This document contains information on the different aspects of RTI including preparation, procedures, and changes that were added within Flexipay version 2.32 and reference material.

The Real time information section provides a detailed list of all RTI changes within Flexipay and should be read to understand the RTI Flexipay functions.  The remaining sections of this document have been included to prepare you for RTI and provide you with guidance.  A useful list of ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ are included in the last section.  Please note that some information might be repeated across different sections to re-enforce a particular point.

As RTI is an important change to payroll it is recommended that you take the time to carefully read through this document.

Real time information

RTI Summary

From April 2013 all employers had to start submitting information to HMRC at the time of payment rather than waiting until year end. This is in the form of an internet submission, similar to the year-end submission, sent as part of the payroll process. This change only affects PAYE information. Arrangements for paying HMRC will be unchanged.

If you are registered with HMRC for PAYE online, you can to use the same user ID and password for your RTI submissions.

General documentation on doing payroll with RTI is available on the HMRC web site at:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/payerti/index.htm

Flexipay supports all 5 RTI submission types:

EAS    Employer alignment submission

This is a once only submission to send a full list of employees to HMRC to make sure their records match yours.

FPS    Full payment submission

This submission contains payment information and is send every time employees are paid

EPS    Employer payment summary

This submission contains company information and should be sent each tax month to tell HMRC how much you are reclaiming from your tax bill.

NVR    NI number verification request

This submission is optional and is used to obtain an employee’s national insurance number.

EYU    Earlier year update

This submission will submit amendments from an earlier tax year. You will not need it until April 2014 unless you are taking part in the RTI pilot.

You can run the RTI check report from the Company menu. This will point out any errors in the data that you need to correct before you start using RTI.

You should also run the check reports for pensions and benefit-in-kind relationships. See the sections on pensions and benefit in kinds below.

When you run the company year end it will automatically set Using RTI to Y for each company. If you answer Yes to the prompt, it will also set Using BACS with RTI to Y for each company for which it can find a BACS user number on Flexipay. See the BACS section below for more information on Using BACS with RTI.

Starting using RTI

RTI became a requirement from the start of the 2013/14 tax year.

To start using RTI tick Using RTI on the RTI submission page of the company details. This should be set automatically by the year end procedure.

New data for RTI

There are several data requirements for employees and companies that must be entered into Flexipay before RTI can be started. You must have this data in Flexipay or you will not be able to pay your employees.

Company data

1. Accounts office reference (also called the collection reference)
   
2. Corporation tax reference (e.g. if it is a limited company)
   
3. Self assessment UTR (e.g. if it is a sole proprietor or partnership)
   

Employee data

1. Date of birth (required for all employees)
   
2. Gender (required for all employees)
   
3. Two lines of address (compulsory for new starters or if NI number is not known)
   
4. Foreign country
   

If your employee's address is outside the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man then you must state their country here and include their address in the address fields.

5. Bank sort code and account number (only required if paid by BACS)
   

These are required to produce the hash code that goes into the RTI FPS submission.

6. Partners name and NINO. (Required if getting additional statutory paternity pay)
   
7. Weekly hours, one of:
   

a) Up to 15.99 hrs

b) 16-29.99 hrs

c) 30 hrs or more (the default), or

d) Other

How many hours the employee normally expects to work in a week. If the hours vary from week to week, indicate what you think of as the employee's normal number of paid hours. If the employee is on paid leave, for example annual leave or sick leave, report the normal contracted hours worked:

If you consider a, b or c are not appropriate, indicate Other.

For occupational pension schemes indicate Other.

8. Irregular payment indicator (Y/N) (Y if not paid every pay period)
   

Set if the employee is not paid on a regular basis for example:

4. casual or seasonal employees
   
5. employees on maternity leave
   
6. employees on long term sick leave
   
7. any employee who, for any reason, will not be paid for a period of three months or more
   

HMRC will check if an employee has not been paid for a certain period of time and will treat them as having left that employment. Setting this indicator on every FPS submitted for that employee avoids that happening.

9. Pay frequency (set if payment frequency differs from the pay group frequency. It is sent with the RTI submission but does not affect the payroll operation. Default is AG – as pay group)
   
10. Passport number (only if used to check eligibility to work)
    
11. Aggregated Earnings (Y/N). (Y if earnings from more than one job have been added together to calculate National Insurance)
    
12. Director’s appointment date (Required for new directors)
    
13. Not an individual (Y/N) (Set to Y where the payment is to, for example, a personal representative, trustee or body corporate)
    
14. Unpaid absence (Y/N)
    

Set to Y if your employee requests that their contracted hours are reduced to zero for a period of time exceeding more than one pay period. Setting this indicator in appropriate circumstances will avoid contact from DWP to confirm whether a reduction in hours was a request from the employee. 

Employee system fields

The following employee fields are used by Flexipay to support RTI. They are all set automatically by the system and the values should only be changed in special circumstances. They may be used for reporting.

Previous pay ref.    Previous payroll reference, if changed.

Pay ref. changed (Y/N)    The payroll reference has changed since the last submission

First FPS sent (Y/N)    Has the first FPS been sent for this employee.

Final FPS sent (Y/N)    Has the final FPS been sent to report a leaver.

Partner details sent (Y/N)    Have the ASPP partners details been sent via RTI.

Passport number sent (Y/N)    Has the passport number been sent via RTI.

Dir. week sent (Y/N)    Has the appointment week of director been sent via RTI.

Pay advanced (Y/N)    Has the pay period been advanced for holiday pay.

BACS RTI value    The payment used to calculate the RTI hash.

Taxed benefits    Total value of taxed benefits this period.

Taxed benefits t/d    Total value of taxed benefits to date.

Tax free pension    Total value of tax free pension deducted this period. By tax free we mean subject to tax relief in the payroll.

Tax free pension t/d    Total value of tax free pension deducted to date.

Taxed pension    Total value of taxed pension deducted this period. By taxed we mean not subject to tax relief in the payroll.

Taxed pension t/d    Total value of taxed pension deducted to date.

Employee pension    Total value of employee pension deducted this period.

Employee pension t/d    Total value of employee pension deducted to date.

Company pension    Total value of company pension deducted this period.

Company pension t/d    Total value of company pension deducted to date.

Directors

If you use the on account method for director’s NI you must set the director as a director and set the field Dir. NI on account to Y. It is no longer acceptable to leave the directors flag at N until the last period of a tax year. 

There is a field for the date of appointment as director and this should be entered. The number of weeks as director will be calculated automatically from this.

Payments from an occupational pension scheme

The field “Pension start date” (usually on the P46(Pen) tab) must be set in all cases to indicate that the payment is from an occupational pension scheme. The annual amount must also be entered in the field Annual pension. This must be the amount for the full year. Do not pro-rata it from the start date.

Pay date

The pay date becomes more important under RTI as it will be sent to HMRC. The FPS submission should be made on or before the pay date.

BACS

All employers who pay their employees by BACS using their own Service User Number will be required to add an additional piece of data within the BACS file. This means a change to the format of the BACS information exported from Flexipay. This consists of a random string of characters for each employee. This is incorporated with the bank sort code and account number, in a non readable form, into the information sent to HMRC.

Each company must be marked to say if they are using BACS with RTI. Only tick this if you have your own Service User Number with BACS. If you tick this you must ensure that your BACS software is able to accept the additional information from Flexipay.

N. B. You will have to ensure that the BACS software you use is able to read the new field and send it to BACS along with the payment. This may mean updating your BACS software.

N. B. The Readable text file, Binary file, Old style text file and Old style binary file BACS file exports are not RTI compliant and will not contain the RTI data. If you use these types you need to change to use the APACS 18 format export format. The old formats will still work to pay your employees but you should change as soon as possible.

This contains the text export file and a PDF file showing what the text file contains.

If you run the payroll yourself but send the payments to someone else so that they can send them to BACS, you will need to send them the APCS 18 text file containing the RTI data (three random characters) so it can be included with the BACS payment. You must also have the correct bank sort codes on the payroll (both employees and company) as they are used to create the hash code that goes with the RTI submission to HMRC.

If you create a BACS file and then decide you need to replace it and not send it to BACS you need to go into the RTI submission list in the company details and cancel the submission (see below).

Companies split into parts

Companies that are split into two or more Flexipay companies with the same PAYE reference must be linked together. This is similar to the linking of companies for the old year-end submission.

In Modify company details go to the RTI submission page. Tick The company is split into different companies and enter the number of companies the company is spit into. For alignment only, you will need to enter a different Unique ID for each part. This could be PART1, PART2 etc or whatever you like as long as it is different for each part.

You will also need to mark one part as master and the other parts as slave. The master part is where you do your month-end submission from and would normally be the part you used to send the combined P35 submission from. 

In the Linked companies page add a link to each of the other parts. This is only necessary for the master part of the company.

Pensions

Pension contributions must be identified and reported for RTI. Ideally, all pensions should be in the list under System > Maintain pensions. This will allow Flexipay to identify the type of pension and process it correctly. If you have existing pensions that are not listed in System > Maintain pensions you can add a new pension (Use the Add button not the Add Wizard button). You should set the pensions scheme type on the main page. On the Employee or AVC page (as appropriate) set the type to custom and enter the period deduction field where is says period field.

For pensions to be included in RTI the deduction relationship must have Is it a payment into a pension scheme ticked. A utility has been added to Flexipay to make checking easier. You will be presented with a list of fields so that you can say if it is a deduction for pension contributions or not. If you are not sure select Don’t know and nothing will be changed. The utility can be run from System > File utilities > Check pensions.

Tax free pension    Total value of tax free pension this period

Tax free pension t/d    Total value of tax free pension to date

Taxed pension    Total value of taxed pension this period

Taxed pension t/d    Total value of taxed pension to date

Employee pension    Total value of employee pension this period

Employee pension t/d    Total value of employee pension deducted to date.

Company pension    Total value of company pension this period

Company pension t/d    Total value of company pension to date

These are calculated automatically by Flexipay as part of the normal payroll calculation. All pensions that are defined correctly as described above will be added to these totals. 

Benefit in kinds

Benefit in kinds must also be identified and reported for RTI. These should be set up using a Benefit in kind relationship. On older installations Benefits in Kind might be set up as an addition and a deduction as the benefit in kind relationship was not originally available and these will need to be changed.

A utility has been added which is similar to the pension utility. It will present you with a list of possible benefit in kinds and you must select which really are a benefit in kind. This is available under System > File utilities > Check benefits.

The following employee fields are used to report benefits in the RTI submissions:

Taxed benefits        Total value of taxed benefits this period

Taxed benefits t/d        Total value of taxed benefits to date

These will be calculated from the list of benefit-in-kind relationships.

Alignment

All existing companies will have to go through the alignment process when they first start RTI. This is to ensure that HMRC’s list of employees matches your list of employees. Alignment can either take the form of an Employer Alignment Submission (EAS) or the first Full Payment Submission (FPS). New companies that start up after RTI is running do not need to go through alignment.

Employers with 250 or more employees, or whose employees are split into more than one company or pay group on Flexipay, will be required to submit the EAS for alignment. Other employers have the choice of submitting an EAS or not but we would recommend the EAS method as this can be done by all companies and can be done before your payroll is ready for paying. If not, the first FPS does the alignment and must be a single submission containing all employees.

The alignment submission must be the first RTI submission made. Before running the submission you should run the RTI check report on the Company menu and correct any errors.

The EAS must include all employees and may be submitted in parts from April 2013. The parts must be linked together as described above. A submission must be made for each part, not just from the part marked as master. The EAS should be submitted from the master part first and then the other parts.

An EAS may only be sent once and there is no way of amending it. You need to make sure you have everything correct before sending it. It must be sent before any FPS submissions are sent.

The EAS is on the company menu:

Paying employees

Before paying employees you should let Flexipay know which employees will be leaving by using the employee leaving or print P45 options. Leavers being paid should be marked as future leavers and paid in the current pay cycle.

All payments to employees must be reported on a Full Payment Submission (FPS). This must be submitted on or before the day of payment when you have printed your payroll reports and are happy with them. To perform an FPS click on the Flexipay menu Payroll Cycle > RTI – Full payment submission.  Where BACS payments are involved it can be submitted once the payment file has been accepted by BACS. If the company is split into different pay groups one FPS will be required for each pay group.

If a second payment is made in the same pay period then a second FPS will be required. The first FPS in a pay period will send all employees in the pay cycle regardless of payment method. Subsequent FPSs in the same period will only send employees with changes in their pay.

Running the update check report will tell you if another FPS submission is required for that pay group. It can be run at any time and not just before updating the pay cycle.

We recommend making a backup of your data after making an FPS submission. You need to have a record of what was actually sent in order to send corrections. This is most important at year end as corrections cannot be sent in the FPS for the next pay period and only differences can be sent to make a correction. 

An FPS submission is not required if all payments are just expenses.

Employees not paid every pay period

If any employee is not to be paid for a while you must set the field Irregular payment to Y. Set this before the periods for which the employee is not paid as it goes with the FPS which is not sent for employees who are not paid. For example:

2. Casual or seasonal employees whose employment contract continues
   
3. Employees on maternity leave, long term sick leave or leave of absence and will not be paid for a period of three months or more - but you still regard them as employees
   

HMRC will check if employees have not been paid for a specific period of time and will treat them as having left that employment if the field Irregular payment is not set.

Monthly submission (EPS) and paying HMRC

There is no change to the method of payment to HMRC, but you may need to report to HMRC by submitting an Employer Payment Summary (EPS). This can be monthly or quarterly as before. An EPS is required if:

1. No payments are made to any employees in a tax month.
   
2. You want to recover statutory payments, NICs compensation on statutory payments, Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) deductions suffered (limited companies only) or an amount under the Regional National Insurance Contributions Holiday for New Businesses (NICs Holiday). Year-to-date totals are sent and so corrections from previous tax months will automatically be sent.
   
3. To report the final submission of the tax year if you have not already done this with an FPS submission.
   

The submission must be made after updating all pay groups for all pay periods that fall in that tax month and on or before the 19th of the following month, i.e. the day your payment is due. Running the month end check report will tell you if an EPS is required for that tax month or not.

If the company is split into parts a special combined submission must be made. Set up the parts as described above. You should make a single submission from the master part of the company.

If the only payroll for a company is less frequent than monthly, you may still need to send an EPS every month. For example, if you pay all your employees quarterly in tax months 3, 6, 9 and 12, HMRC will expect an FPS for these months, if recovery is to be made; but you must also submit EPS to cover tax months 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10 and 11 when no payments are made to employees.

Year end

P14 and P35 submissions are no longer required at year end for tax years you have been submitting RTI. A printed P60 will still be required to give to the employee.

The Print outstanding amendments report does not currently work for RTI and should not be used.

The Last submission of the tax year must have This is the last submission of the tax year ticked. This would normally be the last EPS. The year-end declarations must be filled in before submitting this. If you forget to tick This is the last submission of the tax year you can send another EAS with it ticked.

New starters

P45 and P46 submissions are no longer required. You will still need to get a P45 from the new employee, if they have one.

The details for P45, P46, P46(Pen) or P46(Expat) must still be entered into Flexipay as before for new starters. The P46 section field has been renamed to Starter statement and must be filled in for all new starters, even those with a P45, as follows:

1. This is their first job since last 6th April and they have not been receiving taxable Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, taxable Incapacity Benefit, state pension or occupational pension.
   
2. This is their only job, but since last 6th April they have had another job, or have received taxable Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or taxable Incapacity Benefit. They do not receive state or occupational pension.
   
3. They have another job or receive a state or occupational pension.
   

14. They have not given you the information.
    

You will also need to enter the Weekly hours for the employee and the Passport number if this is used to check eligibility to work. If the employee is not paid every pay period set Irregular payment to Y.

Leavers

Again, a P45 submission is no longer required. A printed P45 is still required to give to the employee.

For leavers you must set Future leaver and Leave date before the payment in the pay period in which the employee leaves. Their P45 must be printed at the same time. If the employee receives their final payment the following pay period, after the P45 has been printed, this must done as a payment after leaving i.e. the employee should be added to the pay cycle as a leaver.

If you forget to set Future leaver before an employee leaves they will be included in the next FPS with zero pay even if they are not in the pay cycle. If it is past the 19th of April and the employee is left in the previous tax year, you must send an Earlier Year Update (EYU) submission which will include the leaver information.

Changes to employee’s names and address

It is up to the employee to report these to HMRC. They will not be sent as part of a RTI submission.

Correcting mistakes

If a mistake in an employee’s pay is found before the pay period is updated then a second FPS should be submitted for that pay period. It will only contain records for employees whose pay has changed and will only show the change in pay. If the next pay cycle has been started the correction to the last pay period can go with the next period’s FPS as a correction to the to-date totals and an additional FPS is not required.

Once an FPS has been sent for a pay period, do not try to send another FPS for a previous pay period. An FPS for the later pay period will contain year-to-date totals that will correct the previous pay period.

An amendment FPS may be sent up to 19th April the following tax year. After the 19th you need to send an Earlier year update (EYU). This will look at all pay groups for that company and send any amendments required.

Any EPS for month 12 of the previous tax year can be sent after the start of the next tax year to correct any errors in the EPS values.

If you make an employer a leaver by mistake and then submit an FPS you must inform HMRC of the mistake.

Corrections to an employee’s NI number or date of birth should be reported to HMRC before the next FPS is sent. This is to prevent a duplicate record being set up for that employee by HMRC.

If an RTI submission times out and does not get sent properly, you need to do a status check submission. Go to Company > Maintain details and press the RTI subms. button. Select the submission that need checking and press the Check button in the Status check column.

NINO Verification Request (NVR)

This lets you check NI numbers or find unknown NI numbers. A message with the correct NI number will be sent to you. These messages may be viewed with HMRC’s PAYE Desktop Viewer: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/tools/pdv/index.htm

Before you do an NVR submission you must have submitted at least one FPS and allowed time (they say a few days) for HMRC to process it.

Company ceases trading

If a company ceases trading, enter the cessation date in the company details. Follow the employee leaving instructions for all employees. On the last submission (FPS or EPS) tick the box: This is the last submission of the tax year.

Company RTI submission list

The company RTI submission list can be found under Modify Company details.

Highlight the required company and press the RTI Subms. button to see the list.

The Date and time created shows when the data file was created on your PC. If using BACS, this will be the time the BACS file was created.

Pressing the Details button will allow you to see the XML submitted and the receipt returned. If you do not have access to all employees you will not be able to see the XML submitted. The Correlation ID and Date and time are the values returned from the HMRC server when the file was submitted.

The View data button may or may not be visible. It is visible for EPS submissions and shows the total values sent to HMRC. The Modify button allows the status to be changed manually and is PIN protected and should only be used in special circumstances.

If the status of a submission is Unknown you need to do a status check on the submission. You will be asked for your HMRC password and a special submission will be performed to get the correct status back from HMRC.

If a submission on the list is not sent and needs to be discarded you can mark it as cancelled with the Cancel button. An example of this could be where you have created a BACS file but not sent it to BACS as you need to make corrections. Cancelled submissions can be reactivated by using the Reactivate button.

Employee RTI submission list

The employee RTI submission list can be found by pressing the RTI button in Modify employee details. This is similar to the company submission list but only lists the submissions relevant to that employee. You cannot modify the status of a submission or do a status check from here.

Transferring employees from another payroll

If you transfer employees to Flexipay from another payroll you will need to inform HMRC if the payroll ID changes. As Flexipay uses a numeric payroll ID it may not be possible to use the number from the old payroll. In this case enter the payroll number from the old payroll into the Previous payroll ID field and set the Pay ref. changed field to Y. It is not necessary to do this for new starters.

If you start using Flexipay mid tax year then you must enter values into the year-to-date totals:

Taxed benefits t/d    Total value of taxed benefits to date.

Tax free pension t/d    Total value of pension subject to tax relief deducted to date.

Taxed pension t/d    Total value of pension not subject to tax relief deducted to date.

Employee pension t/d    Total value of employee pension deducted to date.

Company pension t/d    Total value of company pension deducted to date.

They will be required for the FPS submission each pay period.

RTI Preparation

Introduction

In order to prepare for RTI submissions, it is important that you ensure your Flexipay data has the required RTI information.  This section provides a list of recommended steps to assist you with this.  

RTI Check Report

Under the Company menu you can run the RTI Check Report which will highlight any errors or warnings relating to fields which will be submitted via RTI.  All errors MUST be corrected prior to performing an RTI submission for the selected company and any warnings should be reviewed.

For further information about the new RTI fields, please refer to section 3: RTI Flexipay field notes.

Data Accuracy

RTI means that instead of sending information once a year to HMRC, you will send it every time you pay your employees. Information including PAYE details, NIC and student loans will be submitted electronically. Therefore, you need to make sure your Flexipay data is accurate prior to performing RTI submissions.

Under RTI, the information you submit to HMRC every time you pay your employees is matched against records HMRC stores on its National Insurance and PAYE Service (NPS).  The information is matched against HMRC records stored on the National Insurance and PAYE Service (NPS).

If there’s a mismatch between your information and HMRC’s records, duplicate or inaccurate records may be created, resulting in incorrect tax calculations or HMRC compliance checks.

The following table highlights the Dos and Don’ts of Employee Information:

Dos	Don’ts
Enter the Account Reference
Enter the full Company Name and Address
Enter the correct Tax District and Reference Number
Enter the correct date of birth and ensure it’s in the format DD/MM/YYYY	Enter a default date of birth such as 01/01/1901 or make one up
Enter employees’ full forenames and surnames	Use ‘known as’ names, for example if an employee is known as Bob, you are still required to use his name in full – i.e. Robert
Enter a double barrelled forename or surname in full	Enter an initial in either the Forename or Surname boxes
Only enter an employee’s correct National Insurance number	Make up an employee’s National Insurance number

To make sure you have the correct details for your employees, wherever possible, check the information you need against an official document such as: 

3. HMRC and/or Department for Work and Pensions documentation 
   
4. Passport documentation 
   
5. Birth certificate 
   

If the employee cannot locate their National Insurance number, they can download Form CA5403 from the HMRC website, or they can phone the Registration Helpline on 0845 915 7006. 

If the employee has never been issued with a National Insurance number, they should phone Jobcentre Plus on 0845 600 0643. For more information about getting your employees’ information correct in preparation for RTI, please visit

www.hmrc.gov.uk/rti/dip/get-payroll-right.htm   

Check Pensions & Benefit In Kind Deductions

In order to ensure that all pension and Benefit in kind deductions are setup correctly, you can run the Check pensions and Check benefits utilities from System > File Utilities. 

BACS Export Changes for RTI

Due to the RTI submissions, payments made via a BACS Export will require a special hash number.  The Flexipay upgrade includes this change within the export format APACS 18 standard BACS file.  If you use BACS and have not already received confirmation from your BACS provider that they are RTI compliant then it is recommended that you provide a sample file to your BACS provider using the download link below:

http://www.mitrefinch-support.com/downloads/temp/RTI%20sample.zip/downloads/temp/RTI sample.zip

There are two report formats. The difference depends on whether you have selected ‘Include headers’ and ‘Include Contra’ in Flexipay. Select System > Maintain Parameters > Maintain BACS Parameters > Export Format tab.  You can ignore all the records other than the ones highlighted below (from the sample FULL report).  The fields marked in red are the new fields to be added for RTI:

VOL1000079                                                                     1

HDR1A123456S  112345600007900010001       12327 12357 000000                    

HDR2F0010000100                                                                 

UHL1 12206999999    000000001 DAILY  001                                        

1090705454543509920328947834682/3NJ00000170728MITREFINCH LTD.   EMP 01000001      J J JACKSON       

1090701423423409920328947834682/MB.00000177528MITREFINCH LTD.   EMP 01000003      L BROWN           

2032894123875609920328947834682/WT300000213528MITREFINCH LTD.   EMP 01000004      I SHARLAND        

2032894783468201720328947834682    00000561784TOTAL WAGES       CONTRA            MITREFINCH LTD.   

EOF1A123456S  112345600007900010001       12327 12357 000000                    

EOF2F0010000100                                                                 

UTL10000000561784000000056178400000010000003                  

                 

The PDF file, included in the RTI sample ZIP shows the sample record contents, including the new ‘Random Value’ field that will be included for RTI. It is this new field that your BACS supplier needs to allow for.  Your provider should review the sample files in conjunction with this PDF file in order to identify where in the record the “new” field will be, and should use this to re-write their translators accordingly.  It should be noted that all other fields in the BACS export file will remain the same as in your current files. 

Further information about the RTI changes including the BACS export change can be found on the HMRC website http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rti/employerfaqs.htm

RTI Flexipay field notes 

Field	Applies to	Notes
Date of birth	ALL employees	This information will be compulsory for all employees when performing an RTI submission.  The pay check report will initially raise a warning if blank but will become an error when you enable RTI (or from April 2013).
Gender	ALL employees	This information will be compulsory for all employees when performing an RTI submission.  The pay check report will initially raise a warning if blank but will become an error when you enable RTI (or from April 2013).
Two lines of address	New Starters or no NI number	This information will be compulsory for New Starters or if the NI number is not known.
SCON	Employees using contracted out NI letters	The Scheme contracted out number was required on the P14 submissions for employees on NI letters F, G and S, until these were discontinued for the 2012/13 tax year.  From April 2013 the SCON will be required for employees on any contracted out NI letter, i.e. letters D, E & L.
Weekly hours	ALL employees	Enter the appropriate: Up to 15.99, 16-29.99 hrs, 30 hrs or more, Other.  All employees are defaulted to ‘30 hours or more’.  Therefore this field needs to be amended if they are contracted less than 30 hours.
Director’s appointment date	New Directors	Flexipay already prompts for this within the Change NI letter option (it was used to set the number of weeks as director field for newly appointed directors).  The date will be stored in a new field for use by RTI.
Partners name	Employees who are still receiving ASPP when you join RTI, or whose ASPP starts after this point	Enter your employee’s partner’s name from the form your employee gives you to apply for additional statutory paternity pay (ASPP). Don’t use nicknames or familiar names (for example, don’t enter Dave instead of David or Maggie instead of Margaret).  You can find guidance on ASPP at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/employees/statutory-pay/aspp-overview.htm

Field	Applies to	Notes
Partners NINO	Employees who are still receiving ASPP when you join RTI, or whose ASPP starts after this point, and only if known	Enter your employee’s partner’s National Insurance number, if known, from the form your employee gives you, to apply for ASPP.
Foreign country	Employees whose address is abroad	Make an entry here if your employee’s address is outside the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man.
Irregular payment  indicator (Y/N)	Employees who are not paid every pay period	Set to ‘Y’ if your employee is paid on an irregular basis or less frequently than monthly, for example; casual or seasonal employees whose employment contract continues individuals paid less frequently than monthly - such as on a quarterly, half yearly or annual basis employees on maternity leave, long term sick leave or leave of absence and will not be paid for a period of three months or more – but you still regard them as employees. HMRC will check if employees have not been paid for a specific period of time and will treat them as having left that employment. Setting this field to ‘Y’ will prevent this for employees who do not get paid regularly.
Pay frequency	Employees whose payments are less frequent than monthly	This defaults to ‘As pay group’.  It only needs to be changed for employees that are paid: Quarterly (M3) 6 monthly (Bi-annually) (M6) Annually (MA) One-off (IO)* Irregular (IR) *A 'one-off' is where someone is employed to do a one-off piece of work, say, for one week or month, and only receives one payment.  This differs from the other pay frequencies where an employee remains in your employment although paid on an irregular, quarterly or annual basis.

Field	Applies to	Notes
Passport number	Employees if used to check eligibility to work in UK	Enter your employee’s passport number, including UK or non UK passports.  You enter the passport number where you have collected it as part of your checks that the employee is entitled to work in the UK. http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?r.l1=1073858787 You do not have to do this for employees engaged before you join RTI.
Aggregated Earnings  (Y/N)	Employees where earnings from more than one job have been added together to calculate National Insurance	Set this to ‘Y’ if earnings from more than one job have been added together to calculate National Insurance contributions (NICs). You must indicate on each employment where you have aggregated earnings from all jobs to assess NICs, where your employee has: a) more than one job with you; b) two or more jobs with different employers who, in respect of those jobs, carry on business in association with each other. This will only be relevant to Flexipay if you calculate NI manually across multiple employments and enter the result each period using the Modify tax and NI option.
Not an individual  (Y/N)	Employee records that represent a non-individual	Set to ‘Y’ for payments to a third party or non individual — for example payments to a body such as a Personal Representative, Trustee or Body Corporate.
Unpaid absence (Y/N)	Pay periods where employee’s pay is reduced by unpaid absence	Set to ‘Y’ if your employee’s pay in this pay period has been reduced due to being on an unpaid absence.
In trade dispute (Y/N)	Pay periods where employee’s pay is reduced due to being on strike	Indicate ‘Yes’ if your employee’s pay in this pay period has been reduced due to being on strike. Note: This is not a new field in Flexipay, but you should be aware that it will be included in the RTI submissions from April 2013 onwards.

Field	Applies to	Notes
Accounts office  reference	Company records	This is an existing Flexipay company field which is currently referred to as the Collection reference, and may already be populated for many company records.  This has been an optional field but will be mandatory for all RTI submissions. It’s caption will change to Accounts office reference to match the current HMRC wording. Your Employer’s Accounts Office Reference is on the P30B letter ‘Paying PAYE electronically’, or if you use payslips, on the front of your P30BC Employer Payment Booklet. The reference is in the format 123PA00045678.
Corporation tax  reference	Company  - e.g. if it is a limited company	Enter your Corporation Tax reference, if applicable. (For example if you are a limited company.)
Self assessment UTR	Company e.g. if it is a sole proprietor or partnership	Enter your Self Assessment Unique Tax Reference, if applicable. (For example if you are a sole proprietor or partnership.)

TMS/HR Manager package links to Flexipay changes

For customers who have TMS/HR Manager Package Links enabled to Flexipay, changes have been made within the latest TMS/HR Manager upgrade to initialize new Flexipay fields when a new employee is added to TMS/HR Manager.  Please note that upgrading will not add any additional Flexipay fields to TMS/HR Manager.

An upgrade to TMS/HR Manager is optional and is not a requirement. If you were to remain on the same version then it would not affect the function of Flexipay but it will prompt you to set the new Flexipay fields if you modify that employee.  A list of the default values of the new initialized Flexipay fields are shown below:

14. 'Pay ref. changed'                             'N' (No)
    
15. 'Irregular payment'                             'N' (No)
    
16. 'Pay frequency'                                  'AG' (As Pay Group)
    
17. 'Weekly hours worked'                     'C' (30 hours or more)
    
18. 'Aggregated earnings'                        'N' (No)
    
19. 'First FPS sent'                                   'N' (No)
    
20. 'Final FPS sent'                                  'N' (No)
    
21. 'Pay advanced'                                      'N' (No)
    
22. 'Not an individual'                                'N' (No)
    
23. 'Has unpaid absence'                          'N' (No)
    
24. 'Partner details sent'                          'N' (No)
    
25. 'Passport number sent'                     'N' (No)
    
26. 'Dir. week sent'                                     'N' (No)
    
27. 'Exclude from HMRC'                          'N' (No)
    

If you need to amend a default value for an employee after they are initialized then it can only be changed within Flexipay.

Should you require the new Flexipay fields to initialize automatically when adding a new employee then you can request the latest TMS/HR Manager version by emailing support@mitrefinch.co.uk and stating your current version of TMS/HR Manager (by clicking on the menu Help>About).

Definition of the different RTI Submission types to HMRC

Submission Type	What is it?	What type of information is submitted?	When do I submit it?	What should I do to prepare?
Employer Alignment Submission (EAS)	EAS is a one-off submission that will be used by HMRC to match and align company and employee records against the data it holds. Only businesses that employ more than 250 employees must submit an EAS but small and medium sized employers can volunteer to submit EAS.	Company PAYE Reference Accounts Office Reference Tax Office number Employee name and address Employee NI number & tax code Employee payroll ID Employment start and end dates	EAS will be your first submission and can be performed from the 6th April 2013.  To perform this submission within Flexipay click on the menu Company > RTI – Employer alignment submission.	Ensure that you’ve checked the accuracy of your employee data before submitting for every employee (including those who have left or haven’t been paid yet) from the start of the tax year.  Within Flexipay run Company >  RTI Check Report (under the menu Company) Clear all errors and review any of the warnings.
Full Payment Submission (FPS)	FPS is the main and most common submission type. It covers the employee payments and deductions made each time an employer pays an employee. HMRC will use this submission to calculate how much PAYE and NIC liability is due from your business each tax month.	Starter and leaver information Employee initial, forename and surname Employee NI number, tax code and gender Employee address Employee payment information PAYE and National Insurance contributions	You must make a FPS every time you make a payment to an employee. It must be made on or before the date the employee is paid. If you process a mixture of weekly and monthly payrolls for your business, you must submit an FPS for each one. Click on the Flexipay menu Payroll Cycle > RTI – Full payment submission.	If you’re a large employer employing more than 250 employees, you must make sure you have already submitted an Employer Alignment Submission. If you’re a small employer and this is your first FPS submission, you must ensure that you’ve checked the accuracy of all your employee data before submitting.
Employer Payment  Summary (EPS)	HMRC will know via your regular FPS submissions how much your PAYE and NIC liability is. The EPS is only submitted where you need to advise HMRC of any alteration to this liability (such as when reclaiming statutory payments) or where you’re advising of a nil payment.	Whether no payment is due Statutory Payments Recovered NIC Compensation on Statutory Payments Advance funding obtained from HMRC for tax refunds and statutory payments CIS Deductions Suffered NIC Holiday	You should make this submission when or before the relevant monthly or quarterly liability payment is made to HMRC. Within Flexipay click on the menu Month End > RTI – Employer payment summary.	Firstly, you must identify whether you need to make this submission i.e. whether you need to inform HMRC of any adjustments to your monthly or quarterly PAYE and NIC liability. If you DO need to make the submission, be sure to make it on or before the date the monthly or quarterly liability payment is due.

Flexipay RTI Submission Procedures:

Perform an Employer Alignment Submission (EAS)

From the 6th April, you can perform an Employer Alignment Submission (EAS) to HMRC via the menu Company > RTI – Employer alignment submission.

 

HMRC have advised that following a successful EAS you should allow 24 hours before performing your first Full Payment Submission (FPS).   If your first pay date is shortly after the 6th April, HMRC will not mind if your first FPS has to be after the date of payment.

Please note it is not possible to perform an amendment to an existing EAS once it is sent by Flexipay.  You will instead need to contact HMRC directly for further advice.

Flexipay RTI Workflow

Flexipay RTI – Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is RTI? 
   

Answer: Real Time Information, or RTI, is a new system that HMRC is introducing to improve the operation of PAYE. PAYE information will be collected more regularly and more efficiently as employers submit their regular payroll submissions, rather than with their end-of-year tax return.

2. I have upgraded to Flexipay version 2.32 and when I run either the Month End or Year End Check Report in Tax Year 2012 a message now appears which states ‘0 Companies require a EPS’  Why does this appear?
   

Answer: This check will be used once RTI is enabled in Tax Year 2013. Therefore this message can be ignored (by clicking on OK) as you are not using RTI in Tax Year 2012.  

3. Do I need to enter new submission login details within Flexipay when I start submitting RTI?
   

Answer: No, your original submission login details will remain the same.

4. When performing an RTI submission, it immediately fails.  What should I do?
   

Answer: Ensure that you can connect to the Internet and ensure you are using Internet Explorer as the browser.

5. When performing an RTI submission where it repeatedly tries to submit (i.e. polls) and eventually ‘Times Out’.  What should I do?
   

Answer:  The HMRC server is unfortunately busy.  Therefore you will need to wait for at least 1 hour, then click on the menu Company > Maintain Details.  Click on the ‘RTI Subms’ button, then locate the failed submission row and click on the button in the Status Check column. When prompted, enter your password and Flexipay will attempt to retrieve the status.  Should this fail again then retry again later as the HMRC server is still busy. 

6. What is the earliest date I can perform an Employer Alignment Submission?
   

Answer: 6th April 2013.  HMRC will not accept any RTI submissions until this date.

7. I have successfully performed an Employer Alignment Submission, but I am now unable to successfully send my first Full Payment Submission.  What do I need to do?
   

Answer: HMRC have advised that following a successful EAS you should allow 24 hours before performing your first Full Payment Submission (FPS).   If your first pay date is shortly after the 6th April, HMRC will not mind if your first FPS has to be after the date of payment.

8. I have performed an Employer Alignment Submission, but have since realised that the company has linked companies.  Is it possible to perform an EAS amendment within Flexipay?
   

Answer: Unfortunately it is not possible to perform an amendment to an existing EAS once it is sent by Flexipay.  You will instead need to contact HMRC directly for further advice.

9. Will Flexipay allow us submit an FPS as our first RTI submission, without having to submit an EAS first?
   

Answer: Yes, if less than 250 employees and all employees are in one pay group.

10. Once the FPS has been submitted to the HMRC, will Flexipay allow us to submit an adjusted FPS for that period?
    

Answer: Yes.

11. How does the RTI BACS transfer work with regards to the RTI Hash number ‘/’ when creating the BACS file and submitting the RTI details to the HMRC automatically?
    

Answer:  Our new version will create an APACS 18 standard BACS file with the new RTI field in it. This will work with the new RTI submissions to HMRC. 

Our users will create a BACS file with the new field in it. This BACS file can be sent to their BACS software to pay their employees. The RTI submission will then sent a hash based on the BACS file to HMRC.

12. Does the hash code send on a BACS submission, and will it send with the RTI details automatically or do they have to do the RTI submission and the BACS submission separately?
    

Answer: The BACS and RTI submission are done separately as two automatic processes. The random value is sent with the BACS and the hash is saved. When the RTI is done the saved value is sent with the RTI.  The random value and the hash are different. The random value is always a / followed by 3 characters. This goes in the BACS file. When it is received by BACS it will be passed on to HMRC with other payment information.  A hash (a long character string) is then made from the random value, the payment value and the two sort codes in the payment. This is sent to HMRC in the RTI submission that is sent from Flexipay to HMRC after the BACS has been done.

13. Where does the hash number come from, is it Flexipay?
    

Answer:  Flexipay generates a three character random string for each employee. This needs to go with the BACS payment and is in the standard BACS export file from Flexipay.

14. The 'three character random string' - is this simply three random digits per each employee? 
    

Answer: Yes, with a limited range of characters.

15. Is there a sample file available that we can pass on to our BACS software provider which includes all the RTI payment details?
    

Answer: Yes, you can download the sample file in section 2.5 of this document. This includes a PDF so you can see what is in the BACS file.

16. Regarding the test file sent to him, the hash code-on the RTI test file has the hash number, under the random value, is that the only thing that needs to go on the submission for BACS?
    

Answer: The random value and the hash are different. The random value is always a / followed by 3 characters.

17. Does the RTI file go to the revenue with the BACS submission?
    

Answer: This goes in the BACS file. When it is received by BACS it will be passed on to HMRC with other payment information.  

18. Is the hash number 3 characters or 4 characters, as on random value you have a / 'then three characters?
    

Answer: A hash (a long character string) is then made from the random value, the payment value and the two sort codes in the payment.

19. What happens to the hash number on the BACS submission, where does it go?
    

Answer: This is sent to HMRC in the RTI submission that is sent from Flexipay to HMRC after the BACS has been done.

20. Is there any way which we can print the 'export file' or a similar report which we would be able to pass onto the client - showing these three digits per employee? 
    

Answer: Yes, this feature is included within Flexipay v2.32.

21. Regarding the hours worked, we can see that everyone will automatically set to 'Over 30 hours' and we will need to amend if this is not the case. In which circumstance would we use the selection 'Other'?
    

Answer: The definition for ‘Other’ is included within the provided RTI notes.  Should require a more detailed explanation then we recommend that you contact HMRC directly or check their website.

22. If an employee has worked less hours in the month than they usually would, how would this show on the FPS to the HMRC?
    

Answer: It should show the normal value.

23. Where would we find the directorship start date (the date someone was made a director)?
    

Answer: There is a new field for this “Director’s appointment date’. This only needs a value for new directors.

24. Does HMRC need to know the directors appointment dates of the ones who became appointed before RTI comes in? i.e. All directors - not just new appointments.
    

Answer: No

25. Within the Payroll Summary, would the columns 'Other deductions' and 'Expenses' be submitted to HMRC on the FPS. If so, would the amount be itemised, or would the HMRC only see total figures?
    

Answer: The FPS only shows totals for these.

26. If the previous month’s pay cycle were changed manually, would the year to date totals be picked up on the next RTI submission and sent to HMRC on the next FPS?
    

Answer: Yes.

27. Whilst the employee’s pension details are sent to HMRC under RTI, are the employer’s pension/salary sacrifice amounts also get sent to HMRC under RTI? 
    

Answer: No.

28. The HMRC website shows many items which need to be reported. What is sent from the Flexipay system to HMRC, and how they will see the information and amounts?  How are items such as pensions, loans, expenses, healthcare and other deductions shown? Also, HMRC are requesting year to-date figures on the RTI system, is this something new on Flexipay? i.e. 'Net pay to date'.
    

Answer: Please refer to the RTI document provided with the Flexipay v2.32 Release and the HMRC website: 

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/payerti/reporting/what-to-report.htm