Small Payroll package

Calahonda52

Just to say the employer Payroll piece was put on my company Ros over the weekend: took about 2 weeks from getting registered as an employer

thesimpsons

Question for you Collsoft -

In the screenshot you have attached above - are the missing submissions (the three in red) failing to send PSRs back to Revevenue or where do they come from ? I haven't come across any of these?

I'm using Collsoft for a number of years and I'm very happy with it. Small company payroll and very simple to use. Telephone support is always quick and friendly. Highly recommend it.

collsoft

thesimpsons wrote: »

Question for you Collsoft -

In the screenshot you have attached above - are the missing submissions (the three in red) failing to send PSRs back to Revevenue or where do they come from ? I haven't come across any of these?

I'm using Collsoft for a number of years and I'm very happy with it. Small company payroll and very simple to use. Telephone support is always quick and friendly. Highly recommend it.

Hi Mr TheSimpsons - Love your username!!!

Ok, where to start.

Well first I should say this. CollSoft along with all of the other Payroll Developers have been working with Revenue on PAYE Modernisation for almost 3 years now.

The first two years involved a lot of discussions between the software developers and Revenue, but did not really involve any Employers.

We would have a lot of experience with software users who run their payroll on a daily basis. Revenue would have the opinion that the "Rules are the Rules" and that is how employers operate their Payroll - simply not true.

On many occasions I had arguments with Revenue where I would try and explain that the real world does not work according to their regulations.

For most businesses Payroll is something that they just have to do - it is not what they are in business for, and with the best will in the world, most Payroll operators are doing their best to be compliant with the regulations, but generally tey dont always fully understand their obligations.

Payroll software tries to bridge the gap between the regulations and the day to day reality that face our users.

So what am I trying to say????

Well, even though we had many years of experience in Payroll, and even though we put in 2 years of work before PAYE Modernisation went live, the simple fact is that we too have been learning more about how our users operate their payroll, and seen some of the issues that they can run up against.

With that in mind we have been adapting our software a lot over this year and we have been trying to help users with meeting Revenue's requirements.

One frightening fact is that almost 70% of the monthly statements issued by Revenue are not actually accepted by Employers. They are deemed accepted by Revenue on their behalf.

Now I know that there are some users who check their monthly statements, but just dont take any actions because they are correct. But my experience tells me that there are likely to be many employers who simply have not checked their statements.

If you have not checked, then how do you know that you are up to date?

When will you check.

So in the middle of November we launched our "Data Quality Update" which includes many new features, but the main aim is to ensure that employers dont have any outstanding submissions.

One of the features in our software that separates us from our competitors is that you can always go into a previous period and make a change. In many systems once you start the next period the previous one locks out - if you need to make a change you have to restore back to when that period was opn, and then you have to run all your payrolls forward again.

However, one problem with being able to edit a previous period easily is that it is also easy to make a change and forget to file it with Revenue, so we wanted to make sure that users didnt forget to file such changes.

When we launch a big update like that we dont just tell everybody on the same day - "Hey We have an Update, go and get it"!!!!!

20% of all submissions are made using our software and if we did a big bang launch like that then our phone lines would simply go into meltdown - and that upsets people and we want to try and avoid it.

So we take a staggered approach with a launch like this, and we notify users in tranches so we can deal with the support.

But even this update has created a lot of support, with people calling us asking "Why is Payroll saying I have Outstanding Payments".

The reasons are varied and many, but here are some of the common ones;

1) You ran your Payroll and submitted it. Later you realised that you made a mistake with a couple of ages and you correct them, but you forgot to file the corrections.

2) With everything going on you may have simply forgotten to file the entire submission

3) Revenue Systems go down sometimes, and you may have filed a submission t Revenue which was accepted, but Revenue never acknowledged the submission back to your software - so the software assumes it didnt go through.

4) You made a correction in Payroll but you filed the change manually through the Revenue screens - again, Revenue does not know if it was filed.


On top of all of that, Revenue have been analysing all of the data that has been submitted by employers. That is 5.5 million submissions and 70 million payslips.

They have developed about 12 different tests/rules that they run against the data, and if they spot something they will be in touch.

In our update we added the same tests so that you can verify if you have any such issues, and if so, you can fix them before Revenue get in contact.

AT the moment Revenue are being very helpful to employers. If you are making an honest effort to comply then they will help you correct any mistakes.

However, I expect that next Year Revenue are going to switch to compliance mode and there will be a little less carrot and a bit more stick.

I also expect that next Year Revenue are going to start checking calculations, and they may start asking employers, "Hey, why did you deduct that amount of tax, it looks wrong".

Long story short, we are adapting to what we are seeing that our customers need with PAYE Modernisation and we are trying to make things easier and better.

Anyway, if you didnt get the notification from us yet you can always download the update from our website at www.collsoft.ie

Hope this helps

Jason

thesimpsons

thanks Jason - I got the notification of update but left it in the "I'll look at that tomorrow" folder

l have a look at the update and give helpline a buzz if I need help

btw - its Marge not Homer. Duh

collsoft

thesimpsons wrote: »

thanks Jason - I got the notification of update but left it in the "I'll look at that tomorrow" folder

l have a look at the update and give helpline a buzz if I need help

btw - its Marge not Homer. Duh

Well Marge, I may be named after a Greek Hero, and I have read Homer's Odyssey, but I have to say that I am possibly closest in character to Mr Homer Simpson.

He is without doubt one of the most misunderstood characters of our time.

In spite of all his flaws, and everything that is stacked against him, he manages to survive.

What more can we hope for in Life????

Regards

Jason

Calahonda52

Does your product cater for cycle to work repayment schemes as well as PRSI for proprietary directors of close companies as well as age related PRSI exemptions?

Calahonda52

Stratvs wrote: »

Agreed. If you have payroll between now and then you can do it on ROS online although be mindful that ROS does not compute only record what you input and it's a bit tedious ( although apparently there are quite a few small employers doing it according to Revenue )

In relation to this, when entering the info manually, does it ask what Class/subclass the ER/EE PRSI is being calculated at?
Thanks

Stratvs

Calahonda52 wrote: »

In relation to this, when entering the info manually, does it ask what Class/subclass the ER/EE PRSI is being calculated at?
Thanks

To be honest I’ve not inputted any manually As all our cases are on Thesaurus Payroll. However since electronic payroll data normally includes PRSI class ( in your case likely J0 or J1 as >66 ) I’d expect the manual input on ROS to request that.

Calahonda52

Okay, am going to purchase Thesaurus, and I see Bright Pay offered as well.
What is the difference?
.
Will also get Thesaurus Accounts

Stratvs

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Okay, am going to purchase Thesaurus, and I see Bright Pay offered as well.
What is the difference?
.
Will also get Thesaurus Accounts

Bright pay I believe is a newer product here and they have had it running in U.K. for years through the U.K. changeover to real time reporting a couple of years back. Thesaurus is the older Irish originating product but does all it needs to. Both offer cloud based employee access and features such as holiday requests etc. It also links to their bright contracts product with EE contracts and handbooks. The interface in bright pay looks more up to date but honestly I find Thesaurus fine especially for the smaller employer who doesn’t need Too many bells and whistles in the product and wants something that’s easy to learn. Maybe give them a call to get more info, I find their support v good. You can also trial either for several weeks free before you need to pay for the unlock code.

(No connection with the company just someone who’s used it for a long time )

Calahonda52

Good morning ,

Thank you for your email and your interest in our products.

Please see below some of the key differences between Thesaurus and BrightPay:

Brightpay can cater for multiple pay frequencies simultaneously (weekly, fortnightly, 4-weekly, monthly) where Thesaurus Payroll Manager can run weekly and monthly or fortnightly and monthly only.
.
Brightpay will allow you to customise your reports whereas Thesaurus Payroll Manager has specific templates in place which cannot be edited.
.
Brightpay will allow employees to be assigned to more than one department where Thesaurus Payroll Manager is restricted to 1 per employee.
.
Brightpay will allow you to have more than one employer bank account from which employees can be paid where Thesaurus Payroll Manager is limited to 1 employer bank account.

When you look at the above, getting a package is a no brainer really, especially the bank side

PaybackPayroll

My name is Eamon and I work for Payback Payroll - one of the products mentioned earlier in the thread.

I would just like to clarify that Payback Payroll also allows users to make mid-year changes to payroll without having to rewind everything back.
(In the Payroll screen, click the 'More>>' button then click 'Change' and you can change whichever payment you like. It's also a multi-year product so you can go all the way back to 2004)

We also have a full Cloud product (not just back up to cloud etc...) called CloudPay.

What really sets us apart is that we offer unlimited employees, unlimited companies and unlimited users all for €140. There is also no problem setting up network users. We don't charge extra for that either.

Calahonda52

PaybackPayroll wrote: »

My name is Eamon and I work for Payback Payroll - one of the products mentioned earlier in the thread.

I would just like to clarify that Payback Payroll also allows users to make mid-year changes to payroll without having to rewind everything back.
(In the Payroll screen, click the 'More>>' button then click 'Change' and you can change whichever payment you like. It's also a multi-year product so you can go all the way back to 2004)

We also have a full Cloud product (not just back up to cloud etc...) called CloudPay.

What really sets us apart is that we offer unlimited employees, unlimited companies and unlimited users all for €140. There is also no problem setting up network users. We don't charge extra for that either.

Thanks for this!
Does it integrate with any accounting packages?

PaybackPayroll

Thanks for this!
Does it integrate with any accounting packages?

Our desktop system integrates with Quickbooks (and the old desktop version of sortmybooks)

Cloudpay integrates with Sort My Books - also an cloud online system.

Calahonda52

PaybackPayroll wrote: »

Our desktop system integrates with Quickbooks (and the old desktop version of sortmybooks)

Cloudpay integrates with Sort My Books - also an cloud online system.

it tells me this is a beta version, which may work :P

PaybackPayroll

Calahonda52 wrote: »

it tells me this is a beta version, which may work :P

Yes, indeed!
We finished the integration work before we started PAYE Modernisation, so it's been there a while. We intend adding a few more features to it, hence the Beta notice.

Calahonda52

Just wonder how long does it take for the payroll data to appear in ROS?

Calahonda52

PaybackPayroll wrote: »

Yes, indeed!
We finished the integration work before we started PAYE Modernisation, so it's been there a while. We intend adding a few more features to it, hence the Beta notice.

So will it work? :mad:
I would not have bought the cloud payroll version if I had known the cloud accounting was suspect re integration

PaybackPayroll

Calahonda52 wrote: »

So will it work? :mad:
I would not have bought the cloud payroll version if I had known the cloud accounting was suspect re integration

Yes, it works.
If you have any problems with it, I issue you with a full refund.

Stratvs

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Just wonder how long does it take for the payroll data to appear in ROS?

Once you upload from a package it should be pretty much instant. Load payroll, log into ROS and it is there.
My payroll sends the PSR up and I get an acknowledgement within the payroll within usually 10 seconds that it has been received.

PaybackPayroll

Yes, pretty much instant - in most cases
However, there have been instances when the Revenue server goes down or submissions are stuck at 'Pending'

Last December, for instance, a large employer submitted a large quantity of deletes that slowed everything down considerably. Again on 22 Jan 2020 there were reports of delays.

(In Cloudpay you know the submission has gone through when the 'Revenue' figures match the Cloudpay figures in the submission screen summary tab.)

Calahonda52

Stratvs wrote: »

Once you upload from a package it should be pretty much instant. Load payroll, log into ROS and it is there.
My payroll sends the PSR up and I get an acknowledgement within the payroll within usually 10 seconds that it has been received.

Thanks, yes its there, so how do I pay the taxes due to Revenue?

Stratvs

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Thanks, yes its there, so how do I pay the taxes due to Revenue?

You can set up a variable DD in ROS and then they take the actual amount due for any month on the 23rd of the following month. This is the handiest I feel as once set up you don't need to remember it.

Alternatively you can go in each month and once the liability is accepted you can do a payment via RDI. But you'll have to remember to do that each month.

Calahonda52

Stratvs wrote: »

You can set up a variable DD in ROS and then they take the actual amount due for any month on the 23rd of the following month. This is the handiest I feel as once set up you don't need to remember it.

Alternatively you can go in each month and once the liability is accepted you can do a payment via RDI. But you'll have to remember to do that each month.

Just think doing it manually might be better as you don't think you have more money in the account ... the VAT hit came today for Dec Jan
Can it be paid in advance of the due date as well?


Thanks, now trying to figure out how to upload the SEPA file to BOI.
Just as well its my wages....

Stratvs

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Can it be paid in advance of the due date as well?

After the 5th of the month the statement for the previous month will be on ROS. If you are in agreement with it you can accept it and then go to payment. The default will be 23rd of month but you can replace that with date of your choice up to the 23rd.

PaybackPayroll

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Thanks, now trying to figure out how to upload the SEPA file to BOI.
Just as well its my wages....

If you are transferring only one payment, it might be easier to do a standard bank transfer rather than a SEPA file. As far as I'm aware, banks can charge a fair amount for SEPA transfers.

Stratvs

PaybackPayroll wrote: »

If you are transferring only one payment, it might be easier to do a standard bank transfer rather than a SEPA file. As far as I'm aware, banks can charge a fair amount for SEPA transfers.

Agreed

Calahonda52

So I decided to pay the tax for Jan payroll yesterday in ROS.
I have an RDI set up for PAYE-EMP which I presume is the correct tax code, so will it be paid automatically if I take no action within ROS?

Stratvs

Calahonda52 wrote: »

So I decided to pay the tax for Jan payroll yesterday in ROS.
I have an RDI set up for PAYE-EMP which I presume is the correct tax code, so will it be paid automatically if I take no action within ROS?

If you're paying by RDI then when you go to the monthly statement for January you need to accept it & select your RDI as the payment method. It will then default to 23/02/2020 as the payment date. Just as if you were doing any other RDI payment like VAT etc.

If you want to go more hands off then you set up a variable DD for PAYE/PRSI. Then provided the monthly statement agrees with your submissions you can do nothing, the statement will go deemed accepted after the 14th of the month ( or you can manually accept it ) and they will take the amount by dd on 23rd of the month. I find this handy as you can largely forget about it once you check the statement is correct.

RDI payment always requires taxpayer input for them to take it.
Var DD and they take it automatically.