Academies Finance

STARACADEMY – User Guide

Section 20 – Processing Payroll

Introduction

This document covers the processing of the Payroll download on STAR for those Academies that have purchased the NCC Payroll facility.

Getting Started

You will need to set up a ‘Nominal Code’to be used as a ‘Payroll Suspense’ account code (i.e. the Salary Holding Account). Please refer to ‘Nominal Codes’ in ‘Section 2 – Getting Started’ of the User Guide for details of how to add a new ‘Nominal Code’.

Once posted, the payroll import is effectively entered as a journal in the system. Payroll costs are charged to the relevant ‘Nominal Code’ as per the payroll spreadsheet for each individual member of staff and the contra entry total is entered against the Payroll Suspense code. The actual payments are then entered against the Payroll Suspense code. The suspense code should remain at zero once the payroll spreadsheet and payments have been posted for the month, unless there are any on-going queries with payroll in which case please seek advice from Finance Support.

The following screen will be displayed:

When the above fields have been completed select ‘Import Payroll Spreadsheet’.

Browse your computer to find the spreadsheetfile and double-click the entry:

The following message will be displayed – select ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ as appropriate:

This will present a summary of the details held on the payroll spreadsheet including the ‘Total Charge’ in the ‘Current Balance’ and ‘C/fwd Balance’ fields as well as the details of the payments made to the individual members of staff:

If the ‘B/fwd Balance’ is not zero then you should contact Finance Supportfor further advice.

Entering Details

Before you can ‘Post Payroll’ you will need to enter the ‘BACS Invoice Payment Details’ and check the ‘Salary Payment Details’.

1.BACS Invoice Payment Details

You should receive an Invoice from Payroll detailing the BACS payments – for example:

Bacs Run – Net Pay to Employees / £174,594.45
Bacs Run GMB / £107.94
Bacs Run HMRC / £63,705.56
Bacs Run – LGPS / £12,461.09
Bacs Run – TPS / £37,783.35
Bacs Run – Unison / £76.25
SMP Recovered – Gross to Net Report / £508.52
Net Debt Recovery (NCC Invoice – x123456 / £15.00
Total / £289,252.16
Difference / £0.00

You will need to enter these details on the Payroll screen as follows:

For each payment enter a line in your ‘BACS Invoice Payment Details’:

  • Enter ‘Supplier’ and ‘Invoice Date’ details as appropriate
  • Override the Accounting Period as necessary (‘Override Period/Yr’)
  • The ‘Nominal’ code will have been defaulted to the ‘Payroll Code’ you entered earlier. In normal circumstances this should not be changed but should your ‘Current Balance’ not reduce to zero after all these entries have been made then contact Finance Support for further advice. At this point you may be asked to enter a different ‘Nominal’code for one of your entries.
  • Enter a unique ‘Invoice Number’ for each entry (even if more than one payment will be made to the same ‘Supplier’ – this will assist should there be any queries later as to the breakdown of any particular payment
  • Enter the ‘Details’ and ‘Net’ amount for each payment.

As you enter each line the ‘Current Balance’ and ‘C/fwd Balance’ figures will reduce to reflect the entries you have already made. Once you have completed all entries these fields shouldbe zero:

2. Salary Payment Details

The ‘Nominal’ codes will have been set by Payroll but can be changed on screen as necessary – these will determine where the charge will be coded to for each member of staff on the spreadsheet.

You can also add or change a ‘Department’ code on screen should you wish to allocate a payment to an individual Department for a particular staff member (or members) within STAR.

These changes will only apply to this month’s payroll import and will not make permanent changes within the individual’s STAR ‘Staff’ record. If you want payroll costs for a member of staff to post automatically to a department now and in the future, add a ‘Department’ code to their‘Staff’record, ‘Section 5 – Staff Details’ of the User Guide details how to do this. You can access the ‘Staff’ screen directly from the ‘Payroll’ screen by selecting ‘Staff Codes’ at the top of the screen, when you have finished making your staff change(s) in the ‘Staff’screen then close the ‘Staff’ screen and you will be returned automatically to the‘Payroll’ screen.

In order to make checking the staff details easier you can sort on the‘Staff Code’, ‘Staff Name’ or ‘Nominal’ values by clicking on the small ‘circle’ alongside each column heading.

To check that a ‘Staff Name’ has been entered for all staff payments - sort on ‘Staff Name’:

Any staff entries without a name will be shown at the top of the screen. In this case you can only add ‘Staff Name’details by adding an entry for each ‘Staff Code’ without a name on the ‘Staff’ records screen – again you can access this viathe ‘Staff Codes’button at the top of the screen.

You can leave the ‘Payroll’ screen at any time and return and the details you have already entered will have been saved.

If you select ‘Import Payroll Spreadsheet’ before you have posted the download you will see the following message:

Select ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ as appropriate.

Once all necessary entries have been made, proceed to the next section.

Posting Payroll

Once you have completed all the entries as detailed above then select ‘Post Payroll’.

Please note: - you can post the payroll even if the ‘Payroll Suspense Code’ balance (i.e. as shown in the ‘Current Balance’ and ‘C/fwd Balance’fields) is not zero but it is advised that you clear the suspense account as soon as possible afterwards. For any advice on clearing the payroll suspense account please contact Finance Support. The following warning message will be displayed if you select ‘Post Payroll’ and your ‘Payroll Suspense Code’balance is not zero:

Select ‘No’ to correct and complete your entries and then select ‘Post Payroll’ again - or ‘Yes’ to continue anyway, if the ‘Payroll Suspense Code’ balance is zero you will see the following message:

Select ‘Yes’ if you are ready to continue and the ‘Download’ report will be printed followed by this message:

Check the report. Should there be any ‘Staff Codes’ posted without names allocated you will see this type of entry included:

At the end of the report you will see the breakdown of the costs that you have entered reflected in the report, these should tie up with the breakdown supplied in the Excel download:

You will now see the Invoices waiting payment in both the ‘Reconcile Transactions’ and ‘Cheque Run’ screens:

Payment processing can now proceed as normal.

Section 20 - Processing Payroll

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