SBpayroll is closely related to SBledger the Small Business Ledger application, which is particularly useful in producing your VAT returns. You can easily configure SBpayroll to automatically add salary items to SBledger.
 

Contents

• Getting Started
• Main Application Form
• Password Protection
• Dealing with New Starters
• Zero Payment Amounts
• Dealing with SMP, SSP, Tax Credits and Student Loans and Other Deductions
• Tax Codes and month1/week1 basis
• Summaries and Reports
• Link To SBledger
• IR35
• Memo Pad
• Editing Employee Details
• NI Categories
• Static Data
• Export ToExcel
• Supporting Multiple Companies
• Information for accountants and auditors
• Links
• Menu structure and toolbar buttons
• Integration with Other Systems

Summary: This is a payroll system designed for the small business.

Getting Started

The  employee's name field is mandatory. The payroll ID is automatically allocated by the system.  The national insurance number field is mandatory, and is validated for correctness, however, if the field looks incorrect you are warned only, and you may continue. If you don't know the employees NI number, you can use a temporary one of the form TDMMDDYYX where TD are the literal values TD, MMDDYY is the employees date of birth and X is either M or F (the employees sex). The ECON and SCON fields are required only if you or your employees are contracted out of 'SERPS'. If you try and use a contracted-out NI category on the main form, you will be prevented if the required fields are not filled in. Again the fields are validated, but if the field looks incorrect you are warned only, and you may continue. This dialog is also available from the File/New menu option.

Main Application Form

This form provides all the information required to account for an employees salary tax and national insurance. It is based on the P11D working sheet, so will probably be quite familiar to you. The only columns that can be edited are the ones in white - each time you change a value, the form is automatically re-calculated to show you the correct position. If you don't have different values each month (and you probably don't) you can just enter the default values at the top right-hand corner and then use eithe the apply button (diagonal down-arrow) to enter the defaults into the next available row or use Edit/Fill Whole Grid With Defaults menu option to see the position for the whole year, then if the salary or tax-code changes latter in the year, just enter the new values directly into the grid. That's really all there is to it. The blue column shows the net amount to be paid to the employee each month (or week). If you have the annual gross salary value and don't want to be bothered working out the monthly or weekly value , enter the annual figure and use the quick calc divide button

To see how much needs to be paid to the Inland Revenue each month (or each quarter) for all employees in the system, use the Tools/All Employee Payment Summary menu option to display the Payment Summary.

To see what figures go into your P35 at the end of the year, take the Tools/Annual Payment Summary to display the Annual Summary

If you want to create a Payslip, take the Tools/Payslip menu option.

You can select the National Insurance Category (NI Table) from the drop-down. The default is A, other categories  are supported, and are mostly for contracted-out employees/employers.

If you un-check the monthly paid employee flag, you will get weekly periods - the application only supports monthly and weekly payment periods.

As an aid to remembering when you make a payment to an employee, you can mark a row as 'paid'. Using the right-click context menu. This has the effect of turning the white columns grey and preventing them from being edited, and making the Net Pay column bold. If you have marked a row as being from previous employment you cannot mark it as paid, and vice versa.

Adjusting the size of the grid: The grid is tied to the size of the form window. If you increase the size of this in the normal way. the grid will automatically expand to fill the available space. The columns, however will not change their width automatically, you can either change the columns you want manually or  take the View/Equalize Column Widths menu option, and the grid will re-size its columns equally to use all available space.

You can display this form in summary view; quarterly-summary is available for monthly-paid employees and monthly or quarterly-summary  is available for weekly-paid employees. These views just summarizes the data - to work out your monthly or quarterly payments to the revenue, use the All Employee Payment Summary.
 

Password Protection

Dealing with New Starters

It is fairly likely that you will have to deal with new starters on a week1/month1 basis, this will be certainly the case if they don't have a P45

The above menu option presents a dialog which gives you the opportunity to override the calculate tax value with the one from the P45. The tax paid value from the P45 should match the value automatically calculated by SBpayroll, however, if the employees tax was not calculated correctly or not paid correctly in the previous employment, the figures might not match. If the figures don’t match, you should use this facility to override the calculated tax due with the amount actually  paid taken from the P45. In this way, the employees future tax position is calculated correctly.(When the calculated tax amount has been overridden, it is displayed in an italic font.)

Zero Payment Amounts

To get round this problem, you can specify that zero amounts are always calculated. You do this on a per-employee basis from the  View menu. There is no disadvantage in having this mode set permanently, other than the cosmetic appearance.

NB: The ‘apply to next empty row’ button will not realize that you intend a row to be zero, so if you make a zero payment one week (or month) you will have to enter the next none-zero payment manually by typing in the required cell rather than by using the ‘apply to next empty row’ button. Once the zero amount is no-longer the last payment, the ‘apply to next empty row’ button will find the correct ‘next empty row’

Dealing with SMP, SSP, Tax Credits and Student Loads and Other Deductions

The application will deal with these items but in a relatively 'manual' way. If one of your employees requires any of these item, you can enable the specific column from the View/Extra Columns menu. The 5 possible columns are…

• SMP reclaimed
• SSP reclaimed
• Tax Credit Paid 
• Student Loan Collected
• General Payroll Deduction

SMP/SLD/SSP Calculators

SSP Calculator
To use the SSP calculator, select a row in the grid and then take the SSP calculator option from the Edit menu. The following dialog will be displayed.
 

First, you must to enter the number of days sick in the current period. If the previous period also contained sick days you will be asked if the two periods are continuous – this is important as the first 3 days of a sick period need not be paid for. Once the number of sick days is known, the pay for this period is calculated, the non-sick days are pro-rated using the default salary value, and the sick days are calculated at the SSP rate. You will then be presented with a dialog containing the calculations, and if you accept them, the payment amount will be entered in the grid and a text flag "[S]" will be added to the User Notes column (you will not be able to remove this flag). No amount is entered in the SSP Reclaimed column as it is very unlikely you will be able to reclaim any SSP from the government – if you can reclaim any, you will have to calculate it yourself and then enter it in the SSP Reclaimed column. Of course, this is only a guide and gives you the legal minimum you must pay – you are free to pay your worker more, indeed you may well pay sick days at the full normal pay rate. The salary value used to calculate pay for non-sick in a sick-period  is the  default value at the top of the form.

SLD Calculator
To use the SLD Calculator, you must first enter the normal salary in the grid, then, select a row and then take the SLD calculator option from the Edit menu. You will then be presented with a dialog showing the deduction to apply, if you accept this amount it will be entered into the Student Loan Deduction  column and a text flag "[L]" will be added to the User Notes column (you will not be able to remove this flag).
 

Extra Columns

SMP reclaimed and SSP reclaimed columns
The values in these columns are deducted from the Payment Summary and hence the amount paid to the Inland Revenue. There are rules for working out what percentage of SSP can be reclaimed and what amount of SMP can be reclaimed, check the Inland Revenue documentation for this information. They do not affect the amount the employee receives, they are so that  you can conveniently deduct the amounts from payments you make to the Inland Revenue. These columns appear on the Payment Summary but not the Annual Payment Summary. NOTE: Unless you have a lot of people off sick at one time you are very unlikely to be able to claim back any SSP payments. In 1994 Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) became an employer funded benefit. Previously SSP was funded by the DSS and merely administered by the employer Now the right of the employer to reclaim SSP is limited and it is normally the employer who bears the entire cost.

Student Loan Deducted
The amount entered here will be deducted from the  employee's net salary, i.e. the amount you actually pay the employee, and added to the Payment Summary and hence the amount paid to the Inland Revenue. This column appears on the Payment Summary and  the Annual Payment Summary

Tax Credit Paid
The amount entered here will be added to the employee's net salary, i.e. the amount you actually pay him.  On the main form, this amount is show deducted from the tax due in the current period, however it is not deducted from the employees cumulative tax account.

Tax credits are shown on the Payment Summary and are deducted  from the amount shown that is to be paid to the Inland Revenue.  (The Payment Summary has a check-box that allows you to temporarily display the amounts without the Tax Credits deducted – this is just for informational purposes only)

This column also appears on the Annual Payment Summary., however, on this summary Tax Credits are not deducted from the tax totals, as this summary is intended to show the employee’s tax position for the year - P60/P35. (There is also, however, a check-box that allows you to temporarily display the amounts with the Tax Credits deducted – this is just for informational purposes only)

Tax credits are also shown on the payslip, but are not deducted from any tax shown, they are merely added on to the net pay due

Other Deductions (Stakeholder Pensions)
If you want to make other deduction from Net Pay, e.g. stakeholder pension payments, select the View/Extra Column/Hide General Payment Deductions (which will probably be checked initially). Selecting this displays a deductions column. Any values you enter in here are deducted from the NetPay column. This column is  displayed on the Annual Summary View but not the Payment Summary View. Note: these deduction come of Net Pay directly. This column appears on the Annual Summary but not on the Payment Summary

NOTE: It is important to remember when filling in these columns that it is the actual amounts to deduct or add that should be entered not the amount paid to the  employee. The SMP/SLD calculators will, of course, do this correctly for you.

Current links for more information on SMP, SSP, Student Loans and tax credits can be found in the Links section.

Tax Codes and month1/week1 basis

Any code can be operated on a week1/month1 basis by putting an X in front of it. When the system sees a tax code starting with X, it does not work out tax due on a cumulative basis, rather it works out the tax due as if it had been deducted in week 1 or month 1. This facility is most likely to be needed when dealing with new starters.

Summaries And Reports

All Employee Payment Summary

Hopefully, this summary is self explanatory, it can be produced on a monthly or quarterly basis, choose the period to match whichever  you use when making payments to the Inland Revenue. The column is red shows you what you need to pay. The summary is produced for all employees that are open in the application not all employees in the system - this allows you to filter the summary if you want. If you do not have all employees open in the application, you will be prompted to do this if you want when the summary starts.

As an aid to remembering when you make a payment to the Inland Revenue, you can mark a row as 'paid'. Using the right-click context menu. This has the effect of turning the white columns grey.

The check box at the bottom (greyed-out in this example), allows you to specify that the Period-Tax column (and hence the Tax + Nics column) is displayed without Tax Credits already subtracted. If you are paying Tax-Credits, the period tax column and the Tax + Nics column show with the Tax Credit already included. The reason for this is that  this display is intended to show you what you actually need to pay the Inland Revenue each month (or quarter). However, for reporting purposes, you may want to see the figures before Tax Credits have been included. This check box allows you to do this. Note: the check-box is greyed-out if there are no Tax Credits, and always displays in its default state of checked when the dialog opens up.

Annual Payment Summary

This summary just shows each employees position for the year, and the totals for all employees. The information is needed on your P35 form, and on the employees P60. A screen image of the P35 or P60 is not shown, as this single dialog displays information for both. The P35 basically requires the totals for each employee and a grand total for all employees, the P60 requires a more detailed split of the NI contributions. Again, the summary is produced for all employees that are open in the application not all employees in the system - this allows you to filter the summary if you want. If you do not have all employees open in the application, you will be prompted to do this if you want when the summary starts.

Link to SBledger

If you have SBledger installed, you  can configure SBpayroll to send payment amounts to SBledger when a row is ‘marked as paid’

To do this, close all employees and take the File/Configure External Interfaces menu option. NB release 2.1 or higher of SBpayroll is required to take advantage of this functionality. This menu option displays  the Configure External Interfaces dialog box. If the Send to SBledger box is checked, whenever you mark a payment as paid SBledger is started (if it is not already running); an expenses page that matches today’s date is opened and a salary item containing the correct value is created.  You can decide what ‘bank’ and ‘expense’ columns in SBledger are actually filled in, but probably, the default values for these will be what you want. (If you do change these, the names you enter here need not be an exact match to a column name, they just need to appear somewhere in the column name ) 

IR35

IR35 is the new law whereby, if an individual provides personal services through a limited company or a partnership (i.e. an intermediary), the law will ignore the intermediary (i.e. the Limited Company or Partnership) and construct a hypothetical contract between the individual and the client (of the Limited Company) as if the intermediary (Limited Company Or Partnership) did not exists. IR35 then looks at the hypothetical contract and, if it looks like a contract of employment, the individual is taxed as if all payments to the intermediary is personal income and both employer’s and employee’s national insurance must be deducted from the payment. This is just a brief summary of the legislation, there is a link to the full legislation in the links section. There is a great deal of uncertainty relating to IR35 because the decision as to whether a contract is one of employment, is not at all clear cut, and if you are unsure, you must take professional advice. More information relating to IR35 can be found In the links section. If you fall within the IR35 legislation, you can use the IR35 calculator from the Tools/IR35 Calculator menu to calculate the ‘deemed payment you have received’ and the amount of additional tax and ni due. The additional tax and national insurance  you pay here can be offset against corporation tax – your accountant will advise you fully about this sort of thing. You should also take advice as to what expenses and capital expenditures are allowable.

Memo Pad

Editing Employee Details

This dialog allows you to edit the details of an existing employee. Fields are validated in the same as when creating a new employee. This dialog is available from the File/Edit Employee Details menu, but only when all Main Form windows are closed. An Employee cannot be deleted, but can be disabled. (NB when the system says it is opening all  employee's, e.g. when producing the Payment Summary, it only includes employees that are not disabled). Fields are validated and you are warned if they contain errors, however you are never prevented from saving an employee's record. The ECON and SCON fields are required for contracted out employees, they can be left blank (i.e. n/a) if you do not intend to use contracted out NI codes.

National Insurance Categories

• A normal (not c/o)
• B married women's reduced rate (not c/o)
• C c/o (salary related) employers contribution only
• c (not c/o) employers contribution only 
• D c/o (salary related) normal
• E c/o (salary related) women's reduced rate 
• F c/o (money purchase) normal
• G c/o (money purchase) women's reduced rate
• J defered employees c/o (salary related)
• L defered employees (not c/o)
• S defered employees c/o (money purchase) 
• X (class 2) Self Employed Flat Rate
• Z zero nics

 

There are 2 C categories, one for contracted out (C) and one for not-contracted out (c). Note: you should probably not use code C or c from 2003 
onward unless the employee is over retirement age,  rather use the new codes J or L; check with your account or  Tax office if you think you should  use code C or c

Note: the X category is not a true NI category, it actually  means class 2 Self Employed contributions paid at a flat weekly rate - this value can be entered  from the Static Data dialog, however, SBpayroll will be installed with the correct value already configured. If you are self employed it is likely you will also have to pay a percentage of you profits as NI as well at the end of the year. The Z category just applies zero nics - this doesn't imply it is ever valid to have zero nics!

Directors

Static Data

Editing Static Data

The "Edit SMP/SSP/SLD" buttons give rise to the following dialog boxes; these data is used in the calculation of SMP, SSP and SLD.
 
 

Static Data Versions

Static data versions are needed only if the government changes rates and/or thresholds mid year. If rates do change mid-year, Octatec will produce a freely downloadable static-data update, so you should never need to use this functionality. However, this dialog allows you to create a version of the static data - the version is edited using the same dialog as above, it is initialized  with the data from the previous  version. Versions of static data apply to the whole month when dealing with monthly paid employees, and from the specified day if dealing with weekly paid employees. I.E. if the worker is monthly paid, the day of the month you specify for the version is unimportant as the data will apply to the whole month. However if the worker is paid weekly, the version of the data will be activated on the week that starts with or contains the day you enter. Only one version can be specified for a given month.

When using the above dialog, the browse button (...) allows you to select existing versions of the static data and edit them or delete them.

NOTE: For 2002 the application shipped with the basic static data and a version of the static data that applies from 17th June, as the tax thresholds changed on that date.

If you are trying to create a version of static data for a future year, you should note that you will not be able to create a version of static data until you have created the basic static data for the year.

If records for any employee have been marked as ‘paid’, you will not be able to create a version of the data for that period or edit an existing version. (It is, however, possible to remove a ‘paid’ marker from a record.)

Supporting multiple companies

When you start the application a company called 'Default' is automatically created. At any one time, SBpayroll has a 'current working company', the 'Default' company automatically becomes the 'current working company' when the application is started for the first time. The current working company name is shown in the status-bar at the bottom of the screen and in the title bar of the various forms and dialogs within the application, so you always know which company you are dealing with. All employees you create are automatically  associated with the 'current  working company' and all reports (payment summaries) are automatically limited to employees of the 'current working company' (as with the standard edition, the payment summaries only include open/displaying employees, but when you open all employees, you only actually  open all employees for the 'current working company')

Changing the company name

You can change the name/registration number/address of the 'current working company'  using the File/ Edit Company Details/ Current Company details... Menu option. This option always works on the 'current working company'.

Adding new companies

You can add new companies from the  File/ Edit Company Details/ Create New Company... Menu option. You can only access this menu option when all employee records are closed. The menu presents a dialog box into which  you can enter the name/registration number/address of the new company. There is also a check-box which enables you to force the new company to become the 'current working company'. If you don't check this box, you can change to the new company latter as described bellow.

Selecting different companies to work with

You can change the  using the  'current working company' using the File/ Edit Company Details/ Set Working Company... Menu option. You can only access this menu option when all employee records are closed. If you only have one company, you will not be able to change to a different company, of course. You cannot open the records of employees in different companies at the same time, you can only open employee records from the 'current working company'. Once all employee forms are closed, you can use key F1 to access this functionality quickly.

Deleting a company

You can delete a company using the  File/ Edit Company Details/ Delete A Company Menu option. You cannot delete the current working company. If you delete a company you will not be able to access any of the employee records relating to that company. You can only access this menu option when all employee records are closed.

Static Data

The static data (i.e. Tax and NI rates and thresholds) is shared by all companies. You cannot set different rates for different companies - it is unlikely you will want to do this, as the same rates apply equally  to all companies.

Reinstating or Expunging deleted companies

Although you are warned about losing data when you delete a company, you can undelete a company relatively easily. Assuming the application is installed in
C:\Program Files\Octatec\SBpayroll\1.00, for each company there is a directory called data_XX where XX is a unique id allocated by the system to keep track of companies (this is shown in the SetWorkingCompany dialog and in the status bar at the bottom of the screen). When a company is deleted, the data directory is renamed -data_XX. So to undelete a company, the first thing you need to do is renamed –data_XX back to just data_XX. There is then just one more step,: all companies are listed in the file, data\companies.txt, deleted companies are there as well, but are preceded with a ‘#’ character, to complete the undelete, remove the ‘#’ from the beginning of the line. NB: BEFORE YOU EDIT data\companies.txt, MAKE A BACKUP COPY OF IT, IN CASE YOU DO ANYTHING WRONG.

We do not recommend you delete companies and then undelete them as a matter of course, but if you do delete a company and then realize you need the data after all, there is a solution.

It follows from this that if you delete a company to try and get more disk space this won’t free any disk space. You must actually expunge the companies data. To do this, manually delete the directory –data_XX using Windows Explorer and then clean out the recycle bin, but note: if you do this, the data really will be lost!

Information for accountants and auditors

To determine the rates used at the start of the year, close all open forms and take the File/Edit Static Data/Static Data menu option. This will show you the starting rates used. This is the applications 'static data'.

The rates thresholds can change throughout the year, such changes create versions of the static data which are used from a particular starting date. To see these versions (if there are any), take the File/Edit Static Data/Versioned Static Data menu option. You will then get a dialog that lets you list and view all the static data versions. Use the browse button (…) to view the versions of static data available.

How can I check the calculations performed?

For each employee, there is a ‘calculation’ log which with the same name as the employee and a .log extension. These files are located in <installation folder>\Octatec\SBpayroll\1.00\data. These logs record in detail the calculations made by the application. If you want to check the IR35 calculations, an IR35 calculation log is also produced, with the same name as the standard calculation log, but with "IR35" at the start of the name.

NB: if you are using the Multiple Enterprise Edition, the logs will be written to a folder named data_XX, where XX is the ID of the company. The ID is a small number allocated by the application to keep track of companies. You can see the ID of a company by looking at the dialog displayed by the File/ Edit Company Details/ Set Working Company... menu option.

Export To Excel

Links

http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/employers/ni_rates_table.htm
     NI rates and threshold information in GRID format

http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/rates/nic.htm
     NI rates and threshold information in a list format

http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/rates/it.htm
     Tax rates in list format

http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/employers/
     General guide for employers

http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/employers/starting_tax_year.htm
http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/employers/end_of_year.htm
    Starting and finishing the year

http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/employers/employee_sick.htm
     information on SSP

http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/employers/employee_pregnant.htm#4
     information on SMP

http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/rates/taxcredits.htm
     information about tax credits

http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/ebu/testdata.htm
     Inland revenue test data - this application has been extensively tested against this data.

http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/pdfs/ir175.htm
     The Inland Revenue's summary of IR35

http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/pdfs/ir2003.htm#1
     How to calculate the IR35 deemed payment

http://www.pcg.org.uk
     The PCG - a good source of  IR35  information

http://www.contractoruk.co.uk/
     Contractor UK, another good source of IR35 information

http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199900/ldbills/106/00106--t.htm
     The actual IR35 legislation

http://www.opas.org.uk/TypesOfPensionScheme/occupationalPensionSchemes/
     Occupational Pension Scheme

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/
     Department for Work and Pensions

http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/
    The Pension Service

Menus and Toolbars

Toolbar Buttons

The toolbar triggers the following functions

• open an existing employee's data
• open all active employees in the system
• save any changes
• create a new employee
• show the payment summary for all open employees
• show the annual summary for all open employees
• open the memo pad
• print

Menu Structure

• File
• New Create a new employee
• Open Open and exiting employee
• Open All Open All employees
• Open All  (active employee's only)
• Open All (active and inactive)
• Close
• Save
• Export to Excel
• Print 
• Print Preview
• Print Setup
• Company Details... Enter the company name, number etc, displayed on the payslip
• Exit

 
• Edit
• File Whole Grid with Defaults Copy the defaults for the top right corner to the grid
• Clear  current row  Clear the current row, including any SMP, SLP and SSP flags
• Clear Whole Grid
• Copy Cell Copy a cell to the clipboard
• Paste Cell Paste the contents of the clipboard into the grid
• Undo Edit
• Redo Edit
• Mark As Paid This prevents further edits and 'locks' the underlying static data
• Mark as Previous Employment Indicate that the entry represents previous employment.
• Calculate SMPcalculate statutory maternity pay
• Calculate SSPcalculate statutory sick pay
• Calculate SLDcalculate student loan deductions

• View
• Equalize Column Widths Make all the columns the same width
• Extra Columns Show some extra columns
• Show NI Rebate Column
• Show SMP Column
• Show SSP Column
• Show DSL Column
• Show Tax Credit Column
• Show General Deductions  Column
• Show Notes Columns This is a column used for recording use information
• Calculate Calculate the grid - this is not really needed, the grid is calculated automatically
• Colour Shades Alter the colours used in the grid display
• Bright Colours
• Light Colours
• Pale Colours
• Apply to Summary Dialog Apply the selected shades to the summary dialog as well
• Toolbar
• Status Bar
• Redraw
• Always calculate zero amounts
• Tools
• All Employee's Payment Summary...
• All Employee's Annual Summary...
• Payslip Display a payslip and optionally print it
• IR35 Calculator
• Memo Pad

Right Button Context Menu

• Fill defaults starting from period N
• Clear grid starting from period N
• Clear Current Row
• Mark As Paid
• Undo Edit
• Redo Edit
• Copy Cell
• Paste Cell
• Equalize Column Widths

Application File Menu

• File
• Set Working Year Set the current year that you will work with (Apr to Apr)
• New..
• Open... 
• Open All
• Open All (active employee's only)
• Open All (active and inactive)
• Enable Password Protection
• Static Data
• Static Data...
• Versioned Static Data...
• Edit Company Details
• Company Details... Enter the company name, number etc, displayed on the payslip
• Set Working Company...(F1) (only available in the Multiple Enterprise edition)
• Create New Company... (only available in the Multiple Enterprise edition)
• Delete A Company... (only available in the Multiple Enterprise edition)
• Edit Employee Details Edit the details of an employee
• Configure External Interface Configureaccess to a downstream systemor SBledger
• Exit

Integration with Other Systems 

Passing data to downstream systems

Integration is configured through the application File/Configure External Interface menu option.

To configure integration you simply give the name of a COM object that SBpayroll will call when payments are marked as paid, and check the check-box to tell the system to actually use the interface. 

If you need to interface with another system you will have to write the COM object yourself, however, A sample com object, including source code, SBpayroll.Interface, (SBPinterface VC++6  project)  is distributed with the application.

When employee records are marked as paid, SBpayroll will call the following method on the object

[id(1)] HRESULT PayEmployee(long versionID, BSTR name, long payrollID, BSTR niNumber, BOOL monthly, long thisPeriod, long numberOfFields, BSTR fields, [out,retval]long *result);

When a Summary Record (i.e. monthly/quarterly  payment of employment/employee taxes) is marked as paid, the following method is called

[id(2)] HRESULT PayGovernment(long versionID, long thisPeriod, long totalPeriods, long numberOfFields,  BSTR fields,  [out,retval]long *result);

Both methods return a result indicator in an output parameter, 0 = OK. If an error occurs this method is called and the error text is displayed

[id(3)] HRESULT GetErrorText([out,retval]BSTR *text);

NB  versionID is currently always 0 and fields contains comma-separated fields as they appear on the grid (all possible fields are present, including all ‘extra’ fields). Your object can then make whatever calls it needs to make, to whatever system. to pass on the data.

If you are using the interface  you will not be able to undo payment marks, once the data has been sent to the down-stream system. Also, if the down-stream system returns an error, the payment-mark will not be permitted. This is required to maintain overall integrity.
 

Receiving Data from other Systems

[id(1)] long CreateEmployee(BSTR name, BSTR niNumber, short sexIndicator, BSTR contactDetails, BSTR econNum, BSTR sconNum);
This method returns the ID of the newly created employee or 0 if an error occured

[id(2)] long LookupEmployee(BSTR name);
This method looks up the ID of an employee by name

[id(3)] boolean SetEmployeeDefaults(long id, long year, short niCategory, BSTR taxCode, double grossPeriodsSalary, boolean monthlyPaidFlag);
This method can be used to set the initial default values for the employee for any year.

A Sample application that uses this interface is distributed with the application (SBapiTEST VC++6 project).