Release Notes (2024)

December

Child Related Benefit Rates window

We’ve made some great improvements to the ‘Child-Related Benefits Rates’ window to make it quicker, easier, and more intuitive to use!

Now, you can easily find all the statutory parenting rates by navigating to Payroll > Payroll Setup > Statutory Rates > Child-Related Benefit Rates.

The window now features a handy tab for each statutory pay, in a tax year order, so you can quickly access the information you need.

Absence Allowance Pro Rata windows

We have redesigned the Pro Rata Allowance window under the Absence Allowances form, to provide a clearer and more user-friendly experience.

The new window includes simplified calculation steps for determining pro-rata entitlements. We improved clarity by ensuring that all relevant information is easily accessible.

What that means for you:

This change will not impact the overall calculation of your absence allowance entitlements. You may notice some differences in the way the pro-rata information is displayed within Cintra iQ. These changes are intended to clarify the process and simplify the usability.

To find out more about the Absence Allowance functionality see this article.

Cintra iQ Auditing on Cintra Cloud Users

We're excited to share that we've made an upgrade to Cintra iQ audit reporting.

Previously, our audit reports would simply show "CINTRA CLOUD" for changes made by our Cloud users. Now, we've taken it a step further by including the specific Cintra Cloud user's name.

This added level of detail provides greater visibility into who made changes and when.

You can access this audit report by navigating to Tools → Auditing.

October

Workplace postcode

Starting in April, the workplace postcode will become mandatory on FPS submissions for employees with a Freeport or Investment Zone NIC letter. Cintra iQ allows users to provide this postcode under the National Insurance tab on the Tax and NI Window.

You can bulk import the workplace postcode using File/Data Import as well as create a report to include this data via Reports functionality.

P60s can now be published into Cintra Cloud

You can now archive and publish P60s directly from Cintra iQ into Cintra Cloud, eliminating the need to send messages with attachments, which can pose a data breach risk.

P45 Bulk Import interface

The P45 Bulk Import interface is now available across all Cintra iQ databases, allowing you to upload spreadsheets with P45 details.

The template with example data has been attached to this article. 

Teachers Pension Annual Pay Increases interface

A new interface report, Teachers_Pension_Annual_Pay_Increases, has been created to help identify members of the Teachers Pension Scheme who have experienced a band change.

FE Workforce Data

December pay date on FPS

As we know it is common to pay early in December. When creating a payment run using a report pack, users can override 'This period pay date' to reflect the actual pay date. This date will be displayed on Cintra Cloud when the client is ready to authorise the payroll. In line with HMRC guidance, we have ensured that the FPS reports the normal pay date despite any overrides.

August

Annual periodicity on Cintra iQ

Cintra iQ now supports the setup of annual payroll, adding to the existing periodicities (weekly, fortnightly, lunar, monthly, and quarterly).

Important: As per HMRC regulations, you must submit an EPS (Employer Payment Summary) every month, even if no payments are made.This means you will need to submit a nil EPS for those months where no payment is due and the actual EPS in the month employees are paid.

In the Pay Employees window, there will be only one payroll period displayed for each tax year.

Parental Payment Schedules can now be Archived on Cintra iQ and Published into Cintra Cloud

We are excited to announce a new enhancement to Parental Payment schedules (including maternity, paternity, and adoption pay).

Starting now, you no longer need to manually save and attach these schedules to Cintra Cloud messages when sharing them with your clients. You can now Archive it on Cintra iQ for future reference and Publish schedules directly into the Cintra Cloud Reports section. This new feature also helps mitigate the risk of data breaches by ensuring schedules are securely published to the correct Cintra Cloud account.

Please note: The maternity schedule cannot be included in the client report pack, as it is not automatically generated when an employee goes on maternity leave. This is due to the possibility of multiple parental pay policies within a single payroll.

Bacs File limit

Bacs payments limit covers payments of up to £20 million per payment transaction. To ensure our users do not have issues with bacs submission we now provide a message if the employee payment run exceeds that limit.

A helpful article has been created to assist with this situation: How do I split payment run with a value over 20 million BACS file limit? – Cintra iQ (zendesk.com).

Resubmitting EPS

You no longer need to raise a support ticket to re-submit the last EPS. If you completed your EPS submission to HMRC and need to send updated figures you can right-click on the HMRC payment run and select ‘Re-submit EPS’.

Note:  This feature is only available on the most recent EPS submission and not for previous periods. 

Company Sick Pay entitlement

Occupational Sickness Scheme can now be set up to account for up to 4 rolling years. If you require a change in your Company Sick Pay Policy on Cintra iQ we recommend setting up a new scheme as changes to the existing one might create payroll corrections.

June

Pay Date Displayed in Report Pack

When you run a Report Pack that creates a payment run, you'll now see both the "normal" pay date and the specific pay date for that period.

• Normal Pay Date: This is the default payroll setup date and doesn't account for non-banking days.

• This Period Pay Date: This date is specific to the chosen period and defaults to the last banking day before the normal pay date.

 

For example, if you typically pay on the last working day of the month (June 2024), the "This period pay date" will show as Friday, 28th June, while the "Normal pay date" will be Sunday, 30th June.

In a rare case, you need to change the pay date in your current period you can edit "This period pay date". Keep in mind that the payment run will include all employees within the selected pay period. To create a payment run for specific employees, you'll need to use the "Pay Employees" window.

April

Cintra iQ password reset

Great news for System Administrators!

We've enhanced user management within Cintra iQ, empowering you to reset user passwords directly. This means your employees can access payroll information without needing to raise a support ticket, saving valuable time.

Here's the simple process:

• Navigate to System Administration -> Manage Users.
• Locate the user who needs a password reset.
• Click "Reset Password".

An email from donotreplay@ciqss.co.uk with a temporary password will be sent to the user.

They can then:

1. Log in to Cintra iQ using the temporary password.
2. Create a new, secure password for future logins.
3. 

April

Automatic deletion of Unathorised Payment Run in Cintra iQ

To streamline payroll processing and reduce errors, Cintra iQ will now automatically delete unauthorised employee payment runs if the payroll is recalculated. This ensures our Cintra iQ users always have accurate information for payroll approval. It only applies to unapproved payment runs, so there's no risk of impacting completed payments.

This new feature will save you time and help ensure accurate payroll processing. You will see a message informing you when that is the case.

To create an employee payment run follow the instructions on this article: How do I create/re-run payment runs?

April

Effortless Payment Run creation using Report Pack

We are excited to announce the automation of payment run via Report Pack functionality. You can now seamlessly create a payment run when the reports are published into Cintra Cloud using a specific report pack.

To select a report pack that will trigger a payment run navigate to the Report Packs definition window, open your Report Pack, go to the Output Options tab, and select Generate Payment Run.

Accuracy and control remain:

• Only published Report Packs can be selected to trigger a payment run, ensuring accurate data for Cintra Cloud users.
• Cintra IQ users retain control over the authorisation and closure of payment runs.

Bild in validation:

• The automatic process includes data validation.
• if issues arise, such as missing payment methods or incomplete Auto Enrolment assessment, the Report Pack will not publish, and no payment run will be created. This allows you to address data issues before payroll is finalized. 

We believe these improvements will save you time and streamline your payroll tasks. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.

To find out more go to: How do I create employee payment run using Report Pack?

March

The New Tax year 2024-2025

Statutory changes have been released in time for the new tax year.

These changes bring updates, particularly in National Insurance (NI) categories for Investment Zones and enhanced flexibility for Statutory Paternity Leave.

New National Insurance (NI) Categories for Investment Zones:

Starting on April 6th, new NI categories will be introduced for areas designated as Investment Zones. To be eligible, employers must have business premises within the Investment Zone tax jurisdiction. Specific eligibility criteria also apply to employees. You can find detailed information on eligibility on http://gov.uk

The new NI letters are:

N - Standard Rate for employees eligible for Investment Zone Employer NIC relief

E - Married Women and Widows entitled to pay reduced National Insurance

K - Employees over state pension age (in Investment Zone)

D - Employees who can defer National Insurance because they’re already paying it in another job.

To assign a new NI letter for an employee, simply navigate to the Tax and NI menu on the right-hand side panel, select the National Insurance tab, and apply the correct NI letter. You also need to select ‘Employee is an Investment Zone Worker’;

Changes to Statutory Paternity Leave:

New legislation makes it more flexible for employed fathers and partners to decide when they take leave and receive pay if they qualify.

The following measures will take place from April:

• Employed fathers must give 28 days' notice before taking paternity pay/leave.
• Leave can now be split into 2 non-consecutive blocks, unlike the previous restriction of one block of 1 or 2 consecutive weeks.
• Leave and pay can be taken at any point in the first year after the birth or adoption, expanding from the previous limitation of only within the first 8 weeks before April 2024.

These changes apply to parents of babies born after April 7th, 2024, or those with an adoption placement on or after April 6th, 2024, residing in England, Scotland, or Wales. For Northern Ireland, pre-April 2024 arrangements remain in place.

On Cintra IQ, there is no change when the first week of Paternity Leave is entered into the calendar. However, when entering a second block of Paternity Leave, you'll be prompted to confirm if both periods of leave refer to the same baby based on the baby’s date of birth. If confirmed, Cintra IQ will link both periods of leave and auto-populate all relevant dates under the Paternity Leave Dates tab on Parental Payments Widow.

Note: The new ruling does not apply to employees who live in Northern Ireland which means paternity leave can only be taken within 8 weeks after the baby’s date of birth and in one or two consecutive periods of leave.

To find out more about rates and thresholds for the new tax year, click here.

February

Bank Holidays

Cintra IQ has been updated with Bank Holidays for England & Wales, Ireland, and Scotland for calendar years 2024, 2025, and 2026. Currently, we have updated databases that had Bank Holidays populated for 2022 but we plan to extend this to all databases in March. Going forward we will maintain this with system upgrades. You can still update non-working days manually if required.

February

Work Pattern overrides are taken into account for Company Sick Pay calculation

Cintra IQ has been enhanced for Company Sick Pay calculation. You can enable the Company Sick Pay to consider overrides to employees’ work patterns entered into the calendar.

To apply this functionality:

• navigate to Payroll → Payroll Setup → Benefit Schemes → Occupations Sick Pay.
• Open your scheme on the Occupational Sickness Schemes window, under the Scheme Details tab apply the date for overrides accepted from the work day and sick day or sick day only.

This functionality is only applied if your Company’s Sick Pay uses work days to calculate a daily rate.

Example:

• No overrides applied to Company Sick Pay and no overridden employee’s work pattern.

An employee is paid £2000.00 and works Monday to Friday. The sickness period has been applied between 01.04.2024 0 10.04.2024

the calculation is:

£2000.00 salary / 22 work days in April = £90.91 daily rate

£90.91 daily rate x 8 days sick = £727.27 company sick pay

• Company Sick pay takes into account an employee’s work pattern override for a number of work days in a period and the number of sick days.

If we change Saturday (6th April) to be a working day on the employee’s calendar and change Company Sick Pay to accept overrides from the work day and sick day our calculation will look like this:

2000.00 salary / 23 work days (we added Saturday to the 22 days we already had) = £86.96 daily rate

£86.96 x 9 days sick (we added Saturday to the 8 sick days we already had) = £782.61 company sick pay.

• Company Sick Pay overrides are accepted from sick days only.

You can also apply this functionality to sick days only and the calculation will reflect that too:

£2000.00 salary / 22 work days in April = £90.91 daily rate.

£90.91 daily rate x 9 days sick (we added Saturday to the 8 sick days we already had)= £818.18 company sick pay.