Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) in QuickBooks Online Advanced Payroll

Here's a video on how to add a Statutory Maternity Leave:

To add a new Statutory Maternity Leave:

1. Select Payroll, then select Employees.
2. Select the name of the employee whom you want to pay.
3. Select Statutory Payments, then select Add.
4. From the dropdown ▼, select Statutory Maternity Leave.
5. Select Start date and Baby due date.
6. The Average weekly earnings are displayed. Select Override to edit it.
7. A message displays showing whether or not the employee is eligible for SMP. Select View log to see the details.
8. The Weeks payable is already calculated. You can edit this if required.
9. Enter Weeks already paid, if applicable.
10. Select Calculation type.
    • Select Weekly payments if you want to pay SMP in full weeks. For example, if leave starts on a Tuesday, SMP will be applied the following Wednesday.
    • Select Align with pay period if you want to pay SMP according to your pay period dates.
11. Select Offset SMP if you would like the payment to be offset against basic pay. If not selected, only the statutory payment will be made.
12. The table shows the SMP due and the Status.
13. Under Advanced settings, select the applicable options:
    • Set employer pension protection: You can set up how much you want the employer pension to be. The amount you enter here will override the amount calculated in the pay run.
    • Do not pay: Select a reason from the dropdown ▼. This will apply the SMP 1 form to the employee.
    • Pay lump sum: Select this if you want to pay a lump sum to the employee.
    • SMP adjust: Enter an amount here if you need to make any adjustment. For example, if you have given a pay rise to the employee, which will affect the calculation, you can enter the adjustment amount here.
14. To upload any document, select Add under Attachments, then follow the steps to upload it. For example, a Mat B1 form.
15. Enter Notes, if any.
16. Once you're done, select Save.

A record is created under Statutory Maternity Pay section on the Statutory Payments page. It'll be added to the pay runs automatically.

You can download a payment record at any stage as a PDF. You can even send it to the employee portal as a report. The report lists all the payments that are due or have been paid. The payment status for a Pay Date changes from Pending to Paid after the pay run.

To download a payment record as a PDF:

1. Select Payroll, then select Employees.
2. Select the name of the employee whose SMP record you wish to download.
3. Select Statutory Payments.
4. From the Statutory Maternity Pay section, select Payment record ▼, then select Download PDF.

A PDF is generated and downloaded.

To send the report to the employee portal:

1. Select Payment record ▼, then select Publish to employee profile from the Statutory Maternity Pay section.

A success message is displayed indicating that the SMP record has been published to the employee profile.

To edit a Statutory Maternity Pay record:

1. Select Payroll, then select Employees.
2. Select the name of the employee whose SMP record you wish to edit.
3. Select Statutory Payments.
4. From the Statutory Maternity Pay section, select the pencil icon for the record you wish to edit.
5. Update the fields as required.
6. Select Save.

The Statutory Maternity Pay record is updated.

You can also edit the SMP within a pay run. You can offset the individual weeks to pay extra or you can include additional weeks in the pay run by selecting the Include box for the weeks you want to include in the pay run.

You can delete a Statutory Maternity Pay record if no payment has been made to that employee.

To delete a record:

1. Select Payroll, then select Employees.
2. Select the name of the employee whose SMP record you wish to delete.
3. Select Statutory Payments.
4. From the Statutory Maternity Pay section, select the bin icon for the record you wish to delete.
5. Select Delete to confirm.

The record is deleted from the Statutory Maternity Pay section.