‘Cannot connect’ from the Government Gateway. What should I do?

If when trying to do your online filing you get ‘cannot connect’, it means that something is interfering with, or blocking, the internet connection. It is impossible for us to say exactly what but you may want to try the following:

  • Turn off virus checkers
  • Ensure Internet Explorer version is 5.5 or higher with 128 bit encryption
  • Internet security programs, surf control, privacy control programs etc. should be checked to ensure they
    do not interfere with access. If in doubt they should be turned off
  • Firewalls should be checked to ensure they do not impose any restrictions to traffic on port 443 (https) for
    BOTH inbound and outbound traffic
  • If you have a proxy server which enforces authentication on a per connection basis, this should be disabled
    or bypassed

Click here for further details

PAYE and Tax Code

A student has joined us, what do I do about Tax & NI?

Students would usually be set up on an NI Tax Code and A Rate NI. However, we cannot advise what any of your employee’s Tax Codes or NI rates should be. If in doubt please contact HMRC.

Can i print the income tax calendar from Payroll Basics?

The Income Tax Calendar is supplied by HMRC and never changes. To print it in IRIS Payroll Basics, go to the Payroll drop down menu, Change Payroll Date. Click on the Tax Calendar button. To print, right click and select Print.

Where can I find PAYE legislation information?

A break down of various PAYE legislation is avalable on our fact sheets:

https://www.iris.co.uk/support/payroll-legislation/payroll-legislation/

Payments & Deductions

I am trying to alter a payment and/or deduction but the drop down menus are inactive.

IRIS Payroll Basics will only allow ONE payment and ONE deduction. You can’t amend either and no more are allowed to be added.

Payroll Processing

I am paying people in week 1. Why is the system saying nobody found to pay?

The year end restart has not been done or has not been completed.

Why am I getting the error ‘No Employees were found to be paid?

There can be several reasons:

  • You are running the wrong period number
  • You do not have the next tax pay number set correctly
  • You are selecting by employee name, try selecting their code instead
  • Employee is on hold or has been marked as a leaver 

How many times can I re run payroll?

You can re-run or undo and run the current payroll as many times as you need to, until you are satisfied it is correct. You would not be able to do this once you have started running a payroll for the next period, i.e. You can re-run payroll week dozens of times if you want to, but run payroll for week 9 and you will be unable to rerun payroll in week 8.

Reports

Why is there a difference between the payroll summary and the month end summary?

Payroll Summaries report only on a single payroll, usually the last one that has been done for either weekly, monthly or combined employees, for any selected period. Month End Summaries report on everything that has been processed in the tax calendar month selected (if printing based on tax calendar).

It is used to provide a company with the figures that need to be paid on the P30. The reports may differ due to P45’d employees appearing on the month end but not on the payroll summary. Alterations made to the payroll but no new payroll summary printed. Alterations will show on the month end summary.

I still have a leaver showing on my month end summary?

This will happen if the employee has been paid in that period.

The leaver would need to appear on the report because there will be tax and NI to pay over at the end of the month.

Why is my month end summary showing zero figures?

If you print your month-end summary using the ‘Since last month-end’ option it indicates the report has already been printed or previewed and month-end processing has been performed. You can choose to print it again Based on Tax Calendar, this will pick up any payrolls run in that Tax Month.

I need a P30 report to pay HMRC?

The figures needed for your P30 report can be found on the last page of the Month End Summary.

Statutory Payments

I am trying to pay SSP but it is coming up with no entitlement, what am I doing wrong?

There are various reasons this might occur:

  • The employee has not been on the payroll very long. IRIS Payroll Basics needs 8 weeks’ previous gross pay to work out an average for SSP. You can either manually enter the SSP or enter some previous gross pay in the employee’s record.
  • If the employee has an average gross pay that is less than the Lower Earnings Limit, they wouldn’t qualify for SSP. You would need to Issue the employee with an SSP1 form
  • The employee may not have 4 consecutive qualifying days. Again, they would not qualify for SSP
  • You may have entered sickness into the absence diary and omitted the weekends. The weekends need to flagged as sick if they form part of the period of incapacity, even if Saturday and Sunday are non-qualifying days 

What are the current rates for Statutory Payments?

Please visit www.iris.co.uk/payelegislation for details on statuatory payments and other PAYE legislation for the current tax year.

Student Loans

How do I set up Student Loans?

There is a button for Student Loans on the Tax and NI card in the employee’s record. To start deducting a Student Loan from an employee, click on the Student Loan button. There are two ways in which you can start to deduct a Student Loan:

  • If you get a Start or Stop Notice from HMRC, complete the Start Date and End Date fields. The loan will then be deducted automatically during any payroll run between these dates
  • If an employee gives you a P45 that tells you that he/she already has a Student Loan in operation tick ‘Continue Student Loan?’

© IRIS Software Group Ltd 2024