If a BrightPay Desktop customer has more than 300 employees and needs to split the employer file for BrightPay Cloud. 

Here are the steps 

Please find attached the guidelines, as well as the links to the videos.

Splitting BrightPay UK Employer Data File - Snapshot.mp4

Splitting BrightPay UK Employer Data File - CSV.mp4 

Please note that you should be aware of additional considerations in relation to RTI submissions, Employment Allowance, Apprenticeship Levy, Pension Submissions and Reports when operating multiple payroll data files under the same PAYE reference.

RTI Submissions

1. Full Payment Submissions (FPS) can be sent to HMRC from each employer file as normal. The Full Payment Submission will be available under the RTI tab on the left-hand side. Select the RTI and click ‘Send Now’ to send to HMRC

2. An Employer Payment Summary (EPS) must only be sent from one selected employer file continuously in the tax year. Any recoverable amounts from the other employer files must be manually entered in the one selected employer file under > HMRC > Additional Amounts. These amounts must be recorded in the one selected employer file to ensure the correct year-to-date total figures for the PAYE scheme are reported to HMRC when you next submit an Employer Payment Summary.

   To record recoverable amounts processed in the other employer files for the same PAYE scheme in BrightPay:

• Select HMRC on the menu bar
   
• Click the Additional Amounts tab on the tool bar:

• Enter all applicable recoverable amounts claimed for the employer from the multiple employer files:

• Click OK to save changes

   

Employment Allowance

If the employer is claiming the Employment Allowance, the allowance must be split across the employer files or enabled in one selected employer file only.
 

• Select HMRC on the menu bar

• Select the Tax Month/Quarter in which you will first be processing payroll in BrightPay

  e.g. if your first pay period in BrightPay will be September, to be paid on the last day of the month, select Tax Month 6 on your blue schedule bar:

• Under 'NICs' you will see the option for Employment Allowance Claim - click Enable

• Complete the eligibility checklist accordingly.
   
• Next, select 'I've sent an EPS' (if you have already claimed some Employment Allowance in this tax year, this EPS will have been done in your employer file in desktop).

• Select 'Yes' to the question 'Do you need to adjust your Employment Allowance total claim?'
   
• If the Employment Allowance is split over multiple employer files, enter the Employment Allowance you wish to enter in each employer file to claim in the tax year. To determine this amount, subtract the amount you have already claimed from the annual limit. Click 'Save' to save the details.

Please note: You have to send an Employer Payment Summary from only one employer file with the Employment Allowance indicator on it to HMRC.

Apprenticeship Levy

If the employer is claiming the Apprenticeship Levy, the levy must be enabled in one selected employer file only. The amount must be calculated manually based on the payroll data from all the employer files for this PAYE scheme. The amount for the Apprenticeship Levy must be entered in one selected employer file in the HMRC section.

Enabling the Apprenticeship Levy in BrightPay

• Choose HMRC
   
• Choose the agreed payment frequency between you and HMRC, monthly or quarterly, if not already done
   
• Under NIC, you will see the option for Apprenticeship Levy
   
• To enable the levy, select Enable
   
• To help establish the requirement to pay apprenticeship levy, answer the questions according to your business circumstances
   

Click OK to continue 

Entering in the total Apprenticeship Levy calculated for multiple employers for the same PAYE scheme:
 

• Select HMRC on the menu bar
   
• Click the Additional Amounts tab on the tool bar and enter the amount into the Additional Apprenticeship Levy field based on the manual calculation, click OK.

Reporting your Apprenticeship Levy to HMRC

You must report the following each month to HMRC via an Employer Payment Summary (EPS). Please note this must be only reported to HMRC from one selected employer file.

• The amount of the annual Apprenticeship Levy allowance you’ve allocated to that PAYE scheme
   
• The amount of Apprenticeship Levy you owe to date in the current tax year

1) Select 'RTI' on the menu bar
 

2) Click New on the menu toolbar and select Employer Payment Summary (EPS):

3) Ensure the 'Apprenticeship Levy' marker is ticked
 

4) Select the applicable Tax period from the drop down menu
 

5) Click 'OK' and submit to HMRC, when ready. 

Pension submissions

Some pension providers allow only one pension submission file per period. If this applies, you can create the pension contribution CSV file for each file in BrightPay Cloud, then merge the CSV files and upload them as a single file to your pension provider.

Reports

You may need to combine some reports, such as the P30, payroll summary, and HMRC liability, to see the total figures per employer.

If you wish to include all the liability on the 'main' employer data set for P30 / P32 - you will need to use the Adjustment field in the HMRC tab to enter the total liability from the other payroll data sets (PAYE, NIC, SLD).

P11D(b) reporting at year end

You may need to combine the total benefits amount before submitting your P11D(b) / EXB. If employees have benefits across multiple employer data sets on the same PAYE scheme - you can adjust the total to include all employees' benefits cash equivalent when submitting your P11D(b), as HMRC will only accept one submission per PAYE scheme at year end.

Important Note: BrightPay has a strict 300 employee limit per employer set up.

• An employer in BrightPay is limited to 300 employees per tax year, and this includes leavers.
• If you have more than 300 employees (in the same PAYE scheme), you must split your payroll across multiple employer data sets—there is currently no way to process all employees above this limit in one employer data.

For any company with more than 300 employees in a tax year:

• You must create additional employer data set in BrightPay, keeping each one under 300 employees for the tax year (including those who have left).

The splitting of the employer data can either be done in the same organisation (with multiple employer data sets) or using multiple organisations.