Release Summary
In the past weeks, our clients have given us plenty of valuable feedback that our team acknowledged and wanted to action upon. We value the trust you've given us and want to assure you that we'll work on not only implementing new features but improving existing functionalities to ameliorate the user experience.
Here's a summary of the latest release:
- New Pay Item Template for Advisors & Bureaus
- Updates to FPS Submission and EPS Submissions
- Updates to Smart Pension Integration
- Updates to Plan Selection on Buddy (to match Pricing Website & Discussions)
- Other user experience improvements.
Read further below for the detailed list of changes
You may already have noted a few of these changes before today's announcement, as a few changes were released earlier this week.
Release Notes
Advisor (Bureau) Updates
New: Pay Item Templates
Advisors can now go to their Advisory > Settings > Payroll and create generic overtime and pay items that can be used for new companies.
Creating these templates simplifies the addition of new clients, as well as standardises the pay items and reports across companies within similar industries
The full user guide can be found here: Overtime & Pay Item Templates for New Clients. Below is a brief summary of the features:
- Add Overtime
- Create multiple overtime rates that may be used in one or more templates
- Add Pay Item
- Create pay items to be used in one or more templates. The configuration of whether they are taxable, nicable, and pensionable will carry forward when applying the template
- Add Template
- Create templates to quickly add Overtime Rates and Pay Items
- Apply Template
- When creating new companies, you will see the option to Apply Template, both within the Overtime and the Allowance pages. Select the applicable template, and Buddy will auto-create allowances based on the selected template.
Note: this template can only be used when creating new companies. If the template is updated, this will not reflect any changes in existing clients.
Updated: EverRoll™
New: FPS submissions are now included in the EverRoll™ features and can be automated for clients
FPS & EPS Submissions
Based on feedback on customer experience, our team is updating some functionality related to the FPS and introducing EPS submissions to ensure your teams can perform the day-to-day activities with minimal interruption.
- New: EPS can now submitted; this is done from the Tax Forms Page, within the P30 drop-down.
- Fix: Resolved an issue for Directors using the Annual NI Method, who also had payroll on Buddy for 2023-2024
- Our team has revised and corrected any historical payroll data to ensure that the next FPS submission will correct the totals to date.
- Update: Updated what data Buddy checks and sends when the Agent sends FPS submissions on clients' behalf.
- Update: Updated other minor details, such as trimming white spaces, to prevent errors that can be passed by updating the values to the expected format.
Smart Pension Integration
Similar to the changes to FPS submissions, Buddy is making changes to improve the visibility of errors. The aim is to enable independence and enhance user experience when encountering any difficulties.
- Update: Updated the way Buddy receives and outputs errors so that users can identify any errors quicker
- Update: If employees are not linked to a Smart Pension profile (in their personal details) but have a Smart Pension pension scheme, these will now be listed as an error
- Fix: Resolved an error that prevented submissions due to the formatting of the 'pay period' details
Partner (Advisor) Billing & Plans
Although no pricing changes have been implemented, Buddy's now been updated to more accurately reflect changes and restrictions to better reflect the pricing plans as listed on our website.
- Update: Advisor-Only plan has been renamed to Basics. This will continue to give access to Advisors for payroll, tax forms, and leave management, amongst other tools
- Update: The Starter plan has been restructured into the Collaborator plan. This unlocks the below features, amongst others:
- Inviting Clients to access Buddy
- Allow Clients to Review Payroll
- Enable Vacation Management for Employee Portal
- Update: The Seriously Accurate plan has been renamed to Automation Guru
- This remains primarily the same, unlocking AccuPay™ and advanced integrations (such as Workforce T&A)
- Fix: Resolved an issue where adding new companies showed both non-advisor and advisor plans
Our team has also implemented changes to handle advisory plans and billing directly from the website. This will also improve the flow of automated yearly renewals upon plan expiration.
Other
- New: BACS File can now be generated, this comes in two formats, Standard 18 and XML:
- New: The people page will automatically hide visible salaries unless toggled or hovered on
Fix: Resolved an issue where SubBuilding, Locality, and Country fields in the employee address were not being saved