Why does my FPS automatically change to ‘correction to earlier submission’.

When the FPS is being sent the ‘FPS is filed late because…’ is automatically generating ‘correction to earlier submission’ without any user input.

The reason why this is happening is due to an employee leaving and the leave date being entered the period after, for example:

Mr John Doe has left the company in August, final pay has been processed and the payroll advanced in to September. Mr Doe’s August leave date is then entered when the software is currently sat in September.

In relation to this example, the leave date has been entered in the period after they left and because of this the September FPS will automatically make an amendment to the August payroll information so that the leaving date is set to the correct period. Because the FPS is correcting itself the ‘Correction to earlier submission‘ will generate.

The reason why this will continue for every period thereafter is that the FPS submission files the year to date figures on a period by period basis. Because of this, each period’s submission will be correcting (in relation to this example, again) the August submission to include the leave date.

Please be aware that the FPS generating this reason automatically is correct with the way that RTI works and cannot be changed. This will happen because the leaving date was not entered correctly in the period which the employee left.

The correct way to make someone a leaver is to process what is owed to them by organising their final pay first and then add a leave date in the ‘left‘ box in the employee details, you can then move forward into the next period which will cease any further payments and allow you to file the FPS. This notifies the HMRC of the PAYE information as well as the leaving information.