If I sign up with SimplePay after the start of the tax year, can I still use it for my Employer’s Return?
You can use SimplePay for your filing even if you previously used another system for the first period(s) of the tax year. You have two options here: use take-on balances or recreate payslips – both methods will allow SimplePay to generate IR56Bs for your employees as necessary.
Take-on Balances for Generating IR56Bs¶
We strongly advise you to use take-on balances when capturing information for filing purposes. This removes the possibility of any discrepancies between your previous system’s payslips and those on SimplePay. In order to capture take-on balances, your first payroll period must be after the first April pay period and the employee’s appointment date must be before this. More information on these aspects can be found in the following section:
Recreating Historic Payslips¶
However, if you would like, you are welcome to recreate all of your historic payslips from April onwards. You will need to ensure that your first payroll period is set to April as described in the Pay Frequencies article linked to above.
Please note that using this method opens up the possibility for discrepancies in the calculations between your previous payslips and those you create on SimplePay. This may be the case if you previously did payroll calculations manually, for example. Again, for this reason, we would strongly recommend you use the take-on balances option.
Filing Documents¶
SimplePay generates your annual filing documents from the data captured on the system. You can access these documents by going to Filing > Annual Employer’s Returns (IR56B). For more information on this aspect, please refer to the following article: