Release Notes: Advanced Custom Reporting and Calculations (17th December 2024)

Release Summary

Cue the fireworks... It's not New Year's Eve, but Buddy's latest update comes in with a big bang. This update introduces several new features, primarily focused on bureau management and customisation of reports and payslips.

Here's a brief set of highlights of what to expect:

• Create advanced custom reports with ease
• Apply salary changes in bulk
• Select preferred pro-rata mechanics
• Bureaus can Manage Clients by assigning teams, tags and assignees
• Apply filters and searches within the Run Payroll page

For the full details on these changes (and links to the relevant user guides), check out the release notes further below.

Those looking for a refresher on the end-of-year procedure can have a look at these guides:

• Apply Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) and Minimum Wage
• Carryover or Pay Leave Balances from Previous Year
• FAQ: All About the End of Year Submissions and FSSXpress™

Release Notes

Custom Report Builder

One of our largest update centres is the revamp of the Report Builder. We're introducing new output types, the ability to combine values, and much more customisation. For full instructions, see: Report Builder: Creating Custom Reports

• New: Custom Reports can be selected into three output formats: .csv, .xlsx, or fixed space .txt files
• New: Introduced new Report Builders options for further customisation:
  • "Exclude Header from Output File"
  • "Leave Empty Cells Blank"
  • "Include Empty Columns"
  • "Only Output Rows with Net Values", applicable to Payroll report types. 
• New: Clicking on the edit button of custom reports will take users to the Report Builder, allowing reports to be customised further after initial creation.
• New: When editing Custom Reports, users can now move columns or delete them
• New: Users can now combine multiple values into a single column
  • Text fields will automatically concatenate and allow multiple variables, for example: @Name @Surname
  • Numeric fields can use arithmetic operators to calculate formulae within the export: addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*) and division (/)
• Update: When using text values (without Buddy variables), Buddy will export the text inserted for all rows.
• Fix: Resolved an instance where previously terminated employees with extra payslips were being filtered out from .xlsx payroll report types. 

People

We've introduced an option to exclude COLA for directors, knowing that these are generally an exception to the rule.

• New: An option to "Do not add COLA to Director salaries" has been introduced. This requires the directors' employment type to be set as Director.
• Update: Restored the visibility of the Advanced Search and Bulk Adjustment, currently in their Beta stage (see: Advanced Filtering and Bulk Salary Changes)

Payroll

Payroll calculations are often company-policy dependent. We've introduced new mechanisms for Pro-Rata Calculation of Basic Hours, as well as features to filter and search within the Run payroll.

• New: We're introducing two new pro-rata mechanisms with additional customisations. Users can now select whether the pro-rata is to be calculated as percentages, working days, or calendar days, as well as default weeks between standardised 52 or more exact ones.
• New: Users can now use Search within Run Payroll to look up employees by name, ID Number or reference code.
• New: In Run Payroll, users can now filter for incomplete payslips only, allowing teams to finalise payroll with better ease
• Fix: Salary frequencies that are set as Fortnight (Two Weeks) can now be used in payroll. 
• Update: Added a new limitation to ensure that for first week of the year, SSC cannot be calculated backdated to prevent overpayment of SSC.
• Fix: Updated how the VOPS employee and employer data gets saved to ensure consistency in how it is presented in reports.
• Fix: Resolved an incident where re-saving payslips would recalculate the monthly allowances to a slightly less rounded figure.
• Fix: Resolved an instance where a payroll requiring approval would not load if some payslips were not finalised.
• Update: The Totals to Date section will no longer include Taxable Gross if this is the same value as Gross. This generally will only appear in instances where employees have car allowance.

Tax Forms

The Tax Forms have been updated to match the MTCA 2024 version, with minor revisions in the proces.

• Update: Updated the background from the CFR version to the updated MTCA version for all Tax Forms: FS3, FS4, FS5 and FS7.
• Update: The default for Other tax rate in the FS4 has been moved from D3 to D4.
• Fix: We have revised how the Number of Payees gets calculated in the FS5 to resolve edge cases with employees who are not paying SSC and taxes in Malta.

Advisors (Bureaus)

Bureau management is a key aspect that Buddy is continuing to focus on improving. In this update, we're introducing the ability to assign clients to teams, assignees and custom tags.

• New: Users can now attribute and filter their Client List with Teams, Tags, and Assignees.
  • Filter by Assignee if that colleague is unavailable to ensure smooth operations
  • Create tags to filter clients by types of payroll or activity, ensuring the right actions are taken for each client. 
  • Filter by status to see which clients are in setup or parallel runs and ensure your team is progressing on these
    
• Update: The Add New Team Member functionality has been updated to allow invites of non-existing accounts.
• Update: Team members who have not accepted invites will now show in the Team Member list as pending.

Technical Changes

Our team has migrated our emailing to a new platform. This should see no immediate changes but will allow us to introduce new functionalities in the near future. 

• Update: Our team has migrated to use a different emailing platform. A few templates might have changed slightly as our team built new functionality.
• New: Bureaus that have White Labelling can now customise email templates.

Settings & Other

• End of Year
  • New: We added a banner to notify that extra payment may be due for monthly employees. For more information, check out: How to Add Extra Days in December Pay
• Settings
  • New: In the Pay Items (Allowances) section, you can now Show/Hide the Buddy Default allowances
• Billing
  • Fix: Billing emails will no longer be sent if the exact pending balance is €0 after having used previous credits.
• Workforce Integration
  • New: In the Employee's profile, users can now remove an existing connection.