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New Live Chat Support

We’re making it even easier for you to get the support that you need with the introduction of our live chat functionality. When logging into the SimplePay system, a new icon now appears in the bottom corner that allows you to initiate a live chat with our friendly support team.

This means that you can start a chat from any area in the system while capturing payroll and get the answers that you need. To send our support team a message, simply click on the chat icon and then click New conversation.

Then type your message and send. Please note that while we strive to minimise our response times, these may vary during peak times.

If the chat indicates that the team will only be back tomorrow, please do not hesitate to send us a message and we will respond as soon as we return in the morning. Alternatively, our comprehensive help site is also always available for more information.

If you have a longer query, you are of course still welcome to send this to our support team via email at [email protected]

We look forward to helping you!

Team SimplePay

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PAYE Modernisation Release 3: Submissions to Revenue

We have previously released the following functionality required to help you prepare for PAYE Modernisation:

Today we are happy to announce the release of the submissions functionality that will allow you to submit payroll information to Revenue in 2019.

To assist you with this Phase 3 release, we have prepared the following helpful guide:

PAYE Modernisation Guide – Release 3

We thank you for your patience and support in this transition period. If you experience any technical difficulties with any of the new functionality or if you need any assistance in using it, please contact our support team who will be happy to assist.

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PAYE Modernisation Release 2: Bulk RPN Retrieval

Last week, we announced the release of Phase 1 of our major PAYE Modernisation changes – uploading of ROS Authorisation Certificates, which you can read about here.

As promised, we’re pleased to inform you that today we’ve released Phase 2: bulk retrieval of employee RPNs. As with the ROS Certificates, this is an important step in ensuring you’re ready to process payroll in 2019. This short and handy guide will take you through the steps of bulk RPN retrieval.

PAYE Modernisation Guide – Release 2

As part of this release,  SimplePay will automatically retrieve RPNs once for the 2019 tax year for all employees that have a PPSN but no RPN. This functionality will soon be expanded to provide daily automated updates.

As always, if you have any queries or concerns around this new functionality and process, please feel free to contact our friendly support team who will gladly assist.

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PAYE Modernisation Release 1: Authorisation Certificates

Over the past few months, we have been discussing PAYE Modernisation on our blog. The new functionality for PAYE Modernisation will be released in stages over the next 2 weeks. We are happy to announce the first release, which allows you to upload ROS Digital Certificates to SimplePay.

If you are unsure about obtaining these Digital Certificates, please refer to this guide provided by Revenue.

This is a very important process for PAYE Modernisation and all employers or agents (such as payroll bureaus or accounting firms) will need to do this before processing payslips in 2019. Without uploading these certificates, requesting RPNs from ROS and submitting payroll information to ROS is not possible.

To help you through this process, we have compiled a useful guide which can be downloaded here:

PAYE Modernisation Guide – Release 1

Please note that these guides are in PDF format and you will therefore need to have a PDF reader on your computer to view them.

We’ll be in touch again shortly with instructions on how to retrieve RPNs, which contain information on the cut-off points and tax credits of employees.

If you have any difficulties with this new process, please do not hesitate to contact our support team who will be happy to assist.

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Revenue End of Year Notice

Revenue released an end of year notice which you should have received on Friday 23 November 2018. This end of year notice serves as a reminder of the PAYE Modernisation project and its consequences, as well as some additional information and reminders that Revenue wants you to be aware of. Here is a summary of the most important parts of the notice, most of which we have already discussed in previous blog posts:

  • No further P2Cs will be issued from 30 November 2018. These will be replaced by RPNs from 1 January 2019.
  • To ensure that you are ready for PAYE Modernisation, you must ensure that you:
    • have registered all of your employees with Revenue,
    • checked you have the correct Personal Public Service Number (PPSN) for all employees. Employers can use the PPS number checker in ROS to confirm the correct PPS number for employees or pensioners,
    • operate the Revenue deduction instructions for each employee (on the P2C up to end-2018 and on the RPN from January 2019),
    • have complete payroll data, which is accurate and up-to-date,
    • have all required information on employee pay, including notional pay, on a timely basis and in the correct format to payroll; and
    • have an active ROS digital certificate on the computer you use to run your payroll.
  • You should review your ROS digital certificates to ensure that they have not expired.
  • You should review your sub-users’ digital certificate permissions for appropriate permissions.
  • Forms P45, P46, P30, P35 and P60 will be abolished after the 2018 tax year.
  • Payment due dates to Revenue remain unchanged in 2019.
  • USC rates and thresholds will change with effect from 1 January  2019.
  • For the 2019 tax year, if an employee is expected to exceed the USC threshold but their RPN states that they are USC exempt, you should advise the employee to contact Revenue to have their RPN updated.
  • Rates for Emergency Tax and the legal basis for applying Emergency Tax will change effective 1 January 2019.
  • For the 2018 tax year, employers must ensure that the correct PPSNs as per the P2Cs are used for employees.
  • Revenue’s 1890 LoCall phone system has been replaced by standard telephone numbers.
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A Sneak Peek at PAYE Modernisation Changes

As you’re aware by now, it will be mandatory for businesses across Ireland to start complying with PAYE Modernisation from January 2019. Under these new processes, there will be no change to the way that PAYE is calculated, only the way that this information is reported to Revenue. Being a client of SimplePay means that you do not have to face these changes alone. After extensive research, consultations with experts and developing our plan of action, the SimplePay team continue to work hard to ensure that you will be compliant.

So what kind of changes can you expect on the system? While there may still be some tweaks and changes after our final testing phase, here is a sneak peek of some of the functionality that we have been working on:

  • As part of employer authentication, each employer will be given a ROS digital certificate and a password by Revenue. A new ROS Authentication page will be available on SimplePay where you can upload your certificate and view its validity.

Please note: This will work slightly differently for payroll and accounting firms that manage payroll on behalf of multiple companies, as a single agent certificate can be used for all companies. More information on this will be provided in the future.

  • To avoid being taxed on an emergency basis, clients previously needed to upload a P2C for an employee. With PAYE Modernisation, a P2C is replaced by an RPN. This is generated by Revenue and can be retrieved with the click of a button from the usual tax information screen on SimplePay.

  • The SimplePay system will regularly update the RPN information for employees automatically. If the tax information for an employee has been updated before the regular automated RPN update has occurred, you can request the system to fetch RPN information from Revenue from the same tax information screen.

  • The P30 will be replaced with regular online submissions for each pay period. This will still be done from the Filing section in SimplePay.

As you can see from this sneak peek, the new PAYE modernisation functions are being built with the same user-friendliness that you have come to expect from SimplePay. However, we understand that change can be overwhelming. To support you through these changes, we will be releasing a guide on how to use the new functions on the system before the changes go live. Our help site will also be updated for you to refer to should you need it.

We look forward to supporting you along this journey into a new era of modern, convenient and even simpler cloud-based payroll.

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Submit a List of Employees to Revenue for PAYE Modernisation

In preparation for PAYE Modernisation, employers need to submit a list of employees to Revenue through Revenue’s Online Service (ROS). This will ensure that Revenue’s records are aligned with yours so that you receive the most up to date employee information for processing payroll.

SimplePay now has an option to generate this report for Revenue with all the requested information. To do this, go to Reports > ROS Employee Export.

It is important that you ensure the accuracy of the report before submitting it to Revenue. If an employee is no longer working for you but they remain active on SimplePay, you will need to end their service on the system first before downloading the report. If any information has been incorrectly captured in Basic Info, you should correct this first.

Upon submission of the list of employees, Revenue will communicate any changes to their records based on the list you provided.

If you need any assistance or have any further queries, please contact us.

Team SimplePay

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Increased Security Features with 2-Factor Authentication

At SimplePay, protecting your data is a fundamental part of our business. That’s why we have the highest of security standards in place to ensure the privacy and protection of your information.

We want your time using SimplePay online to be enjoyable and worry free. One of the ways that users put themselves at risk of cybercrime is with their choice of passwords or by saving their passwords to the device they are using. When it comes to internet security, you can never be too careful. We are therefore launching an optional security feature, called 2-factor authentication. This feature requires users to enter a verification code as an additional step when logging into SimplePay or when changing their password.

With this feature, users can establish a device as a trusted device, so that they only have to do 2-factor authentication every 30 days. All other devices will require 2-factor authentication with each log in.

As this is an opt-in feature, you will need to request it from our support team, at no additional charge. To learn more about how it works, read our help page here.

Just another way that we are helping you to stay safe online.

Team SimplePay

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New Feature: More Leave Functionality

Been wanting more control over employee leave balances? We have heard your requests and are excited to announce the launch of a new feature which allows you to customize your leave settings even more.

Want to stop employees from logging leave if it will result in a negative leave balance? No problem!

Our new feature allows you to do just this. If a self-service leave request will result in the minimum balance not being maintained, you can opt to:

  • prevent the leave request from being logged (see image below), or
  • warn the employee of the outcome if they continue (see image below).

For more information on leave settings and setting this up, refer to our help page here.

We hope you love the new feature and, as always, we welcome any feedback that you may have.

Team SimplePay

Edit: Please note that there was an error on the previous version of this blog post where it stated that you could set a minimum leave balance for employees to maintain in preparation for the annual shutdown of your company. The feature is currently only available for setting a minimum leave balance of 0 or a negative number, not a positive minimum balance, which is likely to be developed shortly in the future. Our apologies for the error.