Ever have one of those moments when you’re using your software and you think, “Wouldn’t it be great if it could do…”? It might just be that it can.
Ceara Metcalf, Product Manager for Payroll, gave us the lowdown on the top features in Sage 50 Payroll that you might not know about. They could save you a lot of time.
1. Simplifying reporting
Finding the right report
The question we most get asked is how to find the right report. With over 400 reports in Sage 50 Payroll you can be pretty certain it will have the one you need but how can you find it?
Reports are structured in two sections:
- Pre-update reports - for reports for the period before you run your payroll
- Reports - for any historical data from a period where you have processed payroll
The software also includes a tool to help you find what you need. It asks you a series of questions about the information you’re looking for and recommends the right report. The tool can be found in Ask Sage.
Automatically running reports
If you run the same reports regularly, you can automate them into a batch report or save them to your favourites and run them as a group.
Adding reports to your favourites also makes them easy to find from the front screen or on the navigation.
For more advice about reporting, visit the Help section in My Sage.
2. Clearing data
As a default, Sage 50 Payroll remembers the data entered last time. This saves loads of time if your rotas and hours stay the same. But what about if they change?
You don’t have to manually clear out the data each time. You can simply use the Reset Payments feature to take everything back to zero, or you can select just one field to clear, such as overtime or Sunday working.
It’s great for times when your rotas change or if people work different shifts each week.
Find out more about how to reset payments.
3. Making changes more quickly
Sometimes there are times when you need to make changes to multiple employees, such as changing tax codes or rates of pay. Doing this manually can be incredibly time-consuming.
That’s why Sage 50 Payroll includes an option to make global changes. You can either apply changes to all employees or you can make a selection from the employee list.
Here’s some of the ways you could use this:
- Applying a new minimum wage amount
- Changing mileage allowances
- Swapping to new tax codes
- Changing pay periods (e.g. weekly to monthly)
To make global changes, click on Tasks > Global Changes. More detailed instructions are here.
4. Getting data from other software
If you have clocking in software or keep a record of hours elsewhere, you can simply import the data via Excel.
Sage offers a standard Excel spreadsheet with four standard fields:
- Employers reference number
- Payment or deduction reference number
- Hours
- Rate
You can also use your own.
Then it’s simply a case of running a data import to pick up your timesheet data. Full instructions are in this Ask Sage article.
5. Understanding the impact of changing salaries or benefits
Are you considering an annual pay increase for your employees? Is there new legislation or is minimum wage changing?
With Sage 50 Payroll, it’s easy to see the cost implications of changing salaries or benefits. The software includes a salary review forecast which allows you to see the impact of changes on:
- Gross pay
- Pensions
- Employers NI
You can see the changes by month, quarter and year. It’s also possible to include or exclude directors and to apply changes to specific departments.
Find out how to run a Salary Review Forecast.
6. Sending your salary data to Sage accounts software
It’s simple to connect your software together to share accurate data and keep everything up to date. In fact, it’s just one button to send the data through each time you run payroll.
You can use the default Sage nominal codes if your accounts software hasn’t been personalised or you can apply specific nominal codes that only need to be set up once. It’s also easy to backdate the data and run the link whenever you like.
Once it’s all set up, you can find the nominal link under Payroll > Tasks. Full details are here.
7. Making it easy to work through automatic enrolment
Do you know what needs to be done to comply with the new pensions regulations for automatic enrolment? Our pension centre is available in version 20 and above and is a one-stop shop for implementing the changes.
Featuring a pension module guide, videos and step-by-step walkthroughs, it will keep you on track. There’s even “Do it now” buttons to help you see which tasks need to be completed and to let you have the satisfaction of ticking them off when they’re done.
The pensions centre can be found in the main toolbar.
8. Saving time with keyboard shortcuts
Everyone loves keyboard shortcuts and uses them in software like Word. There’s some useful ones built into Sage 50 Payroll too:
- F1 - help
- F2 - calculator
- F8 - clear/delete
There’s also some blank one that let you set your own. Just go to Desktop > Options.
9. Managing aspects of HR
Did you know that Sage 50 Payroll also lets you manage some elements of HR? Here’s some of the things it does:
- Allows you to create basic statements of employment
- Store documents (such as passport details, MATB1 documents for maternity pay, etc)
- Record information about appraisals, disciplinaries and job history
- Calculate holidays annually, by hours or based on time worked
- Allow you to access HR advice as part of your Sage Cover benefits
10. Spotting mistakes more easily
Sometimes it can be hard to spot differences in your payroll. But Sage 50 Payroll Professional has a simple function to tell you if something is outside the norm.
The variance reporting allows you to set up parameters and, when you finish entering the pay, the software will tell you if anything is outside these figures. You can set up a range of different parameters for data like:
- Salary = £X a month +/- 5%
- Overtime = maximum £1000 a month
To find out how to set up variance reports and receive these alerts, see the Ask Sage article.