How Do You Report Payroll Data When Your Financial Year Doesn’t Match the Tax Year?

BrightPay can run a single report across more than one tax year. From the Analysis section, you select the relevant period in the previous tax year, and BrightPay pulls the data from both years together into one report.

Why doesn’t a business’s financial year always match the tax year?

Many businesses run to a financial year that doesn’t match the UK tax year, which runs from the 6th of April to the 5th of April the following year. A business with a September-to-September financial year is one example. Its reporting period starts and ends part-way through a tax year.

What problem does a mismatched financial year cause for payroll reporting?

Reporting on payroll data across a tax year boundary previously meant running a separate report for each tax year and combining the results by hand. For a financial year that starts in September and ends the following August, that meant two reports, then manual work to join the figures.

How does cross tax year reporting work in BrightPay?

From the Analysis section, you can run a report on the current tax year only. Where BrightPay has been used across more than one tax year, you can instead run the report across multiple tax years in a single report. You select the relevant period in the previous tax year, and BrightPay pulls the data from both years together.

Can you give an example of a cross tax year report?

Take a business whose financial year runs from the 1st of September 2025 to the 31st of August 2026. That period covers part of the 2025/26 tax year and part of the 2026/27 tax year. With cross tax year reporting, you select the period from the earlier tax year, and BrightPay brings the data from both tax years into one report for the whole financial year.

What do you need before you run a cross tax year report?

BrightPay needs to hold payroll data for more than one tax year. The option to report across multiple tax years applies where BrightPay has been used across more than one tax year. If an employer has only used BrightPay for the current tax year, the report runs on that year only.

How is a cross tax year report different from running two reports?

Before, you ran one report for each tax year and combined them by hand. Cross tax year reporting replaces that with one report that draws on both years, so there is no combining step to repeat each time you need the figures.

Who benefits from cross tax year reporting?

Accountants and payroll bureaus who report for clients with non-standard financial years are the clearest case. An accountant preparing figures for a September year end, for example, can work from one report that follows the client’s financial year rather than splitting it at the 5th of April.

Employers running payroll in-house can use the same Analysis section to report across the boundary. The reporting follows the business’ own year, which keeps payroll figures aligned with the financial figures they are compared against.

Where do you find cross tax year reporting in BrightPay?

Cross tax year reporting is in the Analysis section of BrightPay. Open Analysis, choose to run a report on the current tax year only or across multiple tax years, and select the relevant period in the previous tax year when you want both years combined.

This content may have been developed with the assistance of AI tools. Content is reviewed by a member of the Bright team before publication. Guidance on legislation can be obtained from your industry body.