The Cycle to Work scheme is an Employee salary sacrifice where savings are made due to the fact there is no payment of Tax/PRSI/USC for both the Employee and Employer on the deduction.   This means that someone on the highest rate of tax could save almost half of the cost of a new bike and equipment. Only once in every 4 years can the Employer purchase a bike on behalf of an Employee.   The four-year span between tax breaks is counted by tax year. If you bought a bike in 2016, regardless of the month, you could buy a new bike and avail of the next tax relief in January 2020. Currently the amount is restricted to €1,250 in respect of bicycles or €1,500 in respect of ‘e-bikes’ as part of the Government’s Jobs Stimulus Plan, repayable over a 12 month period which includes equipment – locks, hats and lights etc.  The invoice for the bike should be issued to the Employer from one of the designated suppliers.  The Individual themselves is responsible for insurance and any health issue should they arise. The amount which is to be repaid to the Employer should be divided by whatever payment frequency is used to be paid back to the Employer.  Where the deduction crosses a calendar tax year please take note of the month in which the deduction ceases. For instance, €950 to be repaid weekly is 950/52 = 18.27 per week To add the deduction to an Employee

1. Select Payroll │Employees
2. On Deductions Tab
3. Enter the required information for the deduction.

• "Bike" in Code,
• "Bike to Work" in name,
• Select salary reduction.
• Select Timed,
• Enter the Amount of pay periods,
• Enter the amount,
• Select Department,
• Add the deduction to the Employee,
• Save to record the changes on the Employee’s information

Select Yes to save a non standard deduction.

Set up Email text

Prior to emailing payslips to employees the text for the Email should be set up

• Open Payroll | Data
• Change Email text.
  • Adjust the text as required
  • Select File Save to confirm changes.
  • Close the box to return to the main menu
  • File and Close or select the X on the top right.

On the Employee's personal tab modify each employee's information to include both an email address and password.

• Open the required employee personal tab,
• Enter the email address for the employee,
• Enter an agreed password with at least 8 characters including both lower and upper case letters, numbers and symbols eg $ or *,
• Select Save.

Email an employee payslip from Payroll run

• Select Email Payslips from the top task bar during the Payroll run.
• An email with the encrypted payslip as an attachment automatically generates individual emails in Microsoft Outlook for all Employees with email addresses and passwords previously entered .

Re-sending a payslip from the Employee Payroll tab.

• Select the Employee then the Payroll tab.
• Select the required payment.
• Use the right mouse button and select email payslip.
• The Outlook message will be generated.

Re-sending a payslip from Reports Email payslips

• Select the criteria required ie monthly frequency then pay period.

• Once employees are chosen send emails to required employees.

A ROS Digital certs have to be renewed every 2 years. When an end user has updated or replaced a ROS Digital Certificates on the ROS Portal that new cert is required to be added to ODB Payroll to replace the redundant cert. If you wish to attach a new ROS cert please follow the steps below.

Download a new Cert from ROS

On the computer that your ROS digital cert is already set up on, go to the ROS login page, and click Manage My Certificates from under Select Certificate. Move to Manage My Certificates you will see two sections, Load Certificates, and Certificates already loaded in this browser. This section shows what ROS digital certs are already loaded on this device. Click the symbol under save on the cert you want to use on this computer (you may only have one cert). A popup will show on screen asking if you want to Save or Cancel. Click Save. Depending on what browser you are using on your machine the cert (which is a .p12 or a .bac file type) will either save automatically in your Downloads folder, or ask which folder you would like to save in. You need to take note of this folder for later. Once you have downloaded and saved your ROS digital certificate (.p12/.bac file), you may need to transfer this file to the machine you use with your payroll. There are a number of ways you can do this, using a USB key, using online storage such as Dropbox, or emailing the file,etc. Once you have transferred the .p12/.bac file onto the new machine you will then be able to browse to this location through your payroll software and link your ROS account to your payroll To attach the new ROS Digital Cert to the Payroll:

• Open payroll
• Select Data │System

• Select ROS Cert
• Browse to the saved location of the cert

• Select the *.P12 or *.bac file for the required payroll.
• Enter the updated password.

• Select Validate, once the Password has been validated.
• Select ok.
• Select Save.

Please select links for the relevant 2021 ODB Lowdown edition:

• ODB Lowdown #1 Budget 2022 with Payroll tips - Oct Edition
• ODB Lowdown #2 Cybersecurity - Nov edition
• ODB Lowdown #3 Year End Steps - Dec Edition
• ODB Lowdown #4 Christmas opening hours - Christmas Hours

Please select links for the relevant 2022 ODB Lowdown edition:

• ODB Lowdown #5 Single Public Service Pension Scheme, ASC & Payroll hint - Jan edition
• ODB Lowdown #6 Encrypt payslips - Feb Edition
• ODB Lowdown #7 Calculate holiday pay @ 8% - Mar Edition
• ODB Lowdown #8 Pay element - Apr Edition
• ODB Lowdown #9 Salary Code - May Edition
• ODB Lowdown #10 Reconnecting returning Staff - June Edition
• ODB Lowdown #11 Budget update 22 etc - Sept edition
• ODB Lowdown #12 Deleting staff, Staff IDs and Illness Benefit Oct 22 issue
• ODB Lowdown #13 AutoEnrolment and Statutory Sick Pay Nov 22 edition.
• ODB Lowdown #14 Bike to Work & Check Submissions Dec 22 edition.

Please select links for the relevant 2023 ODB Lowdown edition:

• ODB Lowdown #15 USC Rates & Tax basis Jan edition
• ODB Lowdown #16 Statutory Sick Pay & LPT Feb Edition
• ODB Lowdown #17 GDPR & Exam Subsidiary Mar Edition
• ODB Lowdown #18 Enhanced Reporting & Bank File generation April edition
• ODB Lowdown #19 Updated ROS Cert & PRSI Classes May edition
• ODB Lowdown #20 Copying pay elements & ERR June Edition
• ODB Lowdown #21 Auto Enrolment & Enhanced Reporting Requirement Oct issue

• Forename,
• Surname,
• Staff ID,
• Pay frequency
• PPS number
• Save the information entered.

• Select Add new employee
• Enter the PPSN
• Select Yes to add the employee information into the current tax year.

• Select File
• Choose Request RPN for a new Employee
• Select save to accept all modifications.

• Select File request RPN for New Employee, this updates the individual’s Tax and USC information.
• Modify the PRSI class and Category if required.  Select Save to confirm all information entered.

• Add any required pay elements.  Select save to confirm changes.

When a member of staff becomes a Public Servant they are auto enrolled into the Single Public Servant Pension Scheme since 2013's Finance Act.  This Scheme deduction is catered for in ODB Payroll. For the employee in question select the personal tab.  Fill in information on the member of staff on the bottom of the screen.  Add the tick to the Subject to SPS.  If this employee has previously been marked as part time please remove the part-time tick. Enter the

• Employment Status
• Gender
• Pension Type
• Pension start date
• Civil Status
• Country
• Gross Pension if amount available.

Where the new employee has paid SPS previously the following data needs to be entered

• Pension adjustment
• Supplementary amount
• Normal Retirement date
• Previous Referable Amount
• Previous Gross Pension
• Previous Supplementary amount

Complete the remaining information if it is not auto completed.

• Membership Category – Standard Accrual
• Select Save to modify the Employee's information

Once all all the information on the personal tab has been completed move to the salary tab, select the pay element which falls into the SPS category.  Place a tick in the SPS box and select Change.  Where an Employee also falls into the ASC category put a tick in the ASC box.  Select Save again. Now to enter the deduction for SPS move to the Deduction tab and Select the Code Single Pens.  Should this employee also falls into the ASC category, they should be put on ASC Single this deduction percentage falls to 6.66%.  Click on save to ensure all modifications have been changed for your employee.

The last step, is setting the pay element which falls into the SPS category by moving to the Main menu select Data then Pay types.  Find the relevant pay element and pick it up then drop it on SSP and select Save. Each year the State pension rate is changed in March and that will be automatically modified in the payroll. All payments included in the SPS will appear on an employee's Payroll CSP tab. Form Reports Payroll Employee Single Public Service Pension Details displays all the payments for all SPS staff.

For further information on Single Public Service Pension Scheme https://singlepensionscheme.gov.ie/.   Single Public Service Pension Scheme Calculator Tool https://singlepensionscheme.gov.ie/for-employers/administrator-tools/referable-amounts-calculation-template/referable-amounts/

Since PAYE modernisation in 2019 Revenue generates monthly reports by date which makes it important that the pay weeks match the calendar months in order for the monthly reports to match the Revenue monthly report.  At the start of the year ODB Payroll set default dates for each month please ensure that they match your pay dates. To change the tax year structure

• Choose either Data│Tax & PRSI details │Tax year structure or
• Main Menu │Tax & PRSI details Tab│ Tax year structure

This displays the current year payment structure reflecting the breakdown of months and tax weeks. At the start of a Tax year a check should be made to ensure this breakdown matches the organisations. If during a calendar year a period is incorrect that period may only be modified when there have been no monthly transactions during the period. To change a month say Month 11 select the correct line and then change week numbers at the bottom of the screen and select Save to make the change. Alternatively move to the End Week in the grid for the required month and modify the information and press return. The change will replicate throughout the year. Check that the correct amount of weeks is display in the Tax year either a 52/53 week year then Save to make the adjustment. Click on Ok to accept the changes then Close to revert to the Main Menu.

An SPS Benefit statement should be given to all SPS employees annually prior to the 30^th June. Currently this statement is available on the individuals Payroll CSP tab.

• Open the Current Year payroll
• To move to the Previous year Select Payroll
• Select tax year ie 2020

• Payroll informs you that the current tax year is the selected year – 2020.
• Find one of the required individuals.
• Move to the Payroll CSP tab.

• Select Benefit Statement.
• Repeat for each SPS employee.

To return to the current tax year either

• Select Payroll then
• Select tax year or
• Alternatively close the payroll.

The Revenue Employer Helpline can be contacted by calling 01 7383638. Please note the helpline is only available between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.