How to correct payroll records for an employee in a previous tax year - This process applies to employees who were added in error, employees who left and employees who are still employed.

The correction steps are the same for all three. The only difference: only delete the employee if they were added in error (step 7). 

Follow these steps to correct payroll and update HMRC records:

1. Access the previous tax year
Go to 'Browse Employers' and select the tax year containing the leaver. Start with the oldest pay period that needs correction.

2. Reopen and amend the payslip
Reopen the payslip and make your corrections:

• If pay was declared but should be zero, remove all pay elements so the payslip shows zero value
• If the employee was added in error, also remove any 'Previous Employment' figures as there should be no data for an incorrectly added employee

3. Finalise the payslip
Save your changes and finalise the payslip.

4. Submit an Additional FPS to HMRC
Go to RTI tab > Create Additional FPS > Correction to earlier submission. This updates HMRC records for that pay period.

5. Repeat for subsequent periods
Work through each pay period (oldest to newest) where corrections are needed. Repeat steps 2–4 for each one, so correct YTD information is submitted with each Additional FPS.

6. Verify HMRC has been updated
Once all Additional FPS corrections are complete, confirm that HMRC records show the correct information.

7. Delete the employee (optional)
If the employee was added in error and you want to remove them after HMRC is corrected:

• Reopen the oldest payslip
• Go to Employees > select employee > More > Delete > say 'yes' to confirm

Important: Keep the employee on payroll until you're confident all HMRC records are correct. Deleting removes all information including the Payroll ID, which you may need for HMRC correspondence. This action cannot be undone. Only ever delete an employee if they were entered into BrightPay in error, you should not delete employees who are leavers - maintain their records for auditing purposes.