I just did RTI and survived.

unlucky67

I've not been enjoying RTI ....but then maybe I was trying to be too clever...I signed up in Dec -thought I'd miss the chaos...
I phoned them first because I had a member of staff on maternity leave (not eligible for SMP) and it wouldn't let me tick the box to say they worked for us but not being paid ....also I had someone leaving ..told no problem - and it wasn't - until I came to do a P45 - it said to order a paper one and fill it in manually! Phoned helpline, told no that can't be right - hang on it is...submit it and it will let you print one - oh no it wouldn't - in the end went back to old Basic, entered employees pay details, printed a P45 - so submitted it twice..
Then all well until end of March (RTI version was very similar layout to the old Basic PAYE -much more user friendly) ...had the 'p11s' done, paid the staff -just needed to submit payments and end of year...opened Basic PAYE RTI to find they had just updated it all ...so 3 months getting used to it for it all to change..
Furious and no time to mess around, phoned helpline - and the advisor hadn't 'seen' the new version yet....took 30 mins on phone to get it all done...
Even things like printing P60s (I think it was) -page layout set up for landscape - so for every one I had to change printer setting ...not major I know but annoying...and badly thought out....
Then I hadn't printed out a summary for year ( equivalent to P35 and P14s) for accountant ...messing about trying, managed to produce another submission and it wouldn't let me delete it...another call to helpline - again they didn't know what to do - in the end told me to submit it again...and they couldn't tell me how to do a summary ...
Just about to do this months - dreading it ...wish I hadn't bothered signing up early..
(And I'm paid a set rate -so haven't been paid extra for all the hassle!:mad:)

randomnut

If its any help the accountant I moved to recently do a lot of their day-to-day stuff via an online web app so they've put a custom back end to it which does all the RTI stuff automatically. Keeps costs way down (I pay £59/mo for full accountancy services, for a contractor anyway)

If anyone is interested I can point you in the right direction to have a look as it takes a lot of the stress out. Probably PM me if you want info as I think posting it here would be advertising which isn't my intention. I just mean to point out that there are 'easy' solutions available.

unlucky67

Back again - just had a member of staff leaving - looking through couldn't see where to enter leavers' details ...(actually it has its own blue link on LHS but just couldn't see it)
Phoned helpline - told me to go into the employees details - said I've done that - told 'it will be there' - so we did it together - to get 'oh you are right, it isn't there ...hang on I'll transfer you to another dept' - and be cut off
Found it myself fiddling whilst waiting on hold ...(worried cos it said something about ordering a paper P45 and manually completing it if before May 13) - but actually all went to plan - I got a printed P45! ...
Another minor annoyance - fill in pay details - click and get a this is what you are telling us report (gross pay) ...then to the submission page, click on link to find how much needs to be deducted and another link to find out how much of that is tax and another how much is NI (Employers and employees) ... ...
Surely it can't be difficult for the tax and NI payments to appear after a single click -or even two clicks...
I know it is still newish and I am learning but it just is so counter intuitive...cr*p really ...