Corrections must always be dealt with on the basis of 'follow the money'.

This means that if an employee has been underpaid in a previous pay period, the correction of the underpayment should be made in the next payroll run you perform.

Likewise, if an employee has been overpaid in a previous pay period, the correction to recoup this overpayment should be made in the next payroll run you perform.

 
Where an employee, however, has physically received a payment amount in a particular pay period which differs to the amount shown in the payroll and the associated PSR has already been submitted, this will require a 'correction submission' to be made to Revenue in order to rectify the error. 

This correction submission is known as a Correction PSR.

After making a correction, where the software detects that a correction submission is required, a Correction PSR will automatically be created for you, which you will be prompted to submit. 

BrightPay is flexible so you can process payroll for previous periods if you need to pay employees for past work or correct earlier payroll runs. Here’s how you can handle backdated payments:

1.Re-open Previous Pay Periods: 

   If you need to make changes or add payments to a previous pay period, you can re-open that period in BrightPay. This allows you to edit payslips, add additional payments, or correct errors. For guidance, see here. 

2. Add Backdated Payments as Additions:

   If you want to pay an employee for work done in a previous period but keep the current payroll period open, you can add a backdated payment as an "Addition" on the current payslip. You can label the addition (e.g., "Backdated Pay for March") for clarity. More on additions: click here. 

3. PSR Submissions:

   If you make changes to a previous period and re-finalise payslips, BrightPay will prompt you to send an updated PSR to Revenue to ensure your payroll records are accurate.

**Important Considerations:** 

- Always ensure that any changes to previous periods are accurately reflected in your PSR submissions to ROS.

- If you are correcting errors, make sure to keep clear records for audit and compliance purposes.

FAQs

Q. I’ve realised there are errors in more than one pay period. How do I correct them?

A. If you need to fix submissions across multiple pay periods, please follow these steps:

1. Start with the earliest pay period that contains errors. Re-open that period in BrightPay, make the necessary changes, and re-submit it to Revenue. 
2. Move forward chronologically, correcting and re-submitting each subsequent affected period in turn. 
3. BrightPay will automatically recalculate later periods once the earlier corrections have been made. 

4. When all corrections have been submitted, run a Revenue Reconciliation report in BrightPay to check that your cumulative figures now match Revenue’s records.