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Backdating statutory maternity pay (SMP)
Backdating statutory maternity pay (SMP)
Rebecca Russell avatar
Written by Rebecca Russell
Updated over a week ago

When entering statutory maternity, PayFit doesn't automatically backdate this type of leave to a previous month. This means that if you enter the leave on your employee's record in the following month, you need to manually calculate the adjustment and add it to this month's pay.

Calculate the adjustment

Note: If you have missed multiple months, or if the calculation spans two tax years, our Help Centre article explains how to calculate the missed SMP. Alternatively, you can use HMRC's parental leave calculator. Once you have the SMP to pay, please continue to the Add the adjustment to this month's pay section.

You'll need to identify if the employee is paid weekly, or daily, and the correct rate to use:

  1. From the employee's record, click the Leaves tab.

  2. Under the Parental leave section, from the Parental leave type drop-down, select Maternity Leave.

  3. Click Customise maternity pay settings.

  4. Check if the SMP calculation method is set to Daily (calendar days), Daily (work days) or Weekly, then click Cancel.

  5. To check the daily or weekly rate to use, click the Payslip breakdown tab, then Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP).

    Note: If you've missed multiple months, or it spans two tax years, you may have multiple rates to choose from.

  6. Find the daily or weekly rate to use (usually the third line down).

  7. Finally, multiply the missing number of days or weeks from last month, by the daily or weekly rate.

Add the adjustment to this month's pay

To add the underpayment calculated in the previous section;

  1. From the Payslip breakdown tab, click Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP).

  2. Add together the underpayment calculated earlier, and the Total SMP this month.

  3. Click the Leaves tab.

  4. Under the Parental leave section, from the Parental leave type drop-down, select Maternity Leave.

  5. Click Customise maternity pay settings.

  6. Next to Overwrite the employee's SMP, enter the value calculated in Step 2.

  7. Click Save.

The Payslip breakdown tab should now show the new value you entered, correcting the employee's statutory maternity pay.

As the value has been correctly entered as SMP, the additional amount that you're able to reclaim from HMRC will show on your Employer payment record report from the Company reports section.

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