Understanding payroll corrections

Summary

What corrections are and how they appear in Sage Payroll.

Resolution

This article explains: 

  • Why corrections happen
  • Your choices when you make a correction
  • How corrections affect other parts of your payroll
  • How to make a correction

Why corrections happen

When you select Complete Pay Run, this confirms that:

  • The pay for that period is complete and correct
  • This is the amount employees will get paid

We send all the details to Revenue straight away even if you've not actually paid your employees yet.

Sometimes you'll need to make changes to your pay run after completing it. This could be because:

  • You've forgotten to add something, such as an expenses claim or some overtime
  • You've entered the wrong amount, such as entering an employee's salary amount incorrectly

If these changes affect an employee's net pay, you can choose whether to show the difference in the next pay run.

If you choose to show it in the next pay run, you will see a Correction appear in the Pay section.

We work out the PAYE and PRSI for you, so the correction appears as a Net value.

Find the reason for the correction

If you are not sure why a correction is showing, you need to find which pay period changed.

You can use reports saved from the completed pay periods if you have them.

Use saved copies of reports

If you have saved a report from a pay run, you can use it to check for differences. This is with the report from before and after making changes to a pay run.

We recommend saving copies of the reports below when you complete a pay run:

  • Detailed report
  • Payslip summary
  • Employee net pay

In the example below, we will use the Detailed report to see the Employee Net Pay.

  1. Open the saved report you have for the most recent pay period.

  2. Re-run the report for the same period by selecting Pay Runs, then select the pay run you want to report on.

  3. Select Open the detailed report.

  4. Compare the net pay on both copies of your reports.

If the net pay does not match exactly, this is the period that changed

Image

 

NOTE:

You may need to compare the reports for each pay period until you find the difference. 

 

You can find a list of other payslip and employee net pay reports below.

Report name How to run this report

Detailed report

Select Pay Runs, then on the right side of the screen select the pay run you want to report on. Select Open the detailed report.
Payslip Summary Select Reporting, then Payslip Summary.

Use the drop-downs to select the correct Tax Year, Frequency and Period you want to re-run the report for, then select Generate. You can create a PDF copy of the report by selecting Export then PDF.
Employee Net Pay

Select Reporting then Employee Net Pay.

Use the drop-downs to select the correct Tax Year, Frequency and Period you want to re-run the report for, then select Generate. You can create a PDF copy of the report by selecting Export then PDF.

When you save a report, it is not updated with the changes made in that pay run until you run the report again.

Your choices when you make a correction

When you save a correction, your choices depend on what has happened to the pay run in Sage Payroll and what has happened in reality.

You can choose whether you want to show the difference in net pay in the next pay run:

save_corrections

 

  • If your employee will receive the difference in net pay the next time you pay them, choose Show difference in the next pay run
  • If your employee received the difference in net pay in the corrected pay run, choose Do not show difference in the next pay run

How corrections affect other parts of your payroll

Corrections may also have an impact on parts of your payroll, such as:

  • Employee Payslips
  • RTR submissions
  • Journals posted to your Accounts software

To learn what steps you need to take for each of these scenarios. Read our article How payroll corrections affect other parts of your payroll.

How to make a correction

If you need help making changes to a completed pay run, read our article Edit a completed pay run.



Related Solutions

Correct a pay run that is not completed.

Correct a completed pay run.

How payroll corrections affect other parts of your payroll.

Remove unwanted corrections.

How to explain corrections to your employees.

Solution Properties

Solution ID
230630093441710
Last Modified Date
Wed Aug 26 10:04:24 UTC 2026
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