KB Category: Sage Payroll (Micropay)

Sage Payroll V24.1

Sage Payroll V24.1 – has introduced plain paper layouts.  Please contact us 051-395900 if  you require to purchase the current MP011’s or equivalent.

Here at Pimbrook, we encounter many ‘Date’ queries at Year End time. We have assembled this article to try to take the mystery out of dates at Year End.
See below a list of questions that we frequently get asked:

1. What is the ‘Pay Date Rule’?
2. What do I need to consider when planning my pay periods at Year End?
3. How do I know if I have a Week 53?
4. What do I need to consider when planning my New Year Calendar?
5. Is it ok to pay my 2021 Period 1, as the final period in my 2020 Payroll System instead?

1. What is the ‘Pay Date Rule’?

• The pay date rule means that if the planned pay date for a period is a 2021 date, then the period belongs in the 2021 payroll and if the planned pay date is a 2022 date, then the period belongs in the 2022 payroll.
• All scenarios are governed by the pay date rule.

2. What do I need to consider when planning my pay periods at Year End?

• For non-monthly frequency payrolls (eg: weekly, 2 weekly etc..), payments to employees should be on the same day every week – including over year end.
• Holiday pay for days taken in 2022 need to be paid using the 2022 payroll. Holiday pay for days taken in 2023 need to be paid using the 2023 payroll.
• If you are planning to run the final periods together [eg: Period 51, 52] – the pay date rule still applies.
• If you have a Period 53 – it must be run separately, and it must have a paydate of 31/12/2021 – Revenue Requirement.
• If you have a Period 53 – Examine the planned pay date for it in your payroll calendar. (Click ‘Company\Payroll’ then click ‘Calendar’ to view it.) If the planned pay date falls in 2022, then it should be included in the 2022 system. The pay date rule still applies.]
• If the planned pay date of the latter period, as seen in your payroll calendar screen, falls in 2022, then it should be included in the 2022 This scenario would then require two separate bank payments, one for payment of the 2021 final period(s) and one for payment of the 2022 period. [In this scenario, you can set the bank file execution date to be the same date if required, but you should contact your bank before doing so, as some banks may interpret two files with the same date as a mistake. Alternatively, you can set different execution dates for the two bank files.]
• All of the above is irrespective of when the work was carried out.

See below Examples of Acceptable Year End 2020/Year Start 2021 Dates:
There were 52 Mondays in 2020, 52 Tuesdays in 2020, 52 Wednesdays in 2020, 52 Thursdays in 2020, and 52 Fridays in 2020. The most popular pay dates would generally be Wed, Thurs & Friday. See examples of correct pay dates for those days in the image below. Your payroll may differ of course, but try to stick to the date rules, and plan correctly for 2021.

3. How do I know if I have a Week 53?

Because the number of days in the tax year doesn’t divide into a whole number of tax weeks, any remaining days are known as week 53.

• This year (2022), you could only possibly have a week 53 if your Pay Date is on a Sunday or a Thursday, and your final 2020 pay date naturally falls on Wednesday 30^th of December or Thursday 31^st of December.
• If your first pay date of the year was Wednesday the 2nd or Thrusday 3rd of Jan, then you certainly have a Week 53.
• Remember here that Revenue want employers to pay on the same day of the week, all year round. This includes over year end.

CAUTION: Whilst many employees may already be on week 1 tax status where your company availed of the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme, you must process the extra pay period separately to your penultimate pay period.

4. What do I need to consider when planning my New Year Calendar?

• The Period Date & Pay Date fields are key fields in calendar process.
• The Period Date field has always been in the system and when setting a new calendar, it is driven by the Period Date field.
• Since the Period Date is the systems’ driver when setting up a new Calendar, it’s very important to enter an appropriate ‘Period Date’ for Period 1 of the new tax year, as this date determines all subsequent periods of the calendar.
• The Pay Date field was a new addition in 2019, to accommodate payroll modernisation & submissions.
• The Pay Date refers to ‘the date the employees receive their net pay’. Revenue use this date to determine when you paid your employees.
  Revenue do not use the ‘Period Date’ to determine this, as is sometimes assumed.
  Revenue do not receive the Period Date in submissions, they only receive the Pay Date.
• With regard to the Pay Date: if you’re on a weekly payroll, your first Pay Date should fall between 1 – 7 January. For a fortnightly payroll, it should fall between 1 – 14 January.

We recommend to keep your Period Date the same as your Pay Date, unless you have a specific reason not to. Make sure you have 52/53 planned periods in your new calendar, and that all the Pay Dates are dated in the new year (ie: 2022).

6. Is it ok to pay my 2022 Period 1, as the final period in my 2020 Payroll System instead?

• The short answer is No. Since payroll modernisation came in at the start of 2019, Revenue have been very clear that the do not want you to do this.
• Revenue want employers to pay on the same day every period, so changing the pay-day is not an option.

If you remember back to the TWSS it was rolled out in two phases: The Transitional Phase (26th of March – 3rd of May), and the Operational Phase (4th of May – 31st August).

During the Transitional Phase the employer was expected to calculate the Average Revenue Net Weekly Pay and pay the correct subsidy to the employee via payroll. During this period Revenue refunded employers the maximum subsidy amount of €410 per qualifying payslip, per qualifying employee, per week (or in multiples of this for other pay frequencies). While payroll systems recorded the employees specific TWSS payment amount against a specific payment name, those systems were not yet reporting the exact subsidy amounts back to Revenue via submissions. Things were fast paced back then.

During the Operational Phase, this worked a little differently: Revenue provided employers with the relevant employee information (CSV download) to ensure the correct subsidy amount was paid to each employee, and refunded to the employer on that basis, Payroll systems’ were updated to help decide the exact amount to give to an employee, but also to report back those amounts officially as subsidy amounts, so refunds to employers were from that point more exact.

To tally up the whole thing, Revenue now require employers to carry out a ‘TWSS Reconciliation’. This will be done with the aid of the ‘TWSS Reconciliation’ Feature which came in in Sage Payroll Version 23.3. When you run the feature, it will update the employees ETP records with the actual TWSS values paid to them via nominated Pay Elements in your system.  The feature will also create a CSV file, which will list the TWSS payments actually paid to employees during that time. You must then upload the resulting CSV file to the ROS Website to complete your TWSS Reconciliation.

TWSS Reconciliation Upload Window & Penalties:
TWSS Reconciliations must be carried out and uploaded to the ROS website between 21st Sept 2020 – 31st Oct 2020. If you do not provide this data about payments to your employees, Revenue will recoup from you the total temporary wage subsidy paid and related interest charges.

To Process the TWSS Reconciliation in Sage Payroll:
Before you start the TWSS Reconciliation process:

• Ensure your software is at least on version 23.3 of Sage Payroll
• Check the payroll status is Start of Period (SOP) –  If its not, the feature will give an error message and will not run.
• Check the Employer registration number is entered in Company Details.
• Ensure a recent payroll backup has been taken to a safe location.

To start the process – at the top of the main screen click on Miscellaneous\Covid-19\TWSS Reconciliation. This will present the TWSS Reconciliation Wizard.
There are two options depending on what stage of the process you are reconciling your values with ROS:

1. Update the employee records with TWSS amounts paid during transitional phase, and create a new CSV file (for upload to ROS)
   If you use this option in Sage Payroll, the Covid-19 field in the ETP records update, for each relevant employee with the values processed in each period, then creates a CSV file ready for upload to your ROS account.
2. Create CSV file only, as employee records were manually changed or updated previously by you.
   If you use this option in Sage Payroll, it creates a CSV file ready for upload to your ROS account. Use this option if you have previously manually updated the Covid-19 field in the ETP tab for each relevant employee, or completed the Update the employee records and create a new CSV file option already, but now need another copy of the CSV file.

Select Date range used for TWSS subsidy payments:
If you choose the first option, you will be asked to choose a Date Range. The Revenue Covid-19 support schemes (Covid Refund Scheme and TWSS) came into effect from March 15, meaning a date previous to March 15 should not be selected within the reconciliation wizard, but you can do so if required.

Select payments used to process subsidy:
To ensure the correct values are used to update each employee’s ETP record, select the appropriate payments in the list – at least one payment must be selected to proceed in the wizard.

View Employees to Update:
The wizard will present a list of the relevant employees whose ETP records it is about to update:

Save Reconciliation CSV File:
The next screen will prompt you to save the file to a chosen location. Make a note of the location as you will need it later when you are uploading the file to ROS.

Update Employees & Create CSV File:
Once you click Save, the employee records are updated and the CSV file is created. It is ready for upload to the ROS Website.

Uploading the TWSS Reconciliation CSV File to ROS:
Page 3 of Revenues publication “Instruction on Uploading and Reviewing Subsidy Paid Data via CSV” contains instructions on how to upload the TWSS Reconciliation CSV file to the ROS website.
You can link to the publication here.

More information on the TWSS Reconciliation can also be found at the following links:

• Sage Full Article: “Covid-19 TWSS Reconciliation” –> Click Here
• Dealing with file errors –> Click Here.
• Revenue Website TWSS Reconciliation  Info –> Click Here

To avail of Revenues EWSS July/Aug Sweepback you must upload a CSV file to the ROS website. The file must contain a list of EWSS eligible employees who were paid during July & August 2020. You can generate the employee data either manually or by a report in your Sage Payroll Program. You must then upload the resulting CSV file to the ROS Website.

On 15 September 2020 Revenue released a facility on ROS where an Employer can upload this Sweepback CSV. All applications must be submitted by the employer or agent through Revenue Online Services before 14 October 2020.

To Generate Employee Information Manually:
You can download a template from the Revenues website & fill it in yourself. The file is available on this Revenue page: Revenue Sweepback. When you have entered all the relevant information, you must save the file as a CSV file, and then upload that to the ROS website.

Generate Employee Information by Sage Payroll Downloadable Report (ARW):
If you don’t want to generate the information manually, you can download an ARW report which can be saved into your Sage Payroll program. This report will generate a list of employees with pay dates between 01/07/2020 – 31/08/2020. You can link to the full article here, which contains a download link to the ARW Report and instructions on how to save & run it in Sage Payroll (Advanced Report Writer). The file generated can then be saved as a CSV file, and finally be uploaded to the ROS website.

Upload the Sweepback CSV File to the ROS Website:
Page 5 of Revenues publication “Guidelines on the Operation of the July/August Sweepback as part of the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme” contains instructions on how to upload the Sweepback CSV file to the ROS website. You can link to the publication here.

Download and save the EWSS template

1. Click the following link

Click here to download the ARW report 

NOTE: Depending on your Internet browser, the file automatically downloads to your Downloads folder or you’re prompted to save the file.

1. Once the report downloads, save it into the data directory of your payrolls. To access the data directory, in Sage Payroll, browse to Help > System Information > click the blue link under Data Directory.
   TIP: If the report is saved into the Data Directory, the report will be automatically picked up ARW.

Run the report

1. From the Windows desktop, open ARW 2020.
   NOTE: If there is no icon for ARW 2020 on your Desktop, please view this guide > Read More >
2. When prompted to log in, enter the same log in details as you do to open Sage Payroll then click Ok.

New Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS):

The government have introduced an extended Wage Subsidy Scheme in the form of the “Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme” otherwise known as the EWSS. The scheme provides a flat-rate subsidy to qualifying employers based on the numbers of paid and eligible employees on the employer’s payroll. It came into effect on the 31st July 2020 and it replaces the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) which has been in existence since the 4th May 2020. The EWSS is expected to run until the end of March 2021. Both schemes will run in parallel from 1 July 2020 until the TWSS ceases at the end of August 2020. The eligibility particulars for the EWSS are different to the TWSS, so if you didn’t qualify for the TWSS, there is a chance that you will qualify for the EWSS.

We have outlined the main points from this below, but please refer to the Revenue article for full details –> July Job Stimulus (including EWSS).

Joining the EWSS:

If you didn’t qualify for the TWSS, but you qualify for the EWSS, you must join the EWSS scheme from the ROS Website. This can be can be done as follows:

1. Ensure your company has a valid Tax Clearance Certificate. (If not  go to “ROS > My Services > Other Services > Manage/Verify Tax Clearance”).
2. Register for EWSS  on ROS under “My Services > Other Services > Manage Tax Registrations > Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme > Register > Accept Declaration”

How Will the EWSS Effect Payroll Processing?

Under the EWSS the processing of payroll will return to the normal manner (i.e. calculating and deducting Income Tax, USC and employee PRSI through the payroll). As the EWSS beneficiary is the employer, there will be no visibility of it on payslips and employers PRSI will remain at 0.5% (as per the TWSS),

The employee will however need to be flagged in the software as being part of the EWSS, because of this, there will be a software update released for Sage Payroll (version 23.3) on or before the 1st of September. You will be able to get this via your payroll software (Help > Check for Updates) and we will add a link here when it is available..

Sage Payroll Processing Steps:

1. Download and update Sage Payroll to version 23.3.
   – You can do this in the normal way from you software or click on this link –> Sage Payroll Update 23.3.
   – See our article Sage Payroll Update Instructions and Preparation for guidance on this.
2. In your Sage Payroll, set your period after the 1st of September.
3. Go to “Miscellaneous > COVID-19 > Edit Employee EWSS/TWSS Setup”.
4. Select the option that best matches your requirement (you can change individual employee records for exceptions to this afterwards).
   – Change all employees…
   – Disable all employees…
   – Enable all employees….
5. Amend individual employee records for exceptions to the above under the “Payment” tab.
6. Ensure your employees are on the correct scheme and PRSI code (under the “Employee Record”).

Claiming EWSS for New Hires and Seasonal Workers:

Eligible employers may backdate a claim to 1 July 2020 for EWSS payments in respect of new hires and seasonal workers, subject to limited exceptions. Payments in respect of July and August are expected to be made by Revenue in mid-September, with payments for subsequent periods being made monthly in arrears thereafter. Further guidance and information for employers on how to make applications for new hires and seasonal workers will be available soon.

What Will the New Subsidy Rates Be?

Under the EWSS, eligible employers will receive a per-head subsidy on a flat-rate basis which will be determined based on the amount of gross pay that the employer pays to the eligible employee as shown in the table below. Payments to employers will be made monthly in arrears.

Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme Details (additional information):

• Eligible employers may backdate a claim to 1 July 2020 for EWSS payments in respect of new hires and seasonal workers, subject to limited exceptions.
• Non-TWSS employers, who have not previously availed of TWSS, will only be eligible to apply for the EWSS.
• TWSS employers will still be able to rehire eligible employees and continue to operate TWSS to 31 August 2020.
• To qualify for the EWSS, you must be able to demonstrate: that your business will experience a 30% reduction in turnover or orders between 1 July and 31 December 2020 and that this disruption is caused by COVID-19.
• This reduction in turnover or orders is relative to:
  • The same period in 2019 where the business was in existence prior to 1 July 2019.
  • The date of commencement to 31 December 2019 or;
  • where a business commenced after 1 November 2019, the projected turnover or orders.This reduction in turnover or orders is relative to:
• Self Assessment: To ensure you continue to meet the above eligibility criteria, you’re required to undertake a review on the last day of every month to ensure you continue to meet the above eligibility criteria, and if you no longer qualify, you should de-register for EWSS.
  
• If your company is currently taking part in the TWSS and you want to continue receiving Wage Subsidies, you will be obliged to switch to the EWSS on the 1st Sept 2020. The EWSS replaces the TWSS from this date onwards. Switching is not automatic and you will need to apply for the EWSS on the ROS website.

With the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and the country now entered into phase 3, many businesses which have been closed will be re-opening. Whether your business has been completely closed for a while and your payroll has been fully inactive, or you’ve been partially opened with some staff on the payroll, its likely that you will be re-joining some or all staff to the payroll shortly. If this applies to you then there are a few things to consider before moving forward with your next pay period. This article will touch on the various scenarios you might find yourself in, and endeavor to steer you in the right direction.

Return to Work Process:
Whether your returning some or all of your employees to the payroll, the process will involve the steps listed here. See notes further down pertaining to each step.

1. Check Your Sage Payroll Software Version
2. Advise Returning Employees to sign off the Pandemic Unemployment Payment
3. Check Employee Status
4. Re-Instate Leavers (Where Necessary)
5. Joining the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme?
6. Download Employee RPN’s
7. Enter Time & Pay
8. Submit the Payroll to Revenue
9. Leaving the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme.

1. Check Your Sage Payroll Software [Full] Version No:
The current full version number of Sage Payroll is V23.2.76.601 (also referred to as build number) Whether your re-activating your payroll after months of being off, or simply re-joining staff to your already active payroll, you will need to make sure you are on this version number. To check this simply log into you software, then click Help\About from the menu bar at the top of the screen. Lots of information will be displayed, but the first item in the list is ‘Version Number’. This is the number you need to check. If your version number is already 23.2.76.601, then you don’t need to do anything. However if you are not on version 23.2.76.601 then you need to update your software before processing your next period. You can download the 23.2.76.601 update here For instructions on how to apply the update see our previous article: Update Sage Payroll (Micropay).

2. Advise Returning Employees to Sign Off the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP):
In all cases, where the employee had been claiming the PUP directly from the DEASP for the duration they had been off work, they now need to sign themselves off of that payment. Click here to read full details of how to do that on the Gov.ie website.

3. Check Employee Status:
You need to check employees to see what their current status is. You need to identify whether the employee was officially terminated in the payroll [or not] after their last payment in this payroll. Some payroll operators will just know what the status of each employee is, but if you need to check this, simply click Edit Employees, choose the employee in question, and click on the ‘Tax/PRSI/USC’ Tab at the top of the screen. Check if the Finished Date & Finish Period have been filled in. Depending on whats filled in, each employee will be either: Not Teminated, Suspended or Terminated.

1. Not Terminated: If the Finish Date is empty and the & Finish Period is zero then it means that the employment was not officially terminated. There is no action need here, just process payment for the employee as normal.
2. Suspended: If the Finish Date is empty and the & Finish Period is ’99’ then it means that the employment was suspended. To remove the suspension, simply remove the ’99’ from the Finish Period, save the employee and then process payment for the employee as normal.
3. Terminated: If the Finish Date & Finish Period field are filled in, then it means that the employee was officially terminated. This will have been conveyed to Revenue during a submission. The action needed here is to re-instate the employee before processing payment for the employee. See note below on how to re-instate a leaver.

4. Re-Instate Leavers (Where Necessary):
You can re-instate a leaver by either using the ‘Re-Instate Leaver’ feature under the Processing menu at the top of the screen, or by editing certain fields directly in the Employee Details. Both methods are explained in this Sage Article here. A point to note when re-instating a leaver is that the Employment ID must be incremented after re-instating. This is a requirement by Revenue.

5. Joining the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme?
If your business is joining the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme now, then at this point you need to read through our previous article regarding Processing Payroll under the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme to familiarise yourself with the process. After working through that article, return to this point and continue on in this process. Click here to open our previous article. You will also need to familiarise yourself with the contents of Revenues TWSS Operational Guide & FAQ Document, which can be accessed here. This document is continuously being updated by Revenue.
If your business is already processing payroll under the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme and you are familiar with the process, at this point you need to import the Revenue Average Net Pay from your ROS file, for returning employees.

6. Download Employee RPNS:
Download employee RPNs as usual. If your software encounters an issue communicating with the ROS system, first check if you can login to the ROS website. If you cannot login  to the the ROS website then investigate if there is an issue with the ROS system or with your ROS cert. If you think your ROS cert has become out of date, you can follow the instructions here to renew your ROS digital cert.
We can advise that we have seen in recent weeks where there were no RPNs available for employees where the payroll operator was expecting a new/updated RPN. In some of these cases employees had seen more than one employment listed for the same employer in their ‘MyAccount’ at Revenue. Employees should make sure that the correct employment is the ‘active’ one, and that their tax credits are assigned to that one.

7. Enter Time & Pay:
You can enter Time & Pay in your normal way, whether that be manual entries or by file import. If the employee has not been paid for a while then you could expect some refund of statutory deductions  in this period. (eg: Tax, USC). Please note that from the 20th June 2020, Revenue have been issuing RPNs on a Week1 basis. A Week 1 tax status will disallow refund of statutory deductions (Tax/USC), in an effort to reduce the impact of the re-payment of tax/USC by the employee at the end of the year.

8. Submit the Payroll to Revenue:
When your payments are complete and you are happy with your payroll, you can submit your payroll to Revenue using the ‘Send Payroll Submission’ button. If you are processing under the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme for the first time please be aware that Revenue are not in support of re-submissions of payrolls containing Wage Subsidies. If you find yourself needing to carry out a re-submission at any point, you will need to discuss this with revenue first.

9. Leaving the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme:
We are noticing some business now leaving the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme. Employers who no longer wish to avail of the TWSS, should cease returning J9 PRSI Class payroll submissions to Revenue. Employers should also inform Revenue via MyEnquiries of their intention to exit the scheme and ensure the employee J9 PRSI Class (J9 submissions) is reverted on future payroll submissions for each employee to their normal PRSI class (Pre-Covid-19). Those employers who have stopped participating in the TWSS will be included in the reconciliation phase of the scheme and will be included in the list of TWSS participants published at the end of the scheme. If the business as a whole is leaving the scheme, be sure to un-tick the Covid-19 tickbox on the Covid-19 subsidy pay element in the pay elements list. You can access the list from the Company/Payroll option at the top of the screen, then choose ‘Payments’. You should also remove the formula from the Formula’ field to stop the subsidy amount from automatically calculating on timesheets.

Important Note! 01/08/2020:

The article below pertains to the ‘TWSS’ (Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme). The ‘TWSS’  closed for new applications on 31st July 2020. It has been replaced by a new scheme called the ‘EWSS’ (Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme). Companies who are currently in the ‘TWSS’, can remain in it until 31st August 2020, at which point they must switch to the new ‘EWSS’ scheme. Companies who are joining the Wage Subsidy Scheme for the first time (after the 31st July) must join the ‘EWSS’ scheme. The full details of the new ‘EWSS’ scheme have not yet been released by Revenue, however they have released some general info on Gov.ie which you can link to here: EWSS on Gov.ie

What Happened from the 4th of May 2020?

From the 4^th of May 2020 Revenue entered the ‘Operational Phase’ of their Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme. This is be a more real-time approach to processing the wage subsidies.

To kickstart that, Revenue activated a new download feature inside ROS. Employers can download an ‘Average Pay’ CSV file, which they will then need to import into their payroll software. This will ‘set’ the ‘Average Pay’ amount for each employee, into the Employee’s Record. WHile the content of the file will not change much, you can download the file each pay period to catch any changes that may have occurred. The process is similar to that of the way we used to import P2C files from Revenue. (Download a file from ROS, Save It, Open your Payroll Software, Import the File).

In conjunction with the file download, and to accommodate the Operational Phase, Sage released a software update for Sage Payroll on the 4th of May 2020. The new version is V23.2. You will need to be on that version to correctly process payroll under the Wage Subsidy Scheme from the 4th of May 2020 onwards.

With Regard to the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme, What does Sage Payroll Software Version 23.2 contain?

The new software version 23.2 contains:

• A flag to officially nominate your ‘Covid 19’ pay element as your Subsidy payment element. (New Tickbox)
• A feature to import the Revenue ‘TWSS Calculation’ CSV file, and automatically set the Average Weekly Pay into the Employee’s record. (New field)
• A flag to mark an employee as being paid under the subsidy scheme. (New Tickbox)
• A new feature built into the timesheet screen, to automatically calculate the subsidy amount. (New Feature)
• A new feature built in to the timesheet screen to assist with ‘tiering & tapering’ as you enter in a top up amount. (New Feature)
• A new field in the Employee ETP record, to hold the Covid19 subsidy amount processed for any applicable period. (New Field)
• Inclusion of the Covid19 Subsidy payment amount, for each employee, in the live submission to ROS. (Live Reporting)

How do I process payroll under the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme?

Before starting the procedure below, please read through all of steps 1-7.
To process payroll correctly under the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme, from the 4th of May 2020, you will need to do the following:

1. Download your ‘TWSS Calculation’ CSV file from your ROS account, and Save it to your PC. See instructions on how to download the file from ROS in the ‘Other Info’ section further down.
2. In Sage Payroll – Set new period & Take a Backup (Start of Period is the best time to install an update)
3. Download & Install the Sage Payroll 23.2 Update if you have not done already –> Click Here To Download (212MB). For instructions on how to apply the update see Update Sage Payroll (Micropay).
4. In Sage Payroll – Open your Payments List and officially mark your Covid19 Pay Element, as a ‘Covid 19’ payment with the new tick box.
5. In Sage Payroll – Import your Revenue Average Pay CSV file and select the relevant employees to include in the scheme. This will set the ‘Revenue Average Net Pay’ per employee, and save it in a new ‘Revenue Average Net Pay’ field in the employee’s record. (To do this – use the new ‘Covid-19 TWSS Revenue Import’ option under the Miscellaneous menu at the top of the screen. If you get the error “Invalid CSV file selected” when importing, see more help below –> click here)
6. Important Note: If you have payroll with a frequency of Bi-Monthly or 4-Weekly, you will need to manually add a formula file to your Sage Payroll system. See instructions on how to do this in the ‘Other Info’ section further down. If you don’t have a Bi-Monthly or 4-Weekly frequency payroll, just skip to number 7 below.
7. In Sage Payroll – Open the time sheets screen and process your time sheets. If you have successfully imported your ‘TWSS Calculation’ CSV file, then you can expect your Covid 19 payment to be automatically populated with the max covid payment allowed for the employee in question. You will need to enter the Top Up payment manually. If you enter an amount which exceeds the maximum top up allowed, then the subsidy amount will automatically taper down (reduce).
8. In Sage Payroll – When all your timesheets are complete and your payments are saved, you should crosscheck your calculated Covid Subsidy amounts with those in the Revenue CSV File. To do this use the Sage Payroll payments report for the Covid-19 Subsidy pay element, and cross check it with the Revenue CSV file. These could be different due employees having multiple employments, and if so, will need to be corrected in Sage Payroll before submitting to Revenue.
9. In Sage Payroll – Validate that all employees for whom you are claiming a Covid Subsidy refund for, have been included in the submission. In the submission screen, before you click the final submit button, the total Covid Subsidy amount included in the submission will be shown. You need to check this value against the total value in the Sage Payroll payments report for the Covid-19 Subsidy pay element (used in Step 8). If they don’t match, investigate if you have omitted to apply a taxable top-up value of at least 0.01 cent to one or more employees.

The above steps are demonstrated in our short video –> click here to view.
If you prefer to have a read through, you can link to Sage’s detailed Knowledge Base Article Here –> click here to open.

Other Info/Links:

New Covid Section of the Revenue Website –> Click Here
In the new Covid Section of the Revenue Website, you can download the following:

• [PDF] Guidance on Employer Eligibility
• [PDF] Guidance on the Operational Phase of the TWSS  (Effective from 04/05/2020 onwards)
• [XLS] MS Excel TWSS Sample Subsidy Calculator
• [CSV] TWSS – Sample Employer CSV File
• [PDF] TWSS – Employer CSV Description
• [PDF] Guidance on the Transitional Phase of the TWSS

How to Download Your ‘TWSS Calculation’ CSV File:
This is detailed in section A2.2 of Revenues ‘Guidance on the Operational Phase of the TWSS’ Pdf Document V9 which is linked above, but in short the instructions are:

• Log in to your ROS Account –> Click Here
• From the homepage, in the ‘Employer Services’ section click on ‘Request RPNs’
• On the next screen, click on ‘Request Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme Calculation’
• On the next screen, click ‘Request Calculation’ button.
• On the next screen, enter your password & click ‘Sign & Submit’ button.
• Look for the file in you ‘Downloads Folder’ on your computer.

Payrolls with Bi-Monthly or 4-Weekly Frequencies:
Sage Payroll V23.2 uses formulae to calculate the Covid19 Subsidy values. Each formula is lengthy and is held in a file in your system data folder. The formula file is then referenced in your Covid19 pay element. Each frequency has a separate formula file. Sage Payroll version 23.3 automatically included the relevant formulae files for the most common payroll frequencies (Weekly, Monthly & Fortnightly). However, for the payroll frequencies Bi-Monthly and 4-Weekly, Sage were unable to include the formulae files with the 23.2 update installation. These have to be added manually. To do this follow the instructions below – you will need to carry out these instructions for each Bi-Monthly and/or 4-Weekly payroll in your system:

1. Download the appropriate formula file for your pay frequency: Click here to download the Bi-Monthly formula file (CovidB.FML). Click here to download the 4-Weekly formula file (Covid4W.FML).
2. If prompted, browse to where you want to save the file to (eg: Desktop). If not prompted – check your Downloads folder for the downloaded formula file.
3. When you’ve located the downloaded formula file, right click on it and the click ‘Copy’.
4. Open Sage Payroll and log in to the payroll in question as normal.
5. From the menu bar – click Help\System Information, then click on the Data Directory link.
6. When the data directory location opens, right click and then click ‘paste’ to paste the relevant formula file to your payroll data location.
7. Next, you need to link the formula file to your covid payment: In Sage Payroll, from the menu bar – click Company/Payroll then click Payments. Double click on your covid subsidy payment to edit it.
   1. In the ‘Formula’ field at the very bottom of the screen presented, type in the appropriate formula and then press Save: include the quotation marks that you see in the bold text below:

For Bi-Monthly frequency payrolls type: program “covidb.fml”
For 4-weekly frequency payrolls type: program “covid4w.fml”

Note: If you cannot find a ‘Formula’ field at the bottom of the payment screen, it may be because you have ‘Sage Payroll Lite’ In this scenario, for assistance with adding the formula to the payment, please call us.

System Requirements for Sage Payroll:
To view the system Requirements for Sage Payroll –> Click Here

How to Fix Error “Invalid CSV file selected” when using the “Covid-19 TWSS Revenue Import”:
We have had a number of reports from clients saying that the “Average Pay CSV file” form Revenue fails to import into Sage using the “Covid-19 TWSS Revenue Import” function with the error “Invalid CSV file selected”. This seems to be related to how the file was downloaded from Revenue. If this occurs follow these steps to fix the problem..

1. Open the Revenue CSV File,
2. Go to the last employee row and go to Column U
3. Press “Return” to go to a new row.
4. Select “File – Save As”
5, Ensure the “Save as Type” is “CSV (comma delimited)”.
6. Try the import into Sage Payroll again.

How to Fix Error on Opening ARW (Advanced Report Writer):
The most common errors which occur when opening the ARW program are: “Data Source Error Filling Lattice” and “Cannot Read User File”. Either of these can occur if the computer that you’re trying to run ARW on, doesn’t have the required ODBC driver installed on it. To fix an occurrence of either of these download & install this ODBC Driver.

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