November '09 - v4.13

As I wrote earlier this month, v4.12 has been released. This was not a widespread release as it primarily concentrated on new T&A features and enhancements. With v4.13 being a mandatory payroll release, it was considered not to ship this small version out when everyone using payroll will have to install v4.13.

Obviously, then, this version will concentrate on payroll in preparation for tax year 2010/11. One major addition to the general package (although it requires Unistaff HR to use it) is called Previous Service. If an employee leaves and comes back, then his or her previous employment duration is available for use. This is cumulative where employees regularly leave and rejoin over the years. This Previous Service duration can optionally then be used in Length of Service calculations, in addition to the employee's current length of service.

A nice new addition to the HR Unity Online (Self Service) module will be the ability to request a recurring absence. So, for example, if an employee has a course every other Wednesday starting in January for 12 weeks, this can be requested en-bloc and, once accepted, the individual absences will be entered.

Payroll changes include:

• Maternity Pay Schemes: Now uses Length of Service for different payment rules, including the option to include the new Previous Service duration.
• P14/P60 layout: Paper and Internet form changes to cater for the new "UAP" NI band.
• P35 Internet Filing: Now supports Cessation Date for companies who have ceased trading.
  
• P11D Internet Filing: Will now consolidate the submission if an employee with Exp & Ben had left and rejoined.
• Deduction Codes: As well as Value or Percentage (of Gross Pay) type codes, Percentage of Gross Pay Scheme has been added as an option.
• VAT rate added to Government Parameters.
  
• Expenses Input has been improved to allow the user to view the inputs for just the selected employee or for the group; Improved grid showing totals; Auto-calculates VAT.
  
• Mileages Input uses the same improved grid to show totals.
• Attachment of Earnings Maintenance screen has been redesigned to make it easier to use, and performs more automatic tasks for you (such as creating the related Fixed Deduction code).

As usual, this is also the time of year where we apply for reaccreditation of the Payroll Standard and Pensioner Standard. This includes having the P14/P35 internet filing "recognised", and now this includes In-Year Movements as well (P45s, P46s). We have been a long-standing holder of the Payroll Standard and have continually supported almost all of the Internet Filing forms that are available.

We are also very proud of our low error-rate statistics for internet filing (provided to us by HMRC) and in v4.13, we have added further validation checks to the data to ensure this error rate continues to remain low. This ultimately means that you can file your forms online faster without having to correct your data and resubmit.

v4.13 is currently in testing and we will be looking for a February release, once the Payroll Standard has been confirmed.