IRIS GP Payroll April 2021 Product Update

Student Loan Thresholds – The annual thresholds have been updated in line with legislation for 2021/2022.

• Plan Type 1 increased from £19,390 to £19,895
• Plan Type 2 increased from £26,575 to £27,295
• Plan Type 4 is new for April 2021 and has a threshold of £25,000
• Postgraduate Student Loans remains at £21,000

Tax Code Changes – In line with legislative changes, moving into the new tax year (2021/2022) will automatically uplift tax codes if required.

Tax rates updated for 2021/2022 – Tax, NI, SSP, SMP, SAP, SPP & ShPP

Minimum Wage – Minimum wages rates have been updated in line with legislation for 2021/2022.

AE Parameters – The AE Parameters have been updated in line with legislation for 2021/2022.

P60s – We have updated the P60s for year-end 2020/2021 and to include Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (SPBP).

From 2021/2022, P60s will also include Student Loan Plan Type 04 contributions in the Student Loan Deduction field.

HMRC have revised the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the National Living Wage (NLW) age brackets and rates for the tax year 2021/2022. Following these changes, we have updated the software to perform checks using the new parameters. The table below details the NMW/NLW ages and rates for April 2020, and the amended figures for April 2021.

Note: The system does not make automatic rate changes for employees. It only checks the rates and ages are the correct parameters for the tax year. It is your responsibility to change them. Before updating the software, if you have entered your own rates on the Admin | File | Companies | Minimum/Living Wages Rates screen with a date later than 1 April 2021, the system will not overwrite these figures, you will need to change them manually.

Reports

We have updated all reports in line with the new NMW and NLW parameters.

In light of changes made by HMRC to the Starter Checklist, on Starter Details we have replaced the Student Loan field with a Student Loan and Postgraduate Loan section, including Plan 1, Plan 2, Plan 4 and Postgraduate Loan tick boxes. This allows you to select one or multiple Plans for new employees. Following this, when inputting Student Loan information from an employee’s Starter Checklist into Employee Details | Pay Elements | Loans | Student Loan, the system will save the Plan with the lowest numerical figure if selecting more than one tick box option.

Note: in Starter Details | Expat, we have replaced the current Student Loan frame with a new Student Loan & Postgraduate Loan section.

Starter Status – Following HMRC’s updates to the Starter Checklist, we have renamed the following fields in Starter Details | Starter Status:

• Existing Employee (this is not a new employee to the company) is now This employee is not a new starter to the PAYE scheme
• Previous Employee Code is now Previous Employee Code/RTI Pay ID

Starter Checklist Reports – We have updated the New Starter Reports to match the layout provided by HMRC.

Changes to Employee Details – Changes made in Employee Details | Pay Elements | Loans will not affect information saved in Starter Details.

HR Integration – Student Loan Play Type 04 will process through HR Integration.

Following the introduction of Student Loan Plan Type 04 Scotland, which has a threshold of £25,000 and a 9% deduction rate for tax year 2021/2022 onwards, on the Employee | Employee Details | Pay Elements | Loans tab, we have added 04 to the Plan Type drop-down menu.

DPS Student Loan Start Notice – HMRC determines who should be on Plan Type 04, and they will issue instructions in the usual way through the DPS.

Import/Export – We have updated the Import/Export fields to include Student Loan Plan Type 04.

Student Loan Audit – We have added Student Loan Plan Type 04 to the Audit.

Print Tax/NI/Pension Rates – On HMRC | Tax/NI/Pension Rates, we have added the new threshold for Student Loan Plan Type 04.

Payroll Calculations – Although the threshold differs when calculating Student Loan Plan Type 4, there is no change to the rate or method when calculating student loan deduction.

RTI submissions – updated to include all Student Loan Plan types. The FPS Student Loan Year to-date value will be a combination of Plan Type 01, 02 and 04 deductions where all, or either, have existed in the current year.

Earlier Year FPS – It is now possible to send a Full Payment Submission (FPS) for a previous tax year, and after 19^th April in the current year. From 2020/2021 onwards, you can no longer send an Earlier Year Update (EYU) to correct any mistakes made in the previous tax year. To enable you to submit an Earlier Year FPS, on the Online Filing tab, we have replaced the Send Earlier Year Update option with a Send Earlier Year FPS menu item.

Note: The Send Earlier Year FPS menu item will only be visible in the software from the 2020/2021 tax year and can only be used from 2021/2022 and subsequent tax years to correct data from the previous year.

Earlier Year Update – We have removed the EYU menu item from the tax year 2020/2021 onwards. You can only send an EYU for submissions up to Tax Year 2019/2020.

Earlier Year FPS – When navigating to Online Filing | Send Earlier Year FPS, a new Employee Selection screen will display, prompting you to either send the Earlier Year FPS for the selected employee or an unlisted employee. The purpose of this screen is to allow you to send an Earlier Year FPS where a company is new to IRIS Payroll and has no knowledge of employees who left whilst on another payroll.

FPS 2021/2022 – The FPS schema has been updated for tax year 2021/2022 in line with government legislation.

EPS 2021/2022 – We have updated the EPS schema for submissions relating to tax year 2021/2022.

On the Company | Company Details | HMRC | State Aid | Company Options – State Aid screen, we have renamed the Industrial field to Industrial/Other.

Statutory Maternity Pay

When navigating to the Payroll Calculations | Statutory | Allocate Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) | Setup | Step 1(a) – The Average Salary for SMP screen, completing the required fields and selecting Next, you will now see a warning message if the software detects that your employee does not qualify for SMP.

Note: the warning message is for your information only, you can choose to ignore the message and proceed with paying your employee SMP regardless of whether they qualify if you have reason to do so.

Statutory Paternity Pay

On the Payroll Calculations | Statutory | Allocate Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) | Step 2 – Average Salary for SSP screen, we have added a Select the SPP type label with two tick boxes, one for Birth and the other for Adoption. Based on your selection, the software decides whether the employee is eligible for SPP. A warning message will display if the employee does not qualify.

The text in the Wizard for Statutory Paternity Pay, Step 2 – Average Salary for SSP screen has been updated to:

“In order to calculate SPP, the employee’s average monthly salary is required. In this screen, when you enter the date the baby is due the system can calculate the average MONTHLY salary which is used to calculate the average WEEKLY salary used in the SPP calculation.

If no pay details are detected in the relevant months (for example if you have only recently started to use IRIS GP Payroll) or if you have used the Re-arrange Employee Order facility in the software recently then you will need to calculate the average earnings figure manually. Visit www.gov.uk/government/collections/statutory-pay for further guidance with this.

Select the type of SPP you are paying (birth or adoption) – this information is used when the system performs a check to ensure the employee has worked for the practice long enough to qualify for the payment. This check only serves as guidance for you – if you have good reason to ignore the start date warning you can do so and continue processing SPP.”

Statutory Adoption Pay

When navigating to Payroll Calculations | Statutory | Allocate Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) | Setup, clicking Next on Step 2 – Design of SAP period and Step 2(a) – The Average Salary for SAP screens, the software performs a check to identify whether your employee meets the SAP criteria. You will see a warning message if your employee does not qualify.

Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay

From Payroll Calculations | Statutory | Allocate Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (SPBP) | Setup, and selecting Next on the Wizard for Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay | Step 2 – The Average Salary for SPBP screen, you will now see a warning message if your employee does not qualify for SPBP. This new feature allows for the software to cross-reference an employee’s employment start date with the SPBP eligibility criteria, which in turn, speeds up the payroll process.

Employee Details

The Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) has introduced a new reporting policy which aims to replace NSR forms and allow users to upload their monthly reports via i-Connect first, then submit them. Following this, we have updated the software to enable you to create and send CSV files. Note: These changes only affect Scottish practices.

Please Note: SPPA originally planned to launch the i-Connect function in April 2021. This has now been delayed, so until you are advised otherwise by SPPA, you should continue reporting to SPPA using NSR files and not use the new i-Connect options in GP Payroll.

On Employee | Pension Details | Type of Employment, we have added a number of options to the drop-down, a. 15 – Optants member of an alternative superannuation scheme). We have also changed the labelling of the existing Type of Employment options.

Pension Summaries Screen

To enable you to create an i-Connect data file, under the Print Output | Pension Summaries |NHS Pension Summaries frame, we have added a Monthly i-Connect data file field. Note: This new field only applies when your Pension Agency is set to Scotland.

Please Note: SPPA originally planned to launch the i-Connect function in April 2021. This has now been delayed, so until you are advised otherwise by SPPA, you should continue reporting to SPPA using NSR files and not use the new i-Connect options in GP Payroll

SPPA i-Connect Options Screen

Upon selecting Print Output | Pension Summaries | Monthly i-Connect, a new SPPA IConnect options screen will display asking you whether you want to create the CSV file or print a report. Other features on this screen include:

• Select an option frame with the following:
  • Summary of Contributions Received field
• Select the month that you want to create the file or print the report for drop-down) this field lists months April – March
  • Prepare a file in CSV format for upload to i-Connect
  • Print a copy of the form for your records field
• Number of Employees frame with the following fields:
  • All employees
  • Choose employees

SPPA Wizard Launch Screen

When navigating to the SPPA I-Connect options screen and selecting the Prepare a file in CSV format for upload to i-Connect field, a Wizard to create monthly data file for upload to iConnect screen will launch after you click Ok.

Select Leavers Screen

To pick employees who have left the pension scheme/employment, click through to the SPPA Wizard for i-Connect screen, choose Next and a new Select Leavers screen will display. The screen contains a grid with three columns, including Employee Name, Date of Leaving Scheme and Reason for Leaving. The Employee Name and Reason for Leaving columns are dropdowns, allowing you to select the correct option. When selecting the Reason for Leaving column, you will see a comprehensive list of options.

The Select Leavers screen also includes a tick box with an Include leavers from previous periods in file label.

Position of File Screen

On the SPPA Wizard | Select Leavers screen, click Next to navigate through to the Position of File for upload to i-Connect screen. This new screen enables you to choose where to save the CSV file.

Success Screen

The Success Screen is the final screen displayed in the SPPA Wizard when creating the i-Connect data file.

Create CSV file

We have created a CSV file to match the format provided by i-Connect.

Monthly Data Report

To allow you to input leaver information before printing the report, on Print Output | Pension Summaries | Monthly i-Connect data file | Print a Copy of the form for your records, we have added an i-Connect monthly data report screen. The screen contains a grid similar to the Select Leavers screen with Employee Name, Date of Leaving Scheme and Reason for Leaving columns. The Employee Name and Reason for Leaving Scheme drop-downs automatically populate for employees included in the NHS Pension Scheme and who have any of the following dates falling within the 1st – last calendar date of the chosen month:

1. Leaving Date
2. Opt Out Date
3. Ceased Contributions Date

The Date of Leaving Scheme is a date-picker field. The monthly data report screen also features an Include leavers from previous periods in report tick box.

If choosing the All Employees option in the SPPA i-Connect Options screen, you will be able to select any employee who is set to Include in NHS Pension Scheme. Likewise, ticking the Choose Employees option allows you to select any of the employees you have highlighted.

Year End Transfer

We have updated the software to allow i-Connect.CSV files created to be transferred and saved into the Payroll folder.

NHS Pension Rates

The Pension Tiers for NHS England/Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are up to date with legislation for 2021/2022.

Previous Employee Code Field

On Employee | Starter Details and Import/Export, we have increased the Previous Employee Code field length to 35 characters.

Changes to Import/Export

New Fields for Import/Export Under Import/Export Data | Import Data or Export Data | Data Import Fields or Data Export Fields | Field Name we have added a new field, Total Employer NIC.

Import/Export Smart Search

We have updated the Field Name functionality in the Import and Export options, allowing you to search for a field without scrolling down the list.

Scottish Widows Contributions File Changes

The Scottish Widows Contributions file has been updated in line with their specification. The following fields have been added:

• Employee pensionable salary for pay period
• Employee net regular contribution percentage
• Employer regular contribution percentage

Default Student Loan

Previously, when a new employee had more than one student loan selected in the Starter Checklist, the software assigned the lowest number by plan type. We have updated the software and it will now assign the number based on the lowest annual threshold of the selected loans.

Calculating Average Earnings for SMP

The issue with calculating average earnings for SMP, where no output was being produced, has been resolved.

NEST CS File

An issue which occurred in unusual circumstances, where changing the Group, Date Group Changed, Payment Source and Date Payment Source Changed, resulting in the NEST CS file displaying zero values has been fixed.

Full Payment Submission (FPS)

An issue where messages were being displayed stating an FPS had already been submitted has been resolved.

Furlough Extension

The software/spreadsheet has been updated to incorporate the extension of the CJRS until 30^th September 2021.

Please see the COVID-19 – Furlough Job Retention Scheme Changes and Important Dates Guide for further information.