The warning message appears when you are performing a Start New Period from December to January in a weekly, bi-weekly, or "Other Periods"  company.

The system checks the current processing period number in the tax year against the remaining periods, and if the tax year will end on the correct 'tax year-end date'. 

Sometimes discrepancies arise when the company dates are changed during the tax year or companies were setup incorrectly, or when month-end dates were selected without taking into account that some months might include more pay periods.

You will not be able to continue with the process until the issue is resolved

The system allows the following when rolling from December to January:

• Weekly company – maximum of 10 weeks until tax year-end (5 weeks per calendar month for January and February)
• Bi-weekly company – maximum of 6 bi-weeks (3 bi-weeks per calendar month for January and February)

When the number of weeks exceed this test, it indicates that the weeks selected per month was either not planned correctly for the periods in the tax year, or an error was made when selecting the tax year-end date when the company was created. Incorrect date changes might have been made during the year.

 EXAMPLE:  

A common mistake is where the end the month for December is selected too early (e.g 15 December when the company shuts down) when in fact the payroll month end date should still be the last week of December, even if the company is closed and employees will not receive payment for part of the month.

This means that there are only 3 weeks in December, as opposed to it being either 4 or in some cases 5 weeks.

 TIP: We recommend that you contact your Business Partner consultant for expert advice to resolve this issue.

Weekly company:

• If there are 10 weeks left until the company is in the final period of the tax year, select 5 weeks for January and 5 weeks for February.
• If there are 11 weeks left until the company is in the final period of the tax year, a date change will need to be done to change the periods in tax year from 53 to 52 and to make the tax year end date a week earlier.  If this is relevant to your company, you need to make a print screen of the Period Info (BB) screen (found at the bottom of the Basic Company Information screen) to submit to and discuss with a Sage support consultant should you be unsure of what to do.
• Alternatively if you haven't activated Leave Pay, if there are 11 weeks left until the company is in the final period of the tax year, activate Forced Pay in the current period and extend the number of weeks for December (on the Basic Company Information screen - Period End Date BB button). e.g. if the number of weeks for December is 4 and it should be 5, change the 'number of weeks in the month' to 5. Also note that January and February will also then have 5 weeks each.
• Should any of the above scenarios not pertain to your company parameters, and you are unsure of what to do, contact your Business Partner consultant for further assistance.

Bi-weekly company:

• If there are 6 periods left until the company is in the final period of the tax year, select 3 periods for January and 3 periods for February.
• If there are 7 periods left until the company is in the final period of the tax year, a date change will need to be done to change the periods in tax year from 27 to 26 and to make the tax year end date a period earlier. If this is relevant to your company, you need to make a print screen of the Period Info (BB) screen (found at the bottom of the Basic Company Information screen) to submit to and discuss with a Sage support consultant.
• Alternatively if you haven't activated Leave Pay, if there are 7 weeks left until the company is in the final period of the tax year, activate Forced Pay in the current period and extend the number of weeks for December (on the Basic Company Information screen - Period End Date BB button) to ensure that there are 3 weeks for December. Then check the calendar to determine the month end for January and for February (which should be 3 weeks each).
• Should any of the above scenarios not pertain to your company parameters, and you are uncertain of what to do,  contact your Business Partner consultant for further assistance.

 CAUTION: Please remember to activate Forced Pay for all employees before amending the number of periods/dates in the tax year.

This is to prevent any recalculations in a period where employees were already paid.