Statutory Pay Items
Statutory Payments are made when employees take special time off work. These include:
- Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
- Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)
- Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP)
- Shared Parental Pay (ShPP)
- Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP)
Adding Statutory Payments Through Leave
The standard way to add statutory payments is to add leave applications for the time taken away. Not only does this handle the payroll calculations, but it also keeps track of the days taken in the leave module.
To track statutory payments:
- Add a Leave Application
- Select the type of Leave based on the Statutory Payment (e.g. Sick, Maternity, etc.)
- Submit the application
While adding leave, you will see stickers marking each day, such as Waiting Day and Statutory Sick Payment, as in the screenshot above. This would let you know right away how the leave is being processed before payroll.
Eligibility for Payments
Most statutory payments have a requirement of average weekly wage. Employees that do not fit these qualifications may automatically default to unpaid (e.g. unpaid sick).
Unpaid sick will also be utilised if the full SSP has already been consumed; this may be relevant for those who are processing SSP1 forms.
Note: One can override and adjust the sick entitlement: Adjusting Leave Balances
For companies that are new to using Buddy:
- the best way to ensure a Weekly Wage would be to save the employee's salaries with a weekly hours, as this would determine the standard weekly pay.
- Historic data is ideally important for continuous leave such as maternity. This will ensure that Buddy knows the correct start date.
Processing Statutory Leave in Payroll
As soon as you Calculate & Save a payslip during the Run Payroll Process, the Statutory Entitlement will be automatically calculated and included in the payslip.
Buddy will automatically reduce the hours used in the leave applications from the basic hours.
Adding Statutory Payments Without Leave Applications
For those who want to add the statutory pay items, this can be done by enabling the following options in Settings > Payroll > Payroll Calculation
- Include Statutory Pay Items in Pay Item Imports
- Override Statutory Values by inserting actual amounts instead of Day or Weekly Rates
If you decide not to override values, go to Settings > Leave and select whether you prefer to input days or weeks in the Parental Leave - Units of Pay drop-down.
Adding Pay Items
Once you have enabled the option to include the statutory pay items in the import, you can add the following pay items directly into payroll: SAP, SMP, SPP, SSP, ShPP.
You can also refer to Bulk Upload Pay Items to see how to import these in bulk in the Payroll Process, if you have a larger volume of statutory payments to add.
Warning on Importing Statutory Payments
Should you be uploading statutory payments directly, note that you require to amend the base hours of the payslip so reduce the basic pay.