KB Category: Sage Payroll (Micropay)

COVID 19 – Payroll Related, Coronavirus Information.

As the current situation in Ireland is an ever changing landscape, details in this is article are subject to change. We will endeavour to keep it as up-to-date as possible. Any external links presented below are live, and you can click on them to go through to the relevant site, to help to confirm some of your queries.

This article relates to the initial “Transitional Phase” of the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme, for the latest information we have on the “Operational Phase” of this scheme, please click here –> Sage Payroll Software Update 23.2 for Operational Phase of the Covid19 TWSS (4th May 2020 Onwards)

We must advise that if you need clarity on particulars of your business relating to the wage subsidy scheme, you will need to contact revenue before you seek assistance with your payroll software. See Revenue contact details here –> Revenue Contact Us Link. If you are a Twitter user, you can follow them using the handle @RevenueIE –> Revenue Twitter Link

On 15 March 2020, the Government announced the implementation of exceptional measures, administered through the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP), to enable workers who are temporarily laid off due to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic to claim a special support payment called COVID 19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment. The payment was refundable under a scheme called COVID-19 Employer Refund Scheme. On the 24th March 2020, the Government changed this. They retracted the ‘COVID-19 Employer Refund Scheme’, and replaced it with the ‘Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme’. Alongside that, the government also set up a ‘COVID 19 – Enhanced Illness Benefit’, claimable by those who are directed by a doctor to self isolate or by those who are ill with the virus.

The items covered in this article are:

1. Information on ‘Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme’.
2. Information on ‘COVID 19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment‘.
3. Information on ‘COVID 19 – Enhanced Illness Benefit’.
4. Different Scenarios Employees might find themselves in.
5. How to Process Wages for the ‘Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme’ in Sage Payroll.
6. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

1. Information on ‘Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme’ (Max €410 Weekly)
*This goes through your payroll system, and so it effects your payroll processing.

• This a scheme which allow employers to pay their employees during the current pandemic.
• It applies from Thursday 26th March 2020 onwards.
• Employers will be refunded up to 70% of an employee’s wages – up to a level of €410.
• The employer is expected to make their best efforts to maintain as close to 100% of normal income as possible for the subsidised period.
• It replaces the DEASP’s ‘COVID-19 Employer Refund Scheme‘ which was announced on 15th March 2020.
• Employers who registered for the ‘COVID-19 Employer Refund Scheme’ do not have to re-register for this new scheme.
• It now applies where the employee has been laid off temporarily (zero hours).
• A Top-Up payment is allowed to be paid by the employer.
• It does not apply to workers who have been let go on a permanent basis – they instead qualify for the ‘COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment’ (see Below)
• Under this Wage Subsidy Scheme, the employee does not need to do anything – but the employer must register to take part in the scheme.
• This goes through your payroll system, and so it effects your payroll processing.

While some more detailed questions remain unanswered, we recommend to both read the articles in the links below, and talk to your accountant/HR contact before proceeding:
Click here to read GOV.ie article with further details –> Gov.ie Link
Click here to read Revenue.ie article with further details –> Revenue.ie Link

2. Information on ‘COVID 19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment’ (Currently €350 Weekly)
*This payment does not go through your payroll system, and so it does not effect your payroll processing.

• This is a special Support Payment introduced due to the COVID 19 Pandemic, it is not an Illness Benefit.
• It is claimable by both employees and self-employed who have been permanently laid off as a direct result of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. (ie: They have lost their jobs).
• This payment will be in place for the duration of the pandemic.
• It is paid at a flat rate of €350 per week (This was increased from €203 to €350 on the 24th March 2020).
• In this scenario, the employee will need to register for the payment directly with the DEASP, and the payment will be made directly to the employee.)
• To get this payment, the employer does not need to do anything – but the employee must register for the payment directly with the DEASP, and the payment will be made directly to the employee.

Again, while some more detailed questions remain unanswered, we recommend to both read the article in the link below, and talk to your accountant/HR contact before proceeding:
Click here to read GOV.ie article with further details –> Gov.ie Link

3. Information on ‘COVID 19 – Enhanced Illness Benefit’ (Currently €305 Weekly)
*Illness Benefit can optionally be put through your payroll system, usually depending on whether the employee is receiving the payment or the Employer.

• This is an Illness Benefit.
• It is claimable by those who are directed by a doctor to self isolate and therefore cannot attend work or by those who are ill with the virus and therefore cannot attend work.
• With regard to payroll, it is treated the same as any illness benefit, the same as illness benefits prior to the COVID 19 Pandemic.
• The Employee applies directly to the DEASP for this, and it is the employee who dictates who receives the payment (themselves or their employer).
• It is not refundable under any scheme.
• The employer cannot apply for this on behalf of the employee.

Again, while some more detailed questions remain unanswered, we recommend to both read the article in the link below, and talk to your accountant/HR contact before proceeding:
Click here to read GOV.ie article with further details –> Gov.ie Link

4. Different Scenarios Employees might find themselves in:

If you are confused about what applies in the different scenarios in which employees are finding themselves in, or you want to better advise employees, Citizens Information have put together this informative article – Citizens Information Link

5. How to Process Wages for the ‘Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme’ in Sage Payroll

Full Details of processing for the ‘Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme’ are detailed in the ‘Sage Link’ at the bottom of this section. But before you go there please read the following note:

Once you (as an employer) qualify for, and have registered for the Wage Subsidy Scheme with Revenue, the initial part of the process is to calculate 70% of the Average Net Weekly Wage per employee (Averaged over Jan & Feb weeks). You must use this figure from the start of the scheme.

To help you to figure out these amounts per employee, Sage have developed a report for use with the built in Report Writer in Sage Payroll. The article below will guide you through downloading and saving the report file into your system. You can then it run it and print\save it. It is advised to use this report to calculate the amounts, as they are calculated according to Revenues definition of Net Pay.

If you are an ‘ARW’ user (Advanced Report Writer) you will be happy to hear that Sage have developed a suitable report for that too. The article below will guide you through downloading and saving that file to your system. See sample in image below.

**[ARW is a separate program that runs outside of Sage Payroll]
**[We strongly advise that you work through the article below in full, reading each section as there may be particulars in it which lend to decision making during your process.] 

Click here for full instructions on how to process the Wage Subsidy in Sage Payroll –> Sage Link

The Sage Report will contain data similar to the image below:

Disclaimer: This article has been provided for information purposes only, While every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy at the time of writing, Pimbrook can not guarantee it will remain fully up to date. We would advise you to seek professional guidance on the latest information before acting on anything related to this topic.

Issue: RPN Delivering negative ‘Prev. Er’ figures (incorrectly).

The payroll operator will usually first notice this as flagged in the Validate Payroll routine: It shows the issue and the recommended resolution as follows:

The suggested resolution is for the payroll operator to edit the figures as required and save the record. This is in fact all that can be done to make this scenario right. We can argue that modernisation was supposed to take all of such edits out of the hands of the payroll operator, and we would be right. And we could worry that the operator does not have easy access to the required information, since they are no longer issued with P45 information and we would also be right. But neither of those are for us to consider. This software is at the mercy of what is delivered by the RPN and we have no control over that. The software works fine when the RPN delivers non negative values, and so we can deduct that the software is working correctly.

Advice To Customers:
If the issue is in the Prev Eer Tax Paid or Prev Eer USC Paid fields, then ask the customer – are they sure that the figure is not supposed to be negative? See note below regarding ‘Scenario when Prev Eer Tax/USC paid can be negative’.

If they are sure that the value is not supposed to be negative, then explain to them that the issue lies within the delivered RPN from ROS. Advise them to edit the Prev Earning fields in question (as suggested by Sage) and change them to the correct figures. Sympathise that we cannot help them to find the correct values to be entered – they will have to press Revenue or the Employee for this information. [We should avoid suggesting what figures should be entered. They will need confirmation from another source to find out what to enter].

Explain (with regard to Prev Earnings) how the Pay/YTD screen works:

• The ‘This Employer’ fields are the result of the addition of all the ETP records for that employee, it is not imported from the RPN.
• The ‘Prev. Er’ fields are imported from the RPN and are the total of all previous employments. This figure excludes earnings from the current employer.

Encourage them to run the ‘Validate Payroll’ option during every payroll, to bring to light any such issues. (They are supposed to be doing this anyway). All solutions to ‘Validate Payroll Data Errors’ are listed in Sage KB number 44659.

Suggest to them that Sage have been made aware of this issue and are in discussions with Revenue.

Knock On-Effects of this Issue: If this issue was with the Gross Pay field and had gone un-noticed by the payroll operator, it means the employee’s tax may have been calculated for a period of time on less Gross Pay than it should have been. This may have benefitted the employee tax wise. When the operator enters the correct (positive) Prev Er figure the employee may pay a higher amount of tax for a time until it resolves itself cumulatively. This can be different case by case.

NOTE: Scenario when Prev Tax/USC paid may need to be negative:
Employee works at ‘Employment A’ and earns X amount. Then they leave ‘Employment A’ and work at ‘Employment B’. In their first wage at ‘Employment B’ they receive a tax refund (for whatever reason), but they then leave ‘Employment B’ after that wage. The employee returns to ‘Employment A’. At this point their ‘Prev. Eer’ tax is actually negative, as it only includes the values at ‘Employment B’, and that included a tax refund. This could apply for tax or usc.

A Reminder of How Re-Instating a Leaver used to work Pre – Payroll Modernisation:
Historically, when an operator needed to re-instate an employee the procedure was to take the ‘This Employment’ figure from the Total Pay on the P45 and enter the remainder in the ‘Prev P45’ line:

Based on discussions at the Payroll User Forum in October 2019, I made the following notes.

They are based on the 2019 Year End / 2020 Year Start, but they apply to any year.

Sage KBA for Covering the topic of  Week53:

Sage have produced ASK 32326, which covers the Week53 topic, which is very good.

Revenue Preferences:

1. For weekly payrolls, payments to employees should be on the same day every week – including over Christmas.
2. Holiday pay for days taken in 2019 need to be paid in the 2019 payroll.
3. Holiday pay for days taken in 2020 (ie: 2^nd/3^rd Jan) need to be paid in the 2020 payroll.
4. Where a company are going to run 3 weeks ahead, ie: Period 51, 52 and another one – the pay date rule applies: If the pay date of the 3^rd week is in 2019 then it would be a week 53 in the 2019 system. If the pay date of the 3^rd week is in 2020 then it would be week 1 in the 2020 system.
5. If the company did not plan for 53 pay dates year at the beginning of the year, then they should not be having one.
6. It is Revenue’s intention to contact any company who process a period 53.

Pay Date Rule:
The pay date rule basically means that if the pay date is a 2019 date then it belongs in the 2019 payroll and if the pay date is a 2020 date then it belongs in the 2020 payroll.
All scenarios are governed by the pay date rule.

Problem Scenario:
I identified the following to the user panel, which is causing confusing pay date scenario:
When the calendar is set at the start of a payroll year, the software calculates the number of periods based on the Period Date, but based on the prominence of the Pay Date field now, the number of periods in a year should actually be calculated by the Pay Date field. (Sage agreed.)

Not having the pay date as the date by which the number of weeks are measured when setting up the calendar, will cause the following problem. This example is of a weekly payroll where the period date is three days before the pay date, on a weekly basis: Period Date: Tuesday 01/01/2019 with Pay Date: Friday 04/01/2019.  It seems to be specific to payrolls where the Period 1 had a period date of 01/01/2019.

If the customer has already done 52 weeks in 2019 then it would be ok to suggest to them that the week with suggested paydate in 2020 system (above), should be processed as Week 1 in 2020 to satisfy Revenue. The customer will be tempted to run the period 53 in 2019 and change the pay date of period 53 to be Tue 31^st Dec, but as per discussions at the Payroll Forum – revenue prefer if payroll operators would stick to the same day of the week for pay dates. This reason can be used a leverage to steer the customer in the right direction.

In a payroll where the user always sets the period date the same as the pay date, there are no issues.

At the end of the day we can’t control what the payroll operator does, we can only advise them. In all cases, refer the user back to the Pay Date rule, and ‘Revenue Preferences’ above.