December 2011 update

With Christmas just days away, we are at the end of the development cycle for the next payroll release, v4.21. This will, as usual, be a mandatory update for those of you who use Uniwage, and will also be supplied to those of you who don't soon after.

As well as handling RTI in preparation for the pilot in April 2012 (as discussed in my last post), we are also well ahead of the game with the Workplace Pension Reforms that are due to begin in 2012. In truth, it is the largest companies who will start in 2012, with some smaller companies not starting until as late as 2015. However, Uniwage now contains everything you need to enter your Staging Date and to automatically enrol employees once the time comes.

We held our annual User Group Meeting in Rugby in November, and as well as being able to tell the delegates about what was coming up, we were also able to listen to what you had to say. One payroll issue that was very popular on people's wish-list was to improve the Fixed Countdown Deductions.

Currently, you can enter the total payment and the regular payment, and it will continue to deduct this until the total is cleared. Now, you have the option to enter a number of periods over which you would like the deduction to be paid off. Uniwage will calculate the regular payment, including taking more in the first period to ensure the deduction is fully cleared within the timeframe.

By far the biggest change available to everyone in v4.21 will be the introduction of the SMP Schedule. This will mark the end of having to calculate SMP each period. Instead, the entire payment schedule is calculated up front. This means you can provide your employees with a clear schedule of what they can expect to be paid, as well as making it easier for you each period by removing the SMP Calculation & Transfer routines. Employees who are currently on SMP will be converted to the SMP Schedule method during your first payroll calculation with v4.21.

If you are on the mailing list for our newsletters, then you may have seen that HMRC are extending the pilot for RTI. Currently, we are 1 of only 40 payroll software providers (out of over 300) who are involved within the pilot, along with some of our customers (from April 2012). More customers have expressed an interest in taking part from the new pilot dates, which are in July and November 2012. If you would like to get ahead of the game on RTI, then contact Emma Clare with your details.

All that remains is to wish our customers and readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you in 2012!