When submitting your Full Payment Submission (FPS) to HMRC through BrightPay, you may encounter RTI errors related to new employees’ start dates. These errors typically arise if the start date is incorrect, missing, or doesn't align with HMRC’s expected format.

You might see a message such as:

“The start date for a new starter is missing, incorrect, or not in the correct value format”

Steps to Resolve RTI Start Date Errors in BrightPay:

1. Check the Employee’s Profile

   • Go to the new employee’s record in BrightPay.

   • Select the ‘Starter/Leaver’ tab.

   • Ensure the Start Date is entered and correct (format: DD/MM/YYYY).

   • Confirm that the Starter Declaration (e.g. Statement A, B, or C) has also been selected.

2. Reopen the Employee’s Payslip
   1) Within the Payroll utility, select the pay period you wish to re-open.
   2) Click Re-Open Payslips on the menu toolbar.

    

   
    

   3) Select the employee(s) you wish to re-open payslips for.
   4) Click OK.
   The selected employee(s) payslips will now be available for editing and finalising again.

3. Adjust or Remove the Start Date (If Needed)

   • If you're unsure whether the start date is the issue, try temporarily removing it from the profile.

   • Save the employee record and then re-enter the correct start date.

   • This refreshes the data BrightPay sends to HMRC.

4. Review the Starter Declaration

   • Ensure the correct starter declaration has been selected for the employee.

   • Missing or incorrectly selected starter information can also cause submission errors.

5. Save All Changes

   • Save any changes to the employee’s record and the reopened payslip.

6. Resubmit the FPS

   • Go to the RTI tab in BrightPay.

   • Select and send the corrected Full Payment Submission (FPS).

Further notes:

• Start Date Must Be Within the Current Tax Year: Ensure the start date doesn’t predate the tax year or conflict with previously submitted data.

• Avoid Duplicates: If an FPS was already submitted with incorrect starter data, HMRC might reject the correction if it appears as a duplicate.

• Contact HMRC if Errors Persist: In rare cases, HMRC systems may need manual correction, especially if you’re correcting submissions already received.

When HMRC return an error stating: “There is an entry in [startdate]. Please complete at least 2 [ADDRESSLINE]S.” This means the employee’s record has a start date entered, but their address is missing required details.

Go to any new employee’s profile and check the address section.

Make sure the first two address lines (Address Line 1 and Address Line 2) plus the postcode are filled in.

Save changes then try to submit the FPS again.

Note: You can either scan through the FPS and go through each employee's details (this may be time consuming as every employee - not just new starters - are on the FPS). Alternatively, and a quicker way is to manually review each new starter's personal details in their employee record and ensure the first 2 lines of their address and postcode are complete.