There’s lots of evidence that many businesses still aren’t prepared for the event of Real Time Information.

If you use a payroll service such as an accountant, check that all employee information they currently hold is correct. If you run your own payroll function,  ensure that your your payroll software is/will be RTI compliant and that your records are accurate, specifically around: 

• Full and proper names (not nicknames or shortened versions)
• Correct National Insurance Numbers (or passport numbers if NI number not available)
• Correct addresses
• Remove dummy/temporary references such as ‘A N Other’ or ‘not known’
• Correct dates of birth

We’ll be sense checking all employee data info we hold for our payroll clients then sending it to them to request verification. RTI validation reports are available with some software, however this still may not get around the issue of nicknames and so this is where good old-fashioned sense checks come into play.

The message is simple: if you’re an employer, RTI should be on your radar now. Cleanse your data to save yourself a heap of hassle when you are required to start your RTI submissions.

Curo

December 2012

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