Start of a New Period

About Start of a New Period

This procedure is used to end off the processing for the current period, and to start a new processing period. Once this routine has been done, no changes can be made to the information for the old period.

 

 

When you have finished your processing for a particular pay period, printed all reports and payslips, done all exports and taken a backup, you are ready to do the Start of a New Period/Month procedure.

 

VIP will accumulate the figures of the current period to the year-to-date totals, and it will also do preparations for the next processing period.

 

This procedure thus closes off the current period and takes you into your next processing period.

 

For example, if you are in a monthly company and your processing date is 30/06 (June) and you start a new period, the system will roll forward one month and accumulate the year-to-date totals. The date of your system will then be 31/07 (July) and you will be ready to process the salaries for the month of July.

 

How to Access Start of a New Period

Accessing Start of a New Period from the Main Menu:

1. Click on Utilities.

2. Click on Start New Period.

If there are any outstanding batches for the current processing period, which have been entered but not updated, you will receive a warning message in this regard.

You will only be able to proceed with the Start of a New Period procedure once the outstanding batches have been updated or deleted.

If you decide to update the outstanding batches, the reports and payslips which have already been printed, will have to be re-printed.

3. The Start New Period Screen will be displayed.

Always check the dates that are displayed on this screen.

 

 

If a company is processing a Start of Period, it will reflect as Busy – SOP in the Flags column of the Initial Entry Screen.

 

This will assist companies that have multi-users working on the system, indicating that a user is processing a Start of Period in a specific company, so that another user does not attempt to access that company.

 

However, if the company is accessed, a message stating that a Start of Period is being processed for the company will be displayed and another company may be selected.

 

 

During the Start of Period procedure, validations will be run for each employee in the company, to determine whether there are any negative year-to-date values which will need to be amended before Tax Year End.

 

When Start of Period has been selected, a Negative YTD+ Validation Screen will be displayed.

 

All financial fields that have an IRP5 Code allocated to it will be validated for negative year-to-date values.

 

Tick the Also generate the report per Definition Line if ALL financial fields must be validated, including those that do not have an IRP5 Code allocated to them.

 

If negative year-to-date values are found, the report (or both reports, depending on the selection made) will automatically be generated.

 

Once the report(s) has been printed, the Start of Period can either be halted to make the corrections, or the Start of Period procedure can be completed.

 

If the Start of Period is continued without correcting the negative year-to-date values, this selection will be recorded together with the User Name in the Audit Trail and Audit Logger File.

 

If no negative year-to-date values are found, the Start of Period will proceed as normal.

 

How to do a Start of a New Period

The Start of a New Period Procedure consists of the following STEPS:

 

 

Non-monthly companies: Take note of the message in the Last Period of the month.

 

Complete the fields on the Start New Period Screen:

 

Field on this Screen Action to be taken?
Fields at the top of the screen:
Current Month/Period End Date This is the end date of the month/period which you have just finished processing.
Tax Year End Date This is the end date of the tax year in which the processing period falls.
Is All Printing Completed for?

In a monthly paid company:

• The name of the month for which you have completed processing is displayed, e.g. March.

For a weekly/bi-weekly paid company:

• The period end date is displayed, e.g. 28/03/20xx.

If the printing is completed select (tick) this option, otherwise click on <Close> at the bottom of the screen.
Have you taken Backup JUST BEFORE this run?

If you have not taken a backup, click on <Close> at the bottom of the screen and take a backup, otherwise select (tick) this option.
Fields at the bottom of the screen:

Processing Month

In monthly paid companies:

• The Old Period column shows the name of the month for which processing has just been completed and the New Period column shows the name of the month for which processing must be done after the roll-over.

In weekly or bi-weekly paid companies:

• If you have just processed the last period of the month, e.g. week 4 of 4, week 5 of 5 or period 2 of 2, the Old Period column shows the name of the month for which you have just completed processing, e.g. March and the New Period column shows the name of the following month for which processing must be done, e.g. April.

• If you have processed a period within the month, e.g. week 2 of 4, week 1 of 5 or period 1 of 2, the Old Period column and the New Periodcolumn show the name of the same month, e.g. March.
Period End Dates

In the Old Period column, the end date of the month/period which you have just completed processing is displayed. In the New Period column, the end date of the following month/period which is to be processed is displayed.
Period Number in the Tax Year

In the Old Period column, the period number of the month/period which you have just completed processing is displayed, e.g. 4 of 52 for a weekly paid company and 1 of 12 for a monthly paid company. In the New Period column, the period number of the following month/period which is to be processed, is displayed, 5 of 52 for a weekly paid company and 2 of 12 for a monthly paid company.
Company Start Date for Tax Year

Except when you are doing a Start of a New Period into a new tax year, this field should be the same for both Old Period and New Period.
Number of Calendar Days processed for Tax Year

This field shows the number of days up to and including the period end date of the old and new periods respectively.

Pay Period in this Month

(For Weekly and Bi-weekly paid companies)

Click on the correct month-end date to use, for the following processing month, from the available options in the Combo Box.

Selecting the correct month-end date is very important as this will determine to which dates the month-to-date totals will accumulate.

 

Number of Weeks in Month

Number of Working Days in Month

Standard Number of Shifts

These fields will also be displayed if they are used in the company.

 

 

 
Period Dates and Dates Buttons  

Please refer to System Dates for more information about the <Dates> and <Period Dates> buttons on the Start New Period Screen.

 

 

Ensure that all the information is correct and click on <Continue> to perform the Start of a New Period procedure, otherwise click on <Close>.

 

If you have not filled in all the required information, a message in this regard will be displayed. Enter the required information, or click on the fields to accept the defaults.

 

The Start of Period procedure for non-monthly companies includes extra steps at this stage. Please refer to System Dates for more information about the <Dates> and <Period Dates> buttons on the Start New Period Screen.

 

 

You will be asked whether you wish to print the Audit Trail.

If you select <Yes>, the Audit Trail will be printed, and you will be asked whether the Audit Trail has been printed successfully.

 

 

The Start of a New Period process will commence.

 

 

While the Start of a New Period is in progress a Progress Screen will be displayed.

 

The number of active memos for the new processing period is shown on this screen.

VIP Premier and VIP Classic Payroll: If you are licenced for the Personnel History Module, the number of HR memos for the new processing period is shown here.

The progress of the Start a New Period routine, as the employee records are updated, is shown here.

 

 

Various messages may show during this routine. These messages will display in the centre of the screen but you may drag them aside to view all the information displayed.

 

 

Once the Start of a New Period routine has been completed, you will receive a message stating the number of employees which have been updated.

 

The Start of a New Period procedure may take a few minutes.

Please be patient. Do NOT interrupt the Start of a New Period procedure!

 

For more information about Start of a New Tax Year, see System Dates.