End of Year Payroll Procedure guide 2023/2024

This article will outline the 2023/2024 end of year procedure and provide you with a summary of the changes which are being introduced for the 2024/2025 tax year.

Do you need to process a Week 53 this year?

Week 53 typically occurs if your payslip date (the date which your employees receive their payment) falls on the 5th April 2023.This happens because a year is made up of 365 days or 52 weeks and 1 day, when the extra day falls on your company payday, week 53 comes into effect.

However, in the 2023/2024 tax year February has an extra day due to 2024 being a leap year. This extra day means that there are two days in week 53 this year:

• • Thursday 4th April 2024, and Friday 5th April 2024

If all of your employees are paid monthly, simply proceed with your usual payroll process. The information in this message is not relevant.

How to process a Week 53

Simply set the correct payslip date and process it in the same way as any other pay period. Qtac software will perform this action automatically when processing week 53. The software will ignore all previous tax and pay for the year and will perform a standalone calculation in that pay period.

For further information on the week 53 process click here and navigate to the “Week 53” Payments section.

2024/2025 Software Installation Assistance

Continuing our mission to deliver you first-class service, we would like to offer you assistance with the installation of our 2024/2025 payroll software. If you would like any help with your installation, please contact our dedicated installation team (installs@qtac.co.uk).

As a business, we also like to take the opportunity during our account calls to address any potential issues you may encounter with the software. Your feedback on our product and service is invaluable to us, so we welcome any insights you’d like to share.

Preparing for the New Tax Year

In anticipation of the upcoming tax year, it’s crucial to ensure that your software remains up to date for a seamless migration to the 2024/2025 software.

Critical updates are distributed via live updates, and you’ll typically receive notifications within the software regarding any new versions. However, we recommend proactively checking for updates by following the guidance below.

Prior to migration, it’s essential that both the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 versions are updated to the latest releases. For detailed guidance on updating your Qtac software, please refer to the Qtac update guide, accessible here.

Migration to the 2024/2025 software

Once your final pay period has been completed, and you’ve updated both years software, you can migrate the data from the 2023/2024 version into the 2024/2025 software.

On migration, you can automatically increase pay rates of employees paid the National Minimum Wage to make it even easier for clients to migrate.

For more information on how to migrate last year’s data read our migration guide.

National Minimum and Living Wage Rates 2024:

The government has accepted the Low Pay Commission’s recommendations for National Living Wage (NLW) and National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates, effective from pay periods beginning on or after 1st April 2024. The NLW for those aged 21 and over will increase to £11.44, marking a 9.8% rise.

The rates which will apply from 1st April 2024 are as follows:

For more information on Minimum wage rates for 2024 visit GOV.UK.

National Insurance (NI) Changes:

NI Changes Breakdown:

• Class 1 employee NICs reduced to 10% from 6th January 2024.
• Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) frozen at 2023/2024 levels at £6,396 per annum, supporting low-income individuals.

Self-Employed NI Changes:

• Class 2 NICs abolished from 6th April 2024.
• Class 4 NICs reduced to 8% from 6th April 2024.

This table provides a breakdown of the adjustments:

For additional details on the announcements made during the Autumn Statement 2023, please visit GOV.UK.