ANSWER ID:5740

There are occasions when you may need to combine (consolidate) two payroll files. This can be helpful if you have two branches, each operating under their own payroll, but you are only required to file one IRD Return.

Before you begin

• Ensure the pay codes in the original payrolls are identical in setup. Every name and option must be the same or the consolidated Payroll will read these as more than one pay code.
• If you encounter duplicate employees, you will have to change one of the individual's Employee Code to make it unique.

Consolidating Payrolls

1. Create a new payroll - this is the Master Consolidated Payroll.
2. Setup the Payroll options when prompted, making sure that the correct PAYE period is selected, in other words Monthly or Half Monthly.
   Note: Options will NOT be overwritten when consolidating.
3. Go to the Tools menu and choose Consolidate Payrolls.
4. Choose the payrolls to consolidate.
5. If no messages appear during consolidation, there were no problems with the consolidation. If you encounter a message saying Some pays have the same Pay Number then printing period reports will contain the details of all pays with the same pay number. The consolidated payroll can still be useful for some reporting, but not for period reports.
6. The new payroll will now contain the information for all employees across the consolidated payrolls. If there were any warning messages when consolidating, simply make the changes in the original and then re-consolidate into the Master Consolidated Payroll.
7. Once the reporting has been carried out, the Master Consolidated Payroll can be deleted and the same function utilised the following month.