TERS File - Payment to Council

Once you log in to your Sage Business Cloud Payroll (SBCP) on the 15th of April 2020 you will have a new Report option available, COVID-19 TERS.  As there are some information that the system cannot provide, you need to manually capture this in the excel file before it can be converted to CSV.  Please reach out to your Tax Practitioner if you need guidance on what these amounts should be.

 NOTE: Please ensure that your employee's banking information, ID number, start date and if applicable termination date has been completed on Sage Business Cloud Payroll. 

 CAUTION: This file exports per cycle and not per company and will include all employees except for Personal Service Providers, Independent contractors and labour brokers.

What to do in SBCP:

1. Click on Reports
2. Click on UIF – Temporary Employer / Employee Relief Scheme
3. Enter a Shutdown From date
4. Enter a Shutdown To date
5. Select which employees you wish to include
   
6. Click on the drop down for your Preferred payment medium and select either:
   • Payment to Council
7. Once you have made your selection click on Preview
8. As with any report in SBCP, you can now select to print this report to excel by selecting Xlsx from the drop down and then pressing the save Icon:
   
9. You will now be able to save your TERS file as an Excel sheet to your Downloads folder or any preferred directory:
   

What to do on your Computer:

Make sure ALL other programs are currently closed on your machine.

1. Click on Start
2. Type in Control Panel
3. Click on Region (Windows 8 and Windows 10) or Region and Language (Windows 7)
4. Click on Additional Settings:
   
5. In the Numbers tab, change the List Separator to | (Pipe)
6. Click on Apply
   
7. Click on OK
8. You can now close the Region Screen

What to do on the Excel Sheet:

You can now locate and open the Excel Sheet that you just saved.  You will have to:

1. 1. The Excel sheet will open in a protected view, please click on Enable editing to gain access to make changes to the sheet:
      
   2. Change the Remuneration column (Column K) to display as a general input. 
      1. Right click on column K and select Format Cells 
      2. Click on General
      3. Click on OK
   3. Check that the Remuneration (Column K) is correct for all employees and change it if necessary – Do not enter a currency identifier or use any space or comma separators (Example: 26000.90 is acceptable, 26 000.90, 26,000.90, 26000,90 or R26000.90 is NOT acceptable).  
   4. Complete the Sector Minimum Wage (Column N) for all employees – Do not enter a currency identifier or use any space or comma separators (Example: 26000.90 is acceptable, 26 000.90, 26,000.90, 26000,90 or R26000.90 is NOT acceptable).
   5. Complete the Remuneration during Shut Down (Column O) for all employees – Do not enter a currency identifier or use any space or comma separators (Example: 26000.90 is acceptable, 26 000.90, 26,000.90, 26000,90 or R26000.90 is NOT acceptable).
   6. Complete Bank Name (Column P) to reflect the bank name of the employer - No Spaces, comma's or special characters should be used. Once this has been entered you can copy the line down to all the employees.
   7. Complete the Branch Code (Column Q) to reflect the branch code used by the employer - Only numbers should be used, no spaces, comma's or any other special characters should be used.  Once this has been entered you can copy the line down to all the employees.
   8. Complete the Account Type (Column R) - enter the correct number:
      1. 1 =  Cheque
      2. 2 = Savings
      3. 3 = Transmissions
         Once this has been entered you can copy the line down to all the employees.
         
   9. Complete the Account Number (Column S) - Only numbers should be used, no spaces, comma's or any other special characters should be used. Once this has been entered you can copy the line down to all the employees:
      
      
   10. Confirm all information is correct – especially monthly remuneration and sector minimum wage.
   11. Once you are satisfied that all is correct, remove line 2 in your excel sheet by right clicking on the line identifier and selecting delete:
   12. Once the headings have been removed you can click on File, Save As and select a directory where to save the file to.
   13. It is important that you save the file with the correct Name and as the correct type:
       1. File Name
          The format for the file name is set by the department of labour as UIFreferenceNumber_DDMMMYYYY_uniqueno.
          
          

          EXAMPLE: If the uifregistrationnumber is 00000001/2 and date of sending file is 15-04-2020 and this is the first file you are sending then use 1 as unique file number then your file name will read: 000000012_15Apr2020_01:
          
          

          NOTE: The UIF Reference Number is the UIF Registration number from the system, is 9 digits in total and with the / before the last digit.  It is the number without the U.

          b. File Type:
          The file type needs to be set as CSV (Comma delimited):
          
          Once your File name is in the correct format you have selected your file type as CSV (Comma Delimited) you can click on Save.

Submit your application:

Once you have successfully saved your CSV, you will need to submit this file and the other completed documents to the labour department.  They will need to be submitted online.