If you've discovered an error in a previous tax year (e.g. 2023/24), such as:

• Wrong pay amount

• Missed employee

• Incorrect tax/NIC

• Incorrect payment date

   

You can’t submit a correction via the current year’s payroll file. 

Instead, you need to:

1. Reopen the relevant year in BrightPay.

2. Make the necessary amendments.

3. Submit an Additional Full Payment Submission (FPS) to HMRC for the affected employees.

    

Step 1: Open the Previous Tax Year in BrightPay

1. In BrightPay, go to File > Open Employer.

2. Select the employer file for the correct tax year (e.g., 2024/25).

3. If you don’t see it, you may need to restore from a backup or locate it in your saved files.

Step 2: Reopen the Finalised Payslip(s)

1. Navigate to the pay period(s) where the error occurred.

2. Click on the employee’s payslip.

3. Click “Re-open Payslip” (this unlocks the payslip for editing).

   • You may need to go back sequentially if later periods are locked.

*Repeat this step for each period you need to adjust.

Make the Required Amendments

Examples:

• Correct gross pay, deductions, or hours

• Add a missed payment or bonus

• Fix tax codes or NIC categories

BrightPay will automatically recalculate tax, NIC, and net pay once changes are made.

Step 4: Re-Finalise the Payslip

After making changes:

1. Click Finalise Payslip again.

2. BrightPay will prompt you to send an Additional FPS.

Step 5: Submit the Additional FPS

1. Go to RTI Submissions > New > Additional FPS.

2. Select the affected employees.

3. Choose the correct tax month/week.

4. Submit the FPS to HMRC.

This tells HMRC you’re updating a previously reported payment for that tax period.

Repeat for Multiple Periods

If multiple pay periods had errors, repeat the above process for each one, in order — BrightPay requires corrections to be made sequentially.

Example:
If you need to correct April, May, and July:

• Reopen and fix April - Submit Additional FPS

• Then move to May - Submit Additional FPS

• Then July and so on…

Final Checks

• HMRC will overwrite the previously submitted data with your updated FPS values.

• If the tax year is very old (e.g. before 2020/21), HMRC may no longer accept RTI submissions electronically — in such cases, you must contact HMRC directly.

Note: After you have made and re-finalised any necessary changes to payslips, you must manually submit an Additional FPS to HMRC.
Go to RTI Submissions > New > Additional FPS, choose the affected employees and correct tax period, and then submit.

BrightPay does not prompt for this automatically; the submission must be initiated by the user.