Payroll is something you need to get correct as a bookkeeper, but often information is sent to you late, and you may have already posted a Pay Run then realise you need to change something ...
When information is sent to you late you may want to revert the pay run!
Maybe the opt-out notice for the pension has arrived late, or someone had done overtime or had time off and you weren't told? One way to sort this out is to include the changes in the following month.
However, sometimes this is not possible and you may want to Revert the Pay Run (this is a, button shown on the bottom left of the Pay Employees Page) so you can go back and reprocess the pay with the corrections!
When I did my quarterly payroll course update on Xero today they said something which concerned me as I'd never been told it was an issue before, "Always wait until the payment date has passed to repost this. Alternatively, delete the Pay Run completely and recreate it. This will send the replacement FPS indicator to HMRC".
So, when you Revert the Pay Run, sometimes multiple times to re-post and make corrections, we may be not sending the correct notifications to HMRC in the FPS. If you don't want to delete your pay runs completely as they are so complicated with bonus or variable hours then you may want to wait to re-post the payroll.
I would make your changes then reproduce your reports and payslips with the corrections and pay everyone, but don't re-post until after the 6th of the following month so the replacement FPS indicator is correctly sent to HMRC.
"Not sure about whether previous payrolls have been posted correctly?"
With this in mind, it might be worth logging into your HMRC account and comparing the figures received monthly (or weekly) with the P32 in case this has caused an issue in previous months. It may be that you need to call HMRC if your finalised edited payroll figures do not match your submissions.
If you need any help with this, or another pair of eyes to look over the figures with you, then why not book a handholding session with me and we will see what we can do to get your payroll correct.
If anything I've written in this blog post resonates with you and you'd like to discover more about Xero Payroll and how to revert a pay run, you can book a handholding session by giving me a call on 01604 217365 and let's get your payroll correct.
Alison loves bookkeeping and supporting bookkeepers. She has been helping clients to be better bookkeepers in Sage 50 for over 24 years and has been Xero Accredited in accounts and payroll for a number of years too.
She specialises in a very unique hand-holding method of training, helping bookkeepers and business owners to use their accounts software as and when they need support in setting up and producing their invoices, reports and financial information.
Alison combines her role at Silicon Bullet with her Forever Living network marketing businesses and is often to be seen at business networking meetings as she likes to keep busy.
You know what they say: if you want something done well ask a busy person!
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