Question 1

Smart Formulas sourced from UpSheets

Accepted Answer

Before You Begin

Please read this entire article before starting to use this functionality in order to understand how it works and what changes will be made in Xero.

Smart Formulas are not a substitute for payroll or legal advice, nor are they intended to relieve you of your obligation to comply with the Legal Requirements applicable to your business.

Because this functionality creates pay items and assigns them to employees in Xero, we recommend for testing purposes to use the Xero Demo Company (it is free and can be reset at any time).

Settings

To be able to assign UpSheets Smart Formulas to Employees you must first make sure you have enabled this in your settings:

Select Settings from the menu and enable the Smart Formula Option, then Save.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/j0x2GOjMS3/resources/q8VvcQvWz7/settings.png (settings)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/j0x2GOjMS3/resources/btzqWLq0CC/enable_smart_formula.png (enable_smart_formula)

The following screen will then be available by selecting Smart Formulas from the menu:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/j0x2GOjMS3/resources/c4lyp0QLpc/smart_formulas_screen.png (smart_formulas_screen)

Assign Smart Formulas

To assign a smart formula to employee(s) simply select the rows in the table for each employee. You may use CTL or Shift to assign multiple rows a once. The following screen will be displayed and allow you to select the appropriate award and enter the base rate.

Some awards have automated allowances. These can be enabled or disabled as required.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/j0x2GOjMS3/resources/L3Kr7Q7fjc/smart_formulas_assign.png (smart_formulas_assign (1).png)

After assignment, all of the rates and allowances are displayed for each employee.A new pay item will be created for the award in Xero and will also be added to the pay template for each employee and set as the ordinary earnings rate.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/j0x2GOjMS3/resources/tMQ7dg3kOV/smart_formula_assigned.png (smart_formula_assigned (1).png)

In Xero, the employee pay templates and ordinary earnings rates will be updated:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/j0x2GOjMS3/resources/VVA6lzUQMU/smart_formuls_xero_pay_template.png (smart_formuls_xero_pay_template)

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/j0x2GOjMS3/resources/Tg1MbJb5oa/smart_formula_xero_oer.png (smart_formula_xero_oer)

Updating Rates

Base Rates and Allowances may optionally be updated for each employee individually by selecting a row and clicking Edit Rate. The pay template for the employee will then be updated with the updated rate.

Rates that are set as a multiple of the base rate may not be updated as these are calculated automatically.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/j0x2GOjMS3/resources/adyBdkdDGy/smart_formulas_update_rate.png (smart_formulas_update_rate (2).png)

Public Holidays

If you have formulas that need to use public holidays - please follow these instructions to set them up in UpSheets.

Importing Timesheets

You are now ready to import your timesheets from a CSV file using the normal process from the Import screen. If you need a sample file with your own data to test, select the following options after clicking Download Sample File (along with tracking codes if you use them):

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/j0x2GOjMS3/resources/IayPHqZNpz/smart_formula_download.png (smart_formula_download)

Removing Smart Formulas

To remove a smart formula from the employee(s) simply select the employees in the table and click Clear. UpSheets will attempt to remove all assignments from their pay templates and reset the Ordinary Earnings rate. If there is any problem doing this, it will need to be updated manually in Xero. Any Pay Items created are not automatically removed and should also be inactivated/deleted from Xero via the Payroll Settings as required.

Question 2

Missing Type Field

Accepted Answer

Occasionally Xero may be missing some Pay Item setup that needs to be resolved to upload data.

The usual cause of this error is that there are Pay Items that do not have a Type defined. They can easily be seen as they have a warning icon next to them (Navigation: Payroll Settings> Pay Items).

The warning icon can be seen below:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/j0x2GOjMS3/resources/uUJ1DpuXsf/pay_items_missing_types.png (pay_items_missing_types)

Opening it shows the Type field:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/j0x2GOjMS3/resources/sOr3vWbzka/allowance_type.png (allowance_type)

The Type (and optionally the Category) must be set and the Pay Item saved:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/j0x2GOjMS3/resources/8gbjtfy7Hn/allowance_type_set.png (allowance_type_set)

THESE STEPS MUST BE COMPLETED FOR ALL PAY ITEMS THAT SHOW THE WARNING ICON

Question 3

Leave already exists for employee

Accepted Answer

In order to prevent duplicates, Xero does not allow leave requests for the same employee, start date and finish date.

If you receive this error, it is usually because the leave has already been entered or uploaded. If you do wish to upload it, you can do so buy altering either the start or end date so it is no longer a duplicate.

Question 4

Can I upload multiple payslip adjustments and summarise them?

Accepted Answer

Default Behaviour

By default each earnings row in your upload file will be loaded as a unique row on your payslip, just as in your file.

For example, if your file has following lines, they will be loaded as individual lines on the payslip.

To Allow Duplicates

Go to your user settings, select the option Sum totals for duplicate payslip adjustments and save.

When this setting is on, it will add up the totals for all duplicate records with the same type and rate and upload a single paylsip line in Xero.

You will receive a warning to indicate the totals will be summarised and can turn the feature on and off at any time.

For example, if your file has following lines:

Will be uploaded as follows:

Question 5

How can I load Earnings Adjustments as Timesheets in the same file

Accepted Answer

When loading Timesheets and Earnings Adjustments in the same file, UpSheets will assume the Earnings lines are meant to be treated as Earnings Adjustments, not timesheets. If you wish the opposite to happen, you can either load the file without the Adjustment option selected as below:

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/j0x2GOjMS3/resources/jw7nm9IWbS/12.png (12.png)

Or alternatively, choose Setting from the top-right menu and select Prefer timesheets not adjustments. When any lines are loaded, they will now be treated as Timesheets and not Adjustments.

Question 6

Can I upload Full Name instead of First / Last Name?

Accepted Answer

UpSheets gives you the option to either load:

First Name and Last Name; or
Full Name

If you have a full name field in your spreadsheet that you wish to split into columns, you can use the Text to Columns feature in Excel or a formula as below to separate the Full Name into First/Last.

These formulas would split the value "Mary Smith" in cell A2 into "Mary" and "Smith". You can place them in new columns and copy them down to apply to all of your data.

First Name: =LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2,1)-1)

Last Name: =RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-FIND(" ",A2,1))

Question 7

This deduction may make the payslip total ($0.00) negative

Accepted Answer

This warning is displayed as the paylsip may not be able to be uploaded if the total is negative.

This depends on a number of factors, so is just a warning and can be ignored in many circumstances. However, if the default values combined with the lines being uploaded would cause the total to be negative Xero will not allow it to be uploaded and an error will be shown after the upload is attempted.

If the upload fails, either:

Question 8

Can I upload timesheets that are after the current pay period for the employee?

Accepted Answer

Unfortunately not, this is a limitation of Xero.

You can only create/update timesheets for the employee's next pay run or for the period of an existing Draft Pay Run.

In order to add timesheets for the next period, you must first create the current pay run.