• Payroll Year End 2025 & Pension Auto Enrolment
    We have all the help you need to complete your Payroll Year End and manage Pension Auto Enrolment here.
  • Payroll Year End 2025 & Pension Auto Enrolment

KB Category: Sage Payroll (Micropay)

Sage Payroll Year End 2025

Written by jennie on .

Payroll Year End 2025/2026: 

This article show you what to do for year end for the 2025/2026 tax year in Sage Payroll.

Processing your year end in Sage Payroll has never been easier. Follow our simple guides to complete your year end tasks and get ready for the new tax year.

We have some useful resources listed below which can assist you to complete your year end which will include:

  1. 2025/2026 Year End Update: You can Download the 2025 Year End Update (V28.2 & V29.0 )by Clicking Here.
  2. 2025/2026 Year End Booklet: You can Download the 2025 Year End Booklet by Clicking Here.
  3. 2025/2026 Year End Checklist: You can Download the 2025 Year End Checklist by Clicking Here.
  4. Pimbrook Payroll Tax Calendar 2026
  5. Instructions on how to use Pension Auto Enrolment with your Sage 50 Payroll can be downloaded by Clicking Here.

Your Payroll Year End booklet will have information on important changes to your year end software.

For more information on the above Additional Helpful links:

Click on the links below to view each one.

Medical Insurance eligible for tax relief

Written by Pimbrook Support on .

In Ireland a person is entitled to tax relief on any medical insurance premiums paid in a tax year.

Relief available is equal to the lesser of either:

  • 20% of the cost of the policy
  • 20% of €1,000 (equal to a credit of €200)

Premiums are usually paid in either one of 2 ways as below:

  1. You pay your own premium privately to Laya or VHI etc – in this scenario, tax relief @ 20% is given at source by way of a discount on the premium from the health insurer.  There is no need to claim tax credits or claim relief at the end of the year.
  2. The employer pays the health insurance premium on behalf of the employee – in this instance, the employer must process a benefit in kind in the payroll to tax this benefit in the hands of the employee.  The employer is charged the full value of the premium and does not get tax relief on the premium cost.  The employee can then claim tax relief @ 20% up to a maximum value of €200 by going on to their revenue “myaccount” at the end of the year.

In Sage Payroll, the information regarding medical insurance paid by the employer for the employee is recorded by setting up a benefit in kind for this notional pay. At the end of the year the employer must submit the “Medical Insurance Eligible for Tax Relief” for each employee that they pay a premium for. To do this in Sage Payroll :

  • Go to Edit Employees
  • Select Pay/YTD tab
  • Manually enter the figure for Medical Insurance Eligible for Tax Relief in box as shown. This figure should be available from the medical insurance provider.
  • Employers should insure that this information is included for the last submission of the tax year.

Manually enter medical insurance eligible for tax relief values

1. Do one of the following:
  • From the menu bar at the top of your window, click Processing then click Employee Details.
  • From the process map in the center of Sage Payroll, click Edit Employees.

2. Next to the Surname box, click browse and click the relevant employee.

3. Click the Pay / YTD tab.

4. Under BIK Year To Date, in the Medical Insurance Eligible for Tax Relief box, enter the amount.

5. Click Save.

6. Repeat steps 2 to 5 for all relevant employees, then click Cancel.

 

Import medical insurance eligible for tax relief values into Sage Payroll

 

1. Click on the following link: BIKMEDTRS.zip >>Depending on your Internet browser, the file automatically download to your Downloads folder or you’re prompted to save the file.

2. If prompted, browse to where you want to save it, for example, the Windows desktop, then click Save.

3. Locate and right-click the downloaded file, then click Extract all.The Extract Compressed (Zipped) Folders window appears.

4. In the Files will be extracted to this folder box, type C:\

5. Select the Show extracted files when complete check box, then click Extract.

Once successfully extracted, the folder BIKMEDTRS opens automatically in Windows Explorer.

6.  Open Sage Payroll and log in to the payroll as normal.

7. On the menu bar, click Reports then click Report Writer.

8. Click File, then click Open.

9. Browse to C:\BIKMEDTRS.

10. Select BIKMEDTRS.RPT then click Open.

11. Click Process.

A report listing all employees in your payroll appears on-screen.

12. Click File, then click Save As.

13. Click the Save in arrow, then browse to C:\BIKMEDTRS.

14. In the File name box, type bikmedtrs.csv.

 

15. Click Save.

16. Close Sage Payroll, then browse to C:\BIKMEDTRS.

17. Right-click the file BIKMEDTRS.CSV, then left-click Open with.

18. When prompted, select Excel then click OK.

19. Under column D, enter the medical insurance eligible for tax relief value for each relevant employee.

20. For all employees that you don’t pay medical insurance premiums for, remove their values or delete the relevant row.

21. Under column A, check your employees’ numbers are correct. Edit, if required.

Each employee number on the import file must match the exact employee number in Sage Payroll. For example, if the employee is set up in Sage Payroll as number 0054, the import file won’t accept 54 as the employee’s number. For more information about how to create custom number formats in Microsoft Excel, read our guide.

22. Click File, then click Save.

23. Open Sage Payroll and log in to the payroll as normal.

24. Take a back up of your payroll data.

25. From the menu bar at the top of your window, click Miscellaneous, point to Data Import then click Data Import.

26. Browse to C:\BIKMEDTRS.

27. Select BIKMEDTRS.IMP then click Open.

You’ve now successfully imported medical insurance eligible for tax relief values directly into Sage Micropay. To check that these values appear correctly within your employee records, complete steps 28 to 32.

28. Do one of the following:

  • From the menu bar at the top of your window, click Processing then click Employee Details.
  • From the process map in the centre of Sage Payroll, click Edit Employees.

29. Next to the Surname box, click browse and click the relevant employee.

30. Click the Pay / YTD tab.

31. Under BIK Year To Date, in the Medical Insurance Eligible for Tax Relief box, check the value is correct. If it’s not, you must manually edit the value now and click Save.

32. Repeat steps 29 to 31 for all relevant employees, then click Cancel.

 

Revenue Information link

https://revenue.ie/en/personal-tax-credits-reliefs-and-exemptions/health-and-age/medical-insurance-premiums/index.aspx

 

 

 

Sage Payroll – Health Check

Written by Sharon Foley on .

Sage Payroll – Health Check

  1. Check System Requirements
  2. Microsoft Office 
  3. Version Number
  4. Backups
    • Check where backups are being saved
    • Ensure they are in another location away from the data (External Hard drive)
  5. Pay Audit File
    • Check the Audit Retention – Recommended setting for audit retention
      Don’t set this value to zero, as this holds all audit information within the software and never clears down. As the audit files grow in size over time, Sage Payroll’s performance may become sluggish and the size of your payroll backup files greatly increase.
  6. Recommended Features

What’s new in Sage Payroll (Micropay) v27.1

Written by Sharon Foley on .

What’s new in Sage Payroll (Micropay) v27.1

Sage has released an update to improve ERR features, validating employees approaching 66, CWPS and ERR History as follows:

1. Enhanced reporting improvements

To help you with the Enhanced Reporting Requirements (ERR), in v27.1 we’ve made the following improvements based on your feedback:

2. Improved validation and messaging for employees approaching 66 years old.

3. CWPS – Fix for exporting file with the incorrect year.

4. Invalid History error when sending corrections following ERR submission. You can amend any new Payroll or ERR submissions made in v27.1.

 

Download and install the latest version of Sage Payroll.

Installing software on a virtual server (terminal server)

Written by Sharon Foley on .

Installing (Sage payroll/Micropay) software on a virtual server (terminal server)

You must put a Terminal Services server in Install mode to install or remove programs on the server. You can put a Terminal Services server in Install mode by using the Add/Remove Programs tool in Control Panel or by using the Install Application on the Terminal Server tool in Control Panel.

  1. Changed the install mode to install by using cmd>Change user /install
  2. Installed software update to Sage Payroll
  3. Changed the install mode to execute by using cmd>change user /execute
  4. Users test to ensure there is no install issues.

Sage Payroll – Unable to open Audit Trail/Error opening PAYAUDIT files

Written by fiona on .

When you’re setting a new pay period or processing your payroll, the following messages may appear:

        ‘Unable to open Audit Trail’  or

        ‘Error opening PAYAUDIT’

To close this message, click OK. This issue occurs if the payroll’s audit files are too large to clear down within Sage Payroll. This is caused by:

  • The Audit retention setting for this payroll being too high or not set at all.
  • Additional files, such as backups (PAYBACK.CTL, PAYBACK.CRC & PAYBACK.001) and reports being saved into the Payroll folder.
  • A combination of both of the above.

To resolve this and prevent it re-occurring, you must replace the existing audit files with a clean set.

To replace the PAYAUDIT files

Download the 2 PAYAUDIT files from links below:

Locate the files in your downloads folder and highlight both together and copy.

Browse to and open the company payroll folder you want to replace the audit files for eg Weekly.

Right-click your mouse on a blank area of the window and left-click Paste.
When prompted, click Copy and Replace.
Close and reopen Sage Payroll.
Once you’ve done this, then remove any files that should not be in the Sage Payroll payroll folder. For example, PAYBACK.CTL, PAYBACK.CRC, PAYBACK.001, .pdf, .csv, or .xls files.  The Archive folder found in the Payroll folder contains all previous period archives which are made up of the three PAYBACK files. These files should not be removed. Only those PAYBACK files found in the root Payroll folder should be removed. 

What’s new in V26.2 Sage Payroll (Micropay)

Written by Sharon Foley on .

What’s new in V26.2 Sage Payroll (Micropay)

  • Enhanced Password Security
    • You will be prompted to change your Admin password when logging into the software.
    • Must be at least eight characters in length.
    • Must contain at least one letter.
    • Must contain at least one number.
    • Must contain at least one special character/symbol.
  • If your payroll or user password doesn’t meet the password requirements it will prompt you to change these also.
  • New Payment type added to Sage Payroll
    • An Expenses payment type has been introduced to support the Enhanced Reporting Requirements (ERR) Coming into effect from 1 January 2024.
    • You’ll need to process payments that will be reported under ERR using an Expenses payment.  This includes payments for small benefit exemption, remote working daily allowance and certain travel and subsistence items.
    • ERR functionality will be available in your Sage Payroll 2024 update.
  • CWPS rates
    • CWPS rates have increased effective from 18th September.
  • One4all vouchers
    • Minimum and Maximum limits have been applied to the vouchers.

 

Follow Sage’s guide to Download and install the latest version of Sage Payroll.

 

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