Support

Enter the employee's email address in the contact tab in the 'Employee' screen. When you use the email payslips function, the payslip will be sent to the email you enter here.

There are three ways to email payslips:

• Using outlook
• Using Payback SMTP server
• Using your own SMTP server

We recommend using the Payback SMTP server to send emails. However if you want to use MS Outlook you can. To change the email server settings, do the following; If Outlook is giving you problems (such as displaying a 'run time error', then please use the Payback SMTP server option.

1. Click 'Admin / Options / Preferences'
2. Under 'Email payslip options' select 'Payback.ie SMTP Server'
3. Enter a 'Reply to' email address (if an email bounces, this is the address the bounce will go to, so we recommend entering your own email address here) Please fill this in.
4. Click 'Update' button
5. Once you have processed the Pay for a period, all the payslips can be emailed using the 'Email Payslips' option in the reports screen

Sometimes employees are unable to open damaged payslips

If every now and again an employee is unable to open a damaged payslip, please follow these instructions

1. In Windows, create a new folder on your local C: drive called: C:\PaybackTemp
2. Open Payback and click on where is says 'Support' on the menu at the top left of the screen.
3. Click the Support Icon and select the 'Diagnostics' tab.
4. Click the button that says 'Temp Location'
5. Select the folder you created in step one, above (C:\PaybackTemp)
6. Click the OK button.
7. Try emailing payslips.

Notes

• Make sure that you have entered the employee's email address correctly in the the 'Employee screen'. Otherwise the payslips will not be delievered to the employee
• When using the recommended 'Payback SMTP' option, please make sure you've entered your own email address in the 'Reply-to email address' field in the Admin / Preferences screen. This is very important, as it is the address that any email bounce-backs will be sent to.
• Make sure that the employees' emails are ending up in their spam folders, or are being blocked as 'spam' by their ISP (some ISPs require 'human verification' before releasing suspected spam emails)
• Check that all email address are correct! (in both the 'Employee' screen, and the 'Preferences / reply-to' box.)

Holiday pay in Payback exists for two main reasons;

1. To ensure you don't pay the employees by mistake while they're on holiday
2. To ensure that your employees get the correct amount of tax credits, cut-off point and insurable weeks when you're paying them in advance

It has the added benefit of allowing you to keep track of holidays taken.

Scenario

A weekly paid employee who is paid every Wednesday is going on holiday for 2 weeks from the 7th April 2008 to the 18th April 2008. They want their 2 weeks holiday pay in advance to be included in their pay for the 2nd April

Requirements

1. You need to pay them 3 weeks worth of pay on the 2nd April payroll run (the current week, plus 2 weeks in advance)
2. They should get 3 weeks worth of PRSI insurable weeks, tax credits and cut-off point on the 2nd April
3. You need to ensure they don't get paid on the 9th April or the 16th April runs

Method

1. In the Payroll screen, select the required employee
2. On the Elements tab, select a blank row, select 'Holidays', and click the 'View' button on the right of the grid. The 'calculate leave' pop-up box will appear.
3. Highlight the weeks they are on holiday for. In this example you should highlight all the days between the 7th April - 18th April inclusive.
4. Ensure 'Insurable weeks' says '2'
5. Click 'Ok', this returns you to the Payroll screen
6. Ensure the Holiday Pay and the Salary is as required. Also, that the 'Insurable Weeks' at the bottom says '3' (this week plus the 2 holiday weeks)
7. Pay the employee as usual

You will also notice that for the following two pay runs (16th April and 23rd April) the employee is in green, indicating they are on holiday and will not be paid.

Notes

It may sometimes be necessary to change the figure in the 'Insurable Weeks' to the correct figure manually. Payback attempts to calculate the insurable weeks based on the holiday days you mark, but you should confirm the number is correct before paying the employee and change it if it doesn't look right. This figure determines the Tax credits and Standard Rate Cut Off Point used.

Payback is in fact doing the 'insurable/tax' weeks calculation correctly, although it might seem counter-intuitive. The reason for this is the way the Revenue tax calendar works. Insurable weeks start from the 1 January onwards. The first week from 1 to 7 January, second week from 8 to 14th January etc. Insurable weeks can be overridden.

The holiday entitlement tab is only a calculator. It is there to give an indication of holiday entitlement. It has no bearing on any calculations in the payroll screen, or how much holiday you can actually allocate to an employee. Payback does not store or use the holiday calculator information. (HR rules can be complex and we recommend confirming any holiday entitlements with a practitioner.)

Setting up Payment Frequencies

The pay date can be changed in the Company screen, under the 'Pay details' tab. Payment frequencies can also be set up here:

• Weekly
• Fortnightly
• Four-Weekly
• Monthly

(The following frequencies can be set up under Other)

• Two Monthly
• Quarterly
• Four Monthly
• Six Monthly
• Annually

If a payment has been made for a pay frequency, then it can not be unticked. This is to stop 'Orphan payments'. At least one payment frequency must be set up. Click 'Update Company' at the top of the screen to update the Payment frequency.

The Pay date will be determined by the way you set up the payment frequency. For example, if pay day of Monday is set up for the weekly pay frequency, then the pay date will be the date of each Monday in the year.

Changing Payment Frequency mid year

Once you start processing pay using a payment frequency (eg Monthly) it is possible to change payment frequency mid-year (eg Monthly to Weekly). However, we do not recommend this. Changing Payment frequency mid year can cause problems with tax credits and insurable weeks. For example a monthly paid person has been paid for 3 months, with a total of 13 weeks and are then moved to weekly, but the user starts them on week 12 or 14, then they will end up with the wrong number of insurable weeks.

If the pay date is changed, you may not be able to easily select past, processed payslips. This is because in the Payroll screen payslips are selected according to the pay date in the calendar. (You have to change the pay date back again to see the old payslips and things start to get messy).

We recommend only changing pay frequency at the start of the year, before any payments have been processed. If you have no choice but to change pay frequency mid-year, please consider the above two issues:

• viewing old payslips (with the old payment frequency)
• making sure that the insurable weeks are correct.

(If you've already processed a payment at the 'wrong' pay date, it will be easier to just rewind that payment first before changing the payment frequency or pay date)