Bike to Work Scheme

• As an employer, you can purchase bikes and accessories up to €1000 tax free for your employees and deduct the net cost from their wages over an agreed timeframe.
• This is beneficial to your employees as they receive the full benefit of tax, universal social charge (USC) and social insurance (PRSI) relief on these amounts.
• Your company also pays less employer PRSI on these amounts.

 1. To Set up a Bike to Work Deduction

a) At Start of Period – Click Company/Payroll then Deductions.

b) Click New & complete the following information:

• Title: Enter a name for the deduction, for example, Bike2Work.
• Type: Click Gross.
• Sub-Type: Click Standard
• Multiply by the number of holiday periods:

(If you want the value of this deduction to adjust according to the number of holiday periods you enter on an employee’s timesheet, select this check box. This option is only available in weekly and fortnightly payrolls.)

• Balance Type: Click Reducing balance.

(This determines how the information will appear on the employee’s timesheet entry)

• Click Save, then click Close.

 2. Assign the deduction to an Employee

a) Click Edit Employees – Open the relevant employee record and open the deductions tab

 b) Locate the Bike2 Work deduction, then enter the following information on the same entry line:

Std. E’e Amt:         Enter the amount you want to deduct from the employee each pay period.

Balance E’e:           Enter the total amount of the deduction (i.e.: the total cost of the bike)

c) Click Save, then click Cancel.

3. Enter Time and Pay,

a) Open the employee’s timesheet, enter the employees payments and you will see on the deductions side, that the standard deduction amount is there for the Bike2 Work.

b) Click Save.

• To check that the set-up is correct you can then click on Payslip to see the details on the timesheet.
• The Bike 2 Work deduction is showing the standard amount deducted this period
• (E20.00 & the reduced balance of E380)
• From now on in each pay period, when you process the employee’s pay details, the deduction balance reduces by the standard amount.
• When it reaches zero, the deduction stops automatically.

Send payslips and P60s by email

You can use Sage Micropay to send payslips and P60s to your employees by email. You can specify which employees have agreed to receive documents electronically, and also set up a password to protect the emailed documents.

Activate the Use Email Feature

1. On the menu bar, click Company/Payroll then click Company Details.
2. Click the Email tab.

3. Select the Use Email Feature check box.
4. If required, complete the following information:

Show Message Before Sending Payslip/P60 All payslip and P60 emails use the same default message. If you want to preview or personalise each of your employee’s payslip or P60 emails before sending them, select this check box.
Request Read Receipt If you want to receive notification when the e-mail is received and opened, select this check box.
PDF Password If you want, you can type a master password. This allows you to open email and PDF payslips generated from Sage Micropay without having to enter the employee’s PIN password.

This password is for security and protection only, so the wrong person can’t view the payslips. It will not prevent someone from editing a PDF payslip if they have a PDF writing software.
5. Click OK.

Set up your employees to receive email payslips and P60s

1. On the menu bar, click Processing then click Employee Details.
2. Next to the Surname box, click browse and click the relevant employee.
3. Under Contact Details, enter the employee’s email address.
4. Click the Pay / YTD tab.

5. Under Pay/Misc, select the Email Payslips and P60s check box.
6. In the PIN box, edit the code if required.

.

Before an employee can open their email payslips or P60s, they must enter their pin code. For security purposes, this code should be different for each employee and can be up to a maximum of nine characters in length.

7. To email the pin code to this employee, click Email PIN.

8. Click Save and Send
9. Repeat steps 2 to 8 for each employee who wants to receive email payslips and P60s, then click Cancel.

Send payslips by email

1. On the menu bar, click Reports then click Payroll Reports.
2. Click the Employee tab.
3. Under List, click Email Payslip.
4. Click eMail.

5. To change the language the payslips generate in, click either In English or As Gaeilge.
If you want to, you can edit the default message that appears in the Accompanying e-mail window.
6. Click Generate Payslips.
7. If a Microsoft Outlook message appears, click Allow. To stop this message from appearing in future, please contact Microsoft Outlook support.
When the emailing process is complete, a confirmation window appears.
8. Click OK, then click Cancel.

Send P60s by email

Before generating your employees’ P60s, you must process the final pay periods of the current tax year. You should also print the Earnings Tax & PRSI (ETP) report for each of your employees, and check their year to date values are correct.

1. Check the payroll status at the bottom of your Micropay window is End Of Period (EOP).
If it’s not, on the menu bar, click Processing then click End Of Period and OK.
2. On the menu bar, click Year End, point to Tax, then click Tax Year End Reports.

3. Under P60 Plain Paper, select either In English or As Gaeilge.
4. Click eMail.

5. If prompted and applicable, select the following check boxes then click OK:

• Include applicable PRD60s – If any of your employees pay pension related deduction (PRD), select this check box.
• Include employees who were not paid this year – To email blank P60s to your directors or any active employees who weren’t paid this year (due to long term absence), select this check box.

6. If a Microsoft Outlook message appears, click Allow. To stop this message from appearing in future, you must contact Microsoft Outlook support.
When the emailing process is complete, a confirmation window appears. To close it, click OK.
7. To close Tax Year End Reports window in Micropay, click Cancel.
8. Open Microsoft Outlook and check:

• The Sent Items folder – If the P60s have already sent, they appear here.
• The Outbox folder – If the P60s are awaiting release from your email provider, they appear here.

The subject title on the emails is ‘Your P60 for 2017’.

Modifying your antivirus software to avoid conflicts with Sage Payroll (Micropay)

Under certain conditions, the antivirus software you’re using to protect your computer may have a negative effect on the performance of Sage Micropay. When Sage Micropay creates or accesses a file, the antivirus software can lock the file as it performs a scan. This means that Sage Micropay may slow down or hang as the file is locked by the antivirus software. In extreme circumstances, your antivirus software can also affect the stability and general functionality of Sage Micropay.

Note: If you’re using Avast! antivirus software and you’re experiencing problems when opening or using Sage, please refer to article 33605.

We’ve created this guide to identify the files and folders that Sage Micropay uses, so you can exclude them from your antivirus software’s scanning routine. This can help to improve the performance of Sage Micropay.

Note: We can’t support you with modifying your antivirus software. If you need help with this, please refer to your local IT support.

Files and folders used by Sage Payroll  (Micropay)

To check where your Sage Micropay program directory and data directories are located:

1. Open Sage Micropay and log in to a payroll as normal.
2. On the menu bar, click Help, then click System Information.
3. Under Program Details, make a note of the Program Directoryand Data Directory

Tip: If the Data Directory link shows a local drive, for example, C:\Program Data\Micropay Professional, then your payroll data is held on this computer. If the Data Directory link shows a mapped network drive, then your payroll data is held on a network.

The following folders and their sub directories are used only by Sage software:

• The Sage Micropay program directory.
• The Sage Micropay data directory.
• C:\Program Data\Sage.
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Sage SBD or C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sage SBD.
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Sage Ireland Payroll or C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sage Ireland Payroll.

Sage Micropay and proxy servers

This article details everything you need to help you understand what a proxy server is, and how it affects your Sage Micropay software.

Definition, purpose and function of a proxy server

Proxy servers are used to control the flow of information between networks, typically a local network and the internet. A proxy server may comprise either hardware, software or both.

The main purpose of a proxy server is to regulate access to other networks whilst maintaining security. When a networked computer is used to access information from outside the network, for example an internet based web page, the information is accessed through a proxy server which retrieves the data from the web server and passes that information back to the computer.

How does a proxy server affect Sage software?

With the introduction of Automatic Updates, Sage software accesses web based resources more than ever before. It is highly likely that such requests pass through proxy servers.

You can enter proxy server settings in your Sage software, on the menu bar, click Tools then Internet Options then click the Network Settings tab. The use of browser settings is recommended, although proxy settings may be entered in this window if preferred. If required, this task should be undertaken by your IT support.

URLs to exclude on a Proxy server

Firewall and antivirus software may interfere with the download and installation of software updates and other Sage services, for example Sage Licensing. To minimise this issue, firewall and anti virus software may be configured to permit access to:

For further information and help with this, please contact your IT support.

Telnet – To check if you have access to the required Sage websites

Get your IT support to check you have access to the Sage Licensing, Update and Download websites. They can do this using Telnet and the following settings:

If there’s no access to the required site, this must be resolved by your IT support. If you can access the sites successfully, no further action is required.