Important Information - Please Read
Access Pay and Bill core compatibility
New functionality released for Access Pay and Bill 2.0 will often require a compatible version of Access Pay and Bill core, both the desktop application and the automation services. The latest version of Pay and Bill core required is 26.6.4.0 to view the latest changes and features within this Pay and Bill 2.0 product release. The latest version of the Automation Installer is required.
Also, we would love to hear your feedback! Within Pay and Bill 2.0, you should see a user survey appear when you first log into the product. Please engage with us and provide your feedback on the product. We build our products for you, so your feedback is essential for us to make sure we are on track and providing you with the features and value relevant to your business from the product.
Adding Users in Pay & Bill 2.0 — Evo Organisation Admin Requirement
To add new users within Pay & Bill 2.0, the operator performing the action must have two levels of access: the admin permission within Pay & Bill and the Organisation Role of Administrator within Evo.
This is a requirement of Evo, not Pay & Bill. Evo only allows Organisation Admins to view the email addresses of other users. If the operator does not have this Evo-level access, the Add User screen will not return any users to select from and attempting to free-type an email address will result in an error.
If your organisation has the "Hide users' email addresses" setting enabled in Evo Members Options, only an Evo Organisation Admin will be able to add new users to Pay & Bill. Other operators will still be able to edit and delete existing users.
🤓 Tip: We recommend ensuring that at least two users within your organisation hold the Organisation Role of Administrator in Evo and have the Admin group permissions within Pay & Bill. This provides continuity of access if your primary administrator is unavailable.
New Features
Previous Year Update – RTI Procedures
You can now run a Previous Year Update directly in Access Pay & Bill 2.0, so you no longer need to go back to the older legacy version of Pay & Bill to complete this part of your payroll processing.
Where to find it: Payroll ; RTI Procedures ; Previous Year Update
When you open the Previous Year Update screen, you'll see the following information.
These details are shown for your reference and cannot be edited:
Year - the tax year the update will run against.
Start of Current Employer Tax Year - the date your employer's current tax year begins.
End of Current Employer Tax Year - the date your employer's current tax year ends.
How does it work?
The Previous Year update is defaulted so that any Payroll adjustments for a previous year are collated, and a Previous Year Update is created for the worker.
To invoke the Previous Year Update, click the Run button within the footer bar on screen.
If you wish to exit the screen without invoking the Previous Year Update, click the Cancel button within the footer bar. You will be taken to the home screen.
How do I know if the Previous Year Update has been created successfully?
A confirmation message is displayed on screen to let you know that the process has been queued.
Navigate to Reports ; My Processes Queue and the Previous Year Update will show as P14/P60 procedure.
Click the process name link on the screen; the details of the Previous Year Update process will be displayed.
The Previous Year Update will be created and available in the Payroll ; PAYE Online ; PAYE Online ; Outbox folder.
📌 Note: PAYE Online is coming soon to Pay and Bill 2.0, but in the meantime, you can find this in the desktop product.
Employer Payment Submission (EPS)
Submitting your Employer Payment Summary to HMRC is now quicker and simpler. We've brought EPS submissions into PAB 2.0 with a clear, guided screen that walks you through each step, so that you can recover statutory payments faster and stay on top of your RTI obligations without the hassle of the old desktop process.
Where to find it: Pay and Bill ; Payroll ; RTI Procedures ; Employer Payment Submission.
A guided stepper takes you through the submission from start to finish, showing your progress and letting you step back to review earlier sections at any time. Behind the scenes, the screen works out your available periods automatically based on the UK tax year and pulls together an accurate year-to-date figure by combining the current period with everything submitted before it so you're not left doing that maths yourself.
Built-in checks cover the rules HMRC requires around payment dates, inactive periods, scheme closures, final submissions, the Apprenticeship Levy, Employment Allowance limits, and CIS reclaims, catching issues before you submit rather than after. If a period has already been submitted, the screen automatically switches to a read-only view so nothing gets changed by accident. And if you're due a refund, you'll be prompted to add your bank details so HMRC can pay it straight back to you.
In short, this means:
Faster cash flow, since statutory payments are recovered sooner rather than absorbed as a cost.
Fewer errors and less manual admin, with validation built in and figures calculated for you.
Reduced risk of HMRC penalties, thanks to deadline and compliance checks built into the flow.
Better visibility of your HMRC position, supporting more accurate cash flow forecasting.
A clear audit trail of every EPS submission, useful evidence if HMRC ever asks questions.
Easier management across multiple PAYE schemes, if you're processing EPS for several clients or employers.
Statutory Forms (PAYE Form Enquiry)
Managing a worker's statutory PAYE forms is now much more straightforward. So that you can handle starters and tax code changes with confidence, you can look up a worker, see every PAYE form submitted for them, check on processing and submission details, and create new statutory forms as HMRC requires — all from one place.
Where to find it: Pay and Bill ; Data Entry ; Workers ; [Select Worker] ; Statutory Forms.
Once you've selected a worker, their key details - Employer, Tax Code, NI Number, Previous Pay, Previous Tax, and their Student Loan and Postgraduate Loan status - are shown alongside a live-updating header so you can always see who you're working with. Every form they've had is listed in date order, each one tagged by type and status, so you can find what you need at a glance.
Click a form to see a quick summary or open it in full to review everything from when it was entered through to who processed it and when it was sent.
Creating a new form is just as simple - pick the form type from a dropdown, with a helpful info panel on hand if you need a reminder of what each type covers, and PAB 2.0 will automatically check for and prevent duplicate open loan forms, so you can't accidentally create a conflicting record.
Pay and Bill Search App
The Pay and Bill Search app has been substantially reworked as part of PAB 2.0. This is the tool your payroll users use day-to-day when handling queries from workers and clients, giving them fast, reliable access to the information callers ask about most so that questions can be answered in a single call rather than being escalated or followed up later.
As well as the deductions and holiday capabilities covered above, this release also brings a fully built-out client experience, richer payslip and document handling, and a smoother, more reliable way of finding and switching between the people you're looking for.
The app works in two modes - one for looking up worker queries, one for looking up client queries - with an easy switch between the two from a settings panel, so users always have the right view for the call they're on.
Handling Worker Queries
When a worker calls in, you can look them up by name or reference (including archived workers, if needed) and pull up their profile straight away. The worker's details now open in a clear summary card showing their status (Active or Archived) and employment type at a glance, along with contact details that can be copied with a single click.
From there, you can check a worker's timesheets, with a full daily hours breakdown, or open their payslips. The payslip view has been enhanced with a detailed breakdown covering company and worker information, each deduction itemised, and year-to-date figures, so there's no need to dig through several screens to answer a pay query.
A single payslip can be downloaded as a PDF on the spot, several can be selected and downloaded together in one go, and a payslip can now be emailed directly to the worker's registered email address.
📌 Note: The email option is only available once a payslip document exists and the worker has an email address on file, so you can be confident it will go through successfully.
You can also check holiday balances and the status of any holiday request, and look at a worker's current and past assignments, jumping straight through to the related timesheets and payslips without having to search again.
Adding a Deduction
You can now add or update a worker's deductions directly from the Search app, rather than needing to action this elsewhere. To add one, simply pick the deduction type, enter the amount, and set an effective date - so a query about a new deduction can be resolved there and then, on the call.
To help prevent mistakes, a few checks run automatically behind the scenes:
Student Loan and Pension deductions can't be added for Contractor workers.
Direct Earnings Attachment (DEA) deductions can only be added for PAYE workers.
Child Maintenance (CMEC) deductions require the worker to already have a National Insurance number on file.
Cheque Charge and Period Related deductions can't be entered with a negative amount.
Period Related deductions must have an effective date that falls within a valid tax period.
The same deduction can't be added twice for the same worker, and an update can only be made to a deduction the worker already holds.
If a deduction isn't valid for a particular worker, the system will let the user know at the point of saving, so there's no risk of an incorrect deduction being applied.
Requesting Holiday
Submitting a holiday request on a worker's behalf is now built into the same screen used to check their holiday balance. You simply select a Start Date and the system checks that the amount being requested doesn't exceed what the worker has available before it's submitted.
Because holiday rules vary from employer to employer, a few things are applied automatically behind the scenes depending on how the employer has been set up:
Some employers only allow holiday to be booked in the current or a previous period - for these, a request dated too far in the future will be blocked. Others permit future requests, so this restriction won't apply.
Some employers allow a worker to request more holiday than they currently have available, shown as a warning the user can confirm and proceed with; for others, this is a hard stop and the request can't go ahead.
Each employer can set a maximum number of holiday days a worker can request in a year (which can also be overridden for an individual worker) - a request that would take a worker over this limit will be rejected.
Depending on how the employer tracks holiday, in hours or in days, the amount entered is automatically converted to match the worker's correct unit, so users don't need to work this out themselves.
This means users can confidently take and submit a holiday request over the phone, with the system applying the correct employer-specific rules automatically rather than relying on manual checks.
Handling Client Queries
You can look up the client by name or reference and see their contact and account details immediately, laid out in the same clear summary card style used for workers.
They can review or manage timesheets tied to that client's engagements and pull up invoices - searching and filtering the list, downloading them individually or all at once as a zip, or emailing an invoice or credit note straight to the client, with the option to password-protect any of these.
Client assignments and the workers engaged on each one are also visible at a glance, with the invoices and assignments lists loading and filtering independently, so users aren't left waiting for the whole client record to refresh every time they narrow a search.
Easier Setup and Switching
The settings panel has also been redesigned to make it quicker to get into the right context before a call. You can pick the correct instance from a dropdown, then search for the right employer using a type-ahead picker rather than scrolling a long list, and switch between Worker and Client mode from the same place.
Switching mode automatically returns to the home search screen, so there's no confusion between a worker search half-typed and a client one, or vice versa.
Smarter Recent Searches
Recent searches are now remembered separately for each employer an user works with, and separately again for worker and client searches, so switching between employers or between call types no longer mixes up the recent list with irrelevant results.
The five most recent searches are kept for each employer, across the three employers most recently worked in, keeping the list relevant without it growing unmanageably long.
Pay and Bill V2 Fixes
This release includes the following fixes:
2392638 - Clients: Default Switch for a Rate or Ad-hoc Not Saved
Navigation: Pay and Bill ; Data Entry ; Clients
We have fixed an issue on the Client screen where the default switch for a rate or ad-hoc item was not being saved. Previously, if you added a rate or ad-hoc item and set the default switch to on when creating or saving a client, the switch would revert to off after saving. This switch is now saved correctly, so your default rate and ad-hoc settings are retained as configured.
2456071 - Clients: Page Does Not Auto-Scroll to Validation Error on Save
Navigation: Pay and Bill ; Data Entry ; Clients ; Client Details
We have improved the Client Details screen so that when a save fails due to a validation error, the page automatically scrolls to bring the affected field into view. Previously, if a mandatory field such as Country Code or Client Address was left empty and you had scrolled further down the page, the validation message could appear off-screen, making it unclear why the save had failed. The page will now scroll automatically to show you exactly what needs to be corrected.
2366552 - Worker: Unable to Fill Doctor Postcode Field
Navigation: Pay and Bill ; Data Entry ; Workers
Previously, the doctor's details section of the worker creation flow included a postcode field that would not save — any postcode entered was lost when the worker record was saved. As this postcode was never actually stored against the doctor's address, the field has now been removed from the screen, so it's no longer possible to enter a postcode there that won't be saved.
How to Contact Us
If you experience an issue with Pay and Bill 2.0, please raise a case in the Access Customer Success Portal – simply click here.
Please contact us in the Pay and Bill Product team if you have any feedback or would like to discuss Pay and Bill 2.0.
Darren Russell - Senior Product Manager - [email protected]
Claire Jayes – Senior Business Analyst - [email protected]
Bogdan Tinjala – Business Analyst - [email protected]
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