Year-End Payroll Processing

The Step-by-Step Guide

This step-by-step guide covers year-end processing for Payroll in Exact Globe. Follow the steps below to complete the entire year-end processing:

Checking Calculations
Audit of Annual Tax Returns
Employee Annual Tax Return
Open the fiscal year
Open Pay Year
Generate a Schedule
Go Through the Collective Bargaining Agreement Wizard
Customizing Homemade Components
Adjust SV premiums
WHK: Passing on Differentiated Premiums to Employees
Update Employee Salary Information
Implement a Percentage Pay Increase

Step 1: Check the calculations

By the end of the pay period, all payroll entries must be finalized. The calculations can be verified using various reports.

In the menu [Payroll > Reports > Payroll Statement] You can retrieve the payroll statement. When the ‘Payroll Statement’ type is selected and grouped by employee, the cumulative or annual amount of the payroll statement is displayed for each employee. The amounts from this overview are reported on the annual tax returns. When you select the ‘Contribution Payroll’ type, you’ll see an overview of the bases used to calculate contributions and payroll taxes. You can print this overview or export it to Excel. You can add the ‘Days Worked’ column to the payroll statement using the ‘Columns’ button, so that the column appears in the overview. This column is not included in the print preview, but it is included when exporting to Excel. You can then print this summary using Microsoft Excel.
In the menu [Salary > Reports > Components] You can check whether the amounts are correct for each component. You can also group this report in various ways, such as by period, employee, or component. If you select the ‘Audit’ option in the ‘Type’ field, you can compare the financial entries with the payroll entries.
If you have provided an employee with various allowances that must be listed separately on the employee’s annual statement, you must verify that the components used have the correct type. You can do this via [Payroll > Components > Maintain]. It is not possible to change the component type. You must create a new component and link it to the employee(s). You can change the amount in the component with the incorrect type to 0 euros. The pay periods can then be recalculated and processed. The amount will now be displayed on the employee’s annual statement.

Reimbursement of Expenses
The components used to pay expense reimbursements must be of the ‘net expense reimbursement allowance’ type.

Travel Expense Reimbursements
A separate component type is available for commuting expense reimbursement: the ‘Net Commuting Allowance’ type. To generate the amount in the ‘Travel Expense Reimbursement’ field on the employee’s annual statement, you must specify that the amount represents travel expenses when using the component with which you recorded the travel expense reimbursement. You can do this for components of the types ‘Net Allowance,’ ‘Mileage Allowance—Taxable Portion Calculated on a Gross Basis,’ ‘Mileage Allowance—Taxable Portion Calculated on a Gross Basis,’ or ‘Net Commuting Allowance.’ In the maintenance screen for these components, on the ‘Additional Information’ tab, in the ‘Type of Arrangement’ field, you can specify that it is a travel expense allowance. You can open the component via [Payroll > Components > Maintain].

Step 2: Review of Annual Tax Returns

Navigate to the ‘Annual Payroll Tax Return Summary’ menu via [Payroll > Returns > Annual > Annual Payroll Tax Return Summary] to verify, for each payroll year, whether the processed amounts match the amounts reported on the payroll tax return. In addition, you can also verify which sector and collective bargaining agreement (CBA) employees are assigned to, and the processed amounts are compared with the reported amounts.

At the top of this screen, you can select [View > Customize Columns] to choose which information you want to see on the screen. You can also print the displayed overview and export it to Microsoft Excel.

Step 3: Employee Annual Tax Return

You can create the employee’s annual tax return via the menu path [Payroll > Tax Returns > Annual > Employee Annual Tax Return]. Exact Globe supports five different types of annual statements. The pre-printed annual statement from the Tax Authority is no longer available. This step explains how to generate the various statements.

Precisely pre-printed annual statement
In Exact Globe, you can use the same preprinted form for the annual statement as in previous years. If you use these preprinted forms, you can print the employee’s annual statement even before you have installed the year-end version. Legally speaking, it is no longer necessary to include the ‘social insurance contributions’ code on the annual statement. However, Exact has decided to continue displaying this code and to change only the explanatory note. This explanatory note is not used to explain the printed code.

You can specify the settings for the Exact annual statement in the HRM layout maintenance under [System > General > Settings > Document Settings], in the ‘HRM’ section, on the ‘Annual Statements’ line. To do this, select the ‘Annual Statement’ option and the ‘Preprinted’ line. Then click ‘Edit.’ Among other things, you can specify the position of employees’ name and address information so that it prints correctly in relation to the windows on the envelopes.

The pre-printed forms can be ordered through www.exact.com/nl/services/salarisslips. If you have any questions about ordering, please contact us.

Employee annual statement on blank A4 paper
You can print the annual statement for the employee on blank A4-size paper if you select the ‘A4’ option. You can specify whether you want to include the tax-exempt expense allowance, which is recorded under the component type ‘Net expense allowance.’ If you do not check the ‘Include expense allowance’ option, no amount will be listed.
Document Exact Synergy
A third option for printing the annual statement is to create a document in Exact Synergy. In that case, the annual statement is linked directly as an HTML document to the specific employee’s employee record. This option is only available to customers who use Exact Synergy and have a connection to Exact Globe. If this is not the case, you will receive the message ‘Web address not found.’.
Email
A fourth option is to send the annual statement to your employees via email. To do this, the email setting from the employee’s payroll data is used. You can choose not to email the pay stub and annual statement; in that case, the setting must be set to ‘Do not email.’ To email the pay stub and annual statement to the email address specified on the ‘General’ tab in the ‘Employment’ section of the employee’s profile, select the ‘Employment’ option. This option is selected by default. The employee’s pay stub and annual statement are sent to the email address entered in the ‘Personal’ section of the ‘General’ tab in the employee’s profile if the ‘Personal’ option is selected. You can view this setting via [Payroll > Personnel > Maintenance > ‘Payroll’ tab > ‘Payroll Data’ button > ‘General’ tab]. This refers to the payroll data for the most recent period in the current pay year on file for the employee. If the ‘Do not email’ option is selected or if no email address is on file, the pay stub is displayed on the screen and you can print it.

Make sure you've also set the option correctly in [System > General > User Settings], on the Output tab, in the ‘Email’ section.

PDF (Print)/ PDF (Email)/ PDF (Synergy)
These options allow you to print the employee’s annual statement in PDF format or send it to employees via email. You can manage these layouts (PDF_MAIL and PDF_PRNT) through the ‘Annual Statements’ field in the document settings. The email address to which the PDF statement is sent depends on the ‘Email Address’ setting as defined in the payroll data (the ‘General’ tab). This works in the same way as described above under the heading ‘Email.’.

Step 4: Open the fiscal year

To create a new fiscal year, follow these steps:

Navigate to [System > General > Settings > General Settings].
Here, click the icon next to ‘Period-Date Table’ to open the period-date table.
Click the ‘New’ button.
The next screen automatically displays the upcoming fiscal year. Click the ‘Generate’ button to create a new fiscal year.

When setting up the new fiscal year, you have the option to generate an entire series of new fiscal years at once. If you choose this option, fiscal years for the following years will be created along with the new fiscal year. That way, you won’t have to repeat this step next year.

The fiscal year may have already been created, but it still needs to be opened. You can do this by following these steps:

Navigate to the menu path [System > General > Settings > General Settings].
Here, click the icon next to ‘Period-Date Table’ to open the period-date table.
Select the fiscal year for which you want to open the journals/periods.
Click the ‘Reopen Periods’ button. All journals/periods for the relevant fiscal year are now open.

Step 5: Open the Payroll Year

To open the pay year, follow these steps:

Make sure no other users are logged into the payroll system.
Check the highest pay year. If the new pay year has already been opened, you can reset the default pay year to the current pay year via [System > General > Settings > Payroll Settings]. You must then close the system and restart it.
Verify that the update to the year-end version has been installed. To take advantage of the salary changes, you must have at least the latest product update installed.
Via the menu path [System > General > Settings > Payroll Settings], click the ‘Open: Pay Year’ button and then the ‘Start’ button to open the new pay year. The special rate percentages are determined based on the taxable income from the previous payroll year. After opening the payroll year, an overview is displayed showing the old annual income for the special rate, the old special rate percentage, the new annual income, and the special rate percentage. An overview of the calculation rules is also displayed after opening the pay year.

You can also access the overview of the new calculation rules later via [Payroll > Reports > Calculation Rules]. It is important that you enter a reference date that falls within the pay year for which you want to view the calculation rules.

You can reopen a pay year multiple times in Exact Globe. This will recalculate the special rate percentages. You can also manually change these percentages for one or more employees via [Payroll > Reports > Employees > Special Rate] using the ‘Adjust Percentages’ option.

Depending on the configuration, the ‘Open Pay Year’ screen will display the option ‘Generate Leave Authorizations: Annually.’ This applies to the generation of authorized leave for absence types where the ‘Annually’ option is selected in the ‘Accumulation of Actual Authorized Leave’ field. The authorized leave is automatically generated when the next pay year is opened. However, this only occurs if the ‘Generate Leave Authorizations’ setting is checked in the ‘Payroll Settings.’ When opening the payroll year, you can check the ‘Generate leave entitlements: Annually’ option if you want to generate the leave entitlements for absence types with annual accrual for the following year.

If, for a specific reason, authorized leave cannot be generated, a summary will be displayed or printed explaining why the authorized leave is not being generated. The pay year will then be opened, but the authorized leave will not be generated for these types of absences. You can resolve the error and then reopen the payroll year, or generate the authorized leave from the absence balance list in [HR or Payroll > Reports > Absence Balance List] if you do not want to reopen the payroll year. However, you must first resolve the cause of the error message.

Step 6: Generate a Schedule

Before you can create a payroll entry, the work schedules for all employees must have been generated. A schedule is created for the employees based on their work schedules. Payroll can then be processed based on this schedule.

Navigate to the menu path [Payroll > Personnel > Maintenance].
Click the ‘Schedule’ button to review the selected employee’s schedule and make any necessary adjustments. By checking the ‘Fill schedule based on average number of hours per week’ option, you can have the average number of hours the employee works per week distributed proportionally across the available days.
You can then use the ‘Generate’ button to generate the schedule. You can also generate the schedule for all employees or for a specific group of employees, for example, based on cost center.
You can manage the standard work schedule for all employees under [System > General > Countries > Schedule]. You can also review the generated schedule for each employee and make changes if necessary under [Payroll > Personnel > MRS].

Generating the schedule can be a time-consuming task, depending on factors such as the number of employees, the date range, and the size of the database. We therefore recommend that you perform this task during a quiet time.

Step 7: Collective Bargaining Agreement Wizard

If you are working with a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) provided by Exact, it is best to run through the CBA wizard before you begin processing payroll for the new pay year. In the year-end version, successors for collective bargaining agreement components are created with the new contribution rates, and these are linked to the employees for whom the relevant collective bargaining agreement has been selected. This way, you do not have to create successors yourself.

Launch the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) Wizard via [Payroll > Personnel > CBA Wizard].
If you want to set up the premium rates for the new pay year, it is important that you have set the default pay year to this new year in the payroll settings under [System > General > Settings > Payroll Settings].

On the Exact customer portal, you’ll be kept informed of the changes implemented in the latest product updates. Be sure to check here to see if your organization’s collective bargaining agreements are already up to date, and don’t proceed through the wizard until they are.

Step 8: Customize Homemade Components

If you are working with a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) not included in Exact, or with your own policies, and the percentages and/or amounts have changed since the previous pay year, we recommend that you follow the steps below for these components:

Navigate to the menu path [Payroll > Components > Maintain], select the component you want to modify, and click the ‘Successor’ button. For the start date, enter the date of the first period in which the changes take effect. The existing component will automatically be assigned an end date. This is the start date of the successor minus one day.
After you have created a successor for the relevant component, link the successor to the employees using the component wizard. You can launch this wizard via [Payroll > Personnel > Component Wizard].
Use the ‘Successor’ option to assign successors to employees.
Under ‘Type of Change,’ enter the new percentage or amount in the ‘New’ field. Only those employees to whom the original component—for which you created the successor—is linked will be displayed here.
When you click the ‘Next’ button and then the ‘Done’ button, the successor is assigned to the employees.

Step 9: Adjust SV contributions

For the ZVW, Aof basic premium (formerly WAO/IVA/WGA), and AWf premium, the percentages from the calculation rules are used. If a different percentage per cost center has been entered for one of these components, that percentage is applied to employees assigned to that cost center. The different percentage per cost center always takes precedence over the percentage specified in the calculation rules.

For the Whk differentiated premium, the percentage varies by employer. In the maintenance of this ‘WHK-DIF’ component or per cost center, you must always define a percentage if this premium is to be calculated. If the ‘WHK-DIF’ component is not to be calculated, you can enter 0% as the percentage in this component. You must create a new successor each year if the percentage changes.

Step 10: Recover WHK differentiated premiums from employees

As of 2017, the ‘WHK-DIF’ premium consists of two components. The premium components for WGA-flex and WGA-fixed are combined into a single differentiated WGA premium. Employers may deduct a maximum of 50% of this WGA premium from their employees’ net pay. You may not deduct the ZW component from employees’ pay. This is a net deduction; this means it must be subtracted from the net pay.

In Exact Globe, this means that the user must create a component of the type ‘Net employee contribution percentage on taxable wages’ via [Payroll > Components > Maintain] in order to recover this contribution from the employees. With a total WGA percentage of 0.09%, half of 0.09%—0.045%—may be deducted from employees. For a salary of €2,000, this amounts to €0.90.
When maintaining this component, on the ‘Additional Information’ tab, in the ‘Deductible/Maximum Wage’ field, select ‘Day.’ In the ‘Maximum Wage’ field, you can then enter the maximum amount per day that applies to social insurance premiums. The maximum wage is then used as the basis—just as with social insurance premiums—when the employee’s social insurance wage exceeds the maximum wage.
You can then link the component to employees using the component wizard, which you can launch from [Payroll > Personnel > Component Wizard].

Step 11: Update Employee Pay Information

In Exact Globe, you can update the payroll data for multiple employees at the same time by following these steps:

Navigate to the menu path [Payroll > Personnel > Edit].
First, specify a process that the employee must follow.
You then have the option to set multiple criteria. For example, you might use this when you want to populate the ‘Declaration of No Personal Use of Company Car’ field for all employees for whom the ‘Company Car’ field is set to ‘Yes.’.
Before the change is implemented, you will see a summary. If necessary, you can still adjust the ‘New value’ for each employee at this stage.
You can then make the desired change by clicking the ‘Save’ button. The change will only be applied to employees who have a green checkmark in the ‘Change’ column.

Step 12: Implement a percentage-based pay raise

If you want to implement a pay raise of a specific (uniform) percentage for multiple employees, you can do so for all employees at the same time by following these steps.

Navigate to [Payroll > Personnel > Components Wizard], select the ‘Successor’ option, and click ‘Next.’.
On the next screen, you can select a group of employees. If you click ‘Next,’ you will be prompted to select the pay component to which the pay raise applies. Select the correct ‘Start Date’ and click ‘Update.’ If multiple salary components are involved, it is best to perform this step for each component individually.
After selecting ‘Next,’ you can specify the increase. You can choose ‘Replace,’ which allows you to enter an amount. To specify a fixed percentage increase, click the ‘Percentage’ option. In the “Percentage” field, enter the percentage of the increase. You can enter a value with up to 3 decimal places. The new amount can be rounded if desired.
In the summary that appears after you click ‘Next,’ you can still adjust the amounts. You can also remove employees from the selection by unchecking the box next to their names.
If you believe the information has been entered correctly, click ‘Next’ to apply the pay raise to the employees marked with a green checkmark.

You can implement a percentage-based pay increase in a pay component with pay scales as follows:

Navigate to [Payroll > Components > Maintain] and open the payroll component with pay scales.
Click the ‘Successor’ button here.
Next, enter the correct start date (this is the date on which the increase should take effect).
Save this successor and go to the ‘Pay Scales’ tab.
Click here for the ‘Change’ button.
Enter the percentage increase and select ‘OK.’.
Next, go to [Payroll > Personnel > Component Wizard] and select the ‘Successor’ option.
For the start date, enter the same date as the start date of the component: the date on which the pay raise is to take effect.
On the next screen, select the pay component in question.
You are now on the screen where you can specify the ‘Type of change.’ Select the ‘Verify’ option here and click ‘Next.’.
After completing this wizard, the raise will be applied to all employees to whom this component is linked.

The result

Once you have completed these steps, the old pay year will be closed and the new pay year will be opened. You can now begin processing employee pay for the new pay year. In addition to payroll, we also have step-by-step guides for performing year-end processing for: