BrightPay allows you to enter a leaving date in advance for employees on fixed-term contracts. This can be useful where the contract end date is known from the outset.

How to set a future leaving date

1. Open the employer and go to the Employee tab. 
2. Select the relevant employee. 
3. Go to the Starter / Leaver section. 
4. In the Leave Date field, enter the future contract end date. 

5. Click Save.

    

What happens when a future leaving date is set

When you set a leaving date in the future:

• The employee will continue to be included in payroll runs up to and including the pay period that covers their leaving date. 
• A P45 will be generated and available once you finalise the payroll for their final pay period. 
• The employee will no longer appear in payrolls for pay periods after their leaving date.

Important considerations

Before using a future leaving date, please be aware of the following:

• Tax code (coding notice) updates
  HMRC coding notices may not automatically import for employees who have a leaving date recorded in BrightPay, even if the date is in the future. This can result in tax codes not updating as expected.

• Employee leave requests
  A recorded leaving date, even if it is in the future, can affect an employee’s ability to request annual leave through integrated systems.

Because of these potential issues, it may be preferable not to enter the leaving date until you reach the employee’s actual final pay period. At that point, you can add the leaving date and ensure it is included on the employee’s final payslip and P45.