Re-adding a returning leaver - Sage 50 Payroll integration

What to do if you rehire an employee that previously left and you integrate with Sage 50 Payroll (UK only).

Oliver Cook avatar
Written by Oliver Cook
Updated over a week ago

When you re-employ a leaver in Sage 50 Payroll, you create a new employee record for them in payroll. You treat their old and new records as separate employees.

No two records in a Sage HR company can have the same email address. This means you must consider which email address to use for the employee's new Sage HR profile, and how you want to deal with the employee's previous HR profile.

If you use the same email address in the new Sage 50 Payroll record that was used in their previous record, you will initially get an error when you try to upload their payslips.


Can you use a different email address for the employee's new record?

The easiest way to avoid any issues with a returning leaver is to use a different email address for the employee that was used in their old Sage HR profile.

If you use a different email address, this means the employee will then have two profiles in Sage HR. Their old profile should be listed in the terminated employees report, unless you deleted them. Their new profile will appear in the company directory.

The old profile will contain their payslips from their previous employment. Their new profile will contain their new payslips from now on.


Can't use a different email address for the employee's new record?

If you're unable to use an alternative email address for the employee, your next option depends on whether you have Sage 50 Payroll v29.02 and above installed.

v29.02 and above

After you install or update Sage 50 Payroll to v29.02. when you use the same email address for a returning leaver, when you upload their payslip you have the option to replace the payslips in the employee's existing terminated Sage HR profile. This doesn't delete their old profile and you won't lose their Sage HR data.

📎NOTE: Only the employee's previous payslips and P60s will no longer be available in their reused profile in Sage HR for the employee to access themselves. Those previous payslips and P60s still exist in their old payroll record which you can print or email to the employee if required.

You can find out more on the improved process in our Sage 50 Payroll guide, Payslip upload message: 'We've encountered a problem'.


v29.01 and below

📎NOTE: These steps require you to delete the old profile in Sage HR. This doesn't delete their record in Sage 50 Payroll and you won't need to delete their payroll record either.

Don't want to delete their HR record?

If you don't want to delete the employee's old record in Sage HR, then use a different email address for the employee's new record or update Sage 50 Payroll to v29.02 or above.

  1. Delete the employee's old record in Sage HR Online Services.​

  2. Disable Online Services in their old Sage 50 Payroll record and remove their email address.

  3. Enable Online Services in their new Sage 50 Payroll record and enter their email address.

  4. Add the returning employee to Sage HR Online Services. Either add them manually or add them by uploading a payslip.

We run through these steps in more detail in our Sage 50 Payroll guide.

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