To Complete a Payroll Period

This is a suggested sequence of tasks to update your payroll for each pay period. If you are running the Payroll for the first time in the tax year, or if changes to statutory rates have been announced, you must check that the statutory rates are correct, for example tax rates. These rates are displayed on the PAYE/NI/Stat. Payments form.

Important: A number of actions must normally be completed before the update is run, the list depends on the features in use and the other applications in Opera that Payroll is linked to. The Update form in Opera 3 displays a list of these actions and shows you whether they have been run or not. You should complete any actions that have not been ticked before running the update.

If you use payroll groups, you must update one group at a time.

  1. If Payroll is integrated with the Costing application, use the Payroll Transfer command in Costing to transfer timesheet information for the current pay period.

  2. On the Pay and Deductions form on the Processing form, enter any necessary changes to employee's payment and deduction information for the period.

  3. Run the Calculation command. You should not make any changes to employee's records after running the calculation. The application produces a report that highlights 'exceptions', for example leavers in the period and tax overrides. The report also lists anomalies, for example, if a payment that is designed to reduce a balance cannot be made because the balance is insufficient.

  1. From the Payment Reports menu:

  1. Print payslips

  2. Print cheques

  3. Create BACS payments.

  1. Then print any necessary reports from the Summary Reports and Periodical Reports menus.

  2. Carry out the Nominal Analysis and Cashbook Transfer command on the Utilities menu if Payroll is linked to the Nominal Ledger and Cashbook.

  3. Backup your company data using the Backup command on the Utilities menu in the System application. For help on how to backup your data, refer to the Backup Help topic.

  4. Create and submit the Full Payment Submission for the period.

  5. Run the Update command on the Utilities menu to complete the current pay period ready to start the next pay period.

    On the Pension Schemes form, select the schemes only if you need to clear the contributions currently due to the pension provider. This value is shown for each employee on the pensions reports in Opera.  Show ...

Important - NEST pensions: You must clear contributions currently due if you have created the contribution file for NEST in this pay period using the Payroll - Pensions Reports - Contribution File command. Contributions held on to will not be cleared.

If you have not created the contribution file for the pension scheme do not select the pension scheme from the list.