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    WFM UK | Payroll UK: BIK Module - Pre Tax Year Notification to Employees

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    Overview

    As employers move from traditional P11D reporting to payrolling benefits, timely communication with employees becomes essential for compliance. Employees must be informed about the switch to Payrolling Benefits and, at the end of the tax year, provided with details of their taxable benefits and their value. In summary, employers must issue the following communications:
    • Pre Tax Year Notification - Provided to an employee before the start of Payrolling Benefits in the Tax Year ahead. This is a one-time communication to provide early transparency on how benefits will impact pay and tax, and establishes an auditable communication trail as part of the employer’s move to payrolled benefits. This communication also applies to new starters, even if they join the business mid-way through a tax year.
    • Post Tax Year Notification (In Development) - Provided to an employee following the end of the Tax Year, with a 1st June deadline. This is an ongoing communication to be supplied each Tax Year to any employee who had benefits payrolled. 

    More Information: Gov.UK - Payrolling: tax employees' benefits and expenses through your payroll 
    (find the "Tell Your Employees" section).

    The Pre-Tax Year Notification is generated from a Word template defined entirely by the employer, providing full control over the content and tone of the communication. A predefined set of mail merge fields is available to populate core employee and employer details automatically. At this stage, benefit-level detail, such as which benefits an employee holds, is not supported. This functionality is intentionally positioned as a transitional capability to support compliance during the move from P11Ds to payrolled benefits. 

    Please note: The BIK module currently only offers the Pre-Tax Year Notification function in its initial release. Over the 2026/2027 Tax Year, this area will be expanded into a broader document management and employee communications framework, including additional notification types and a mandatory post-tax year Payrolled Benefits Summary, detailing the benefits processed, their values, and the tax applied.

     

    Contents

     

    Preparing a Pre Tax Year Notification

    As mentioned, the template itself is defined entirely by the employer, providing full control over the content and tone of the communication. Alternatively, the Payroll Bureau will be able to provide one instead, if desired. 

    An example may look like this (this is not the final template that would be provided by the Payroll Bureau):

    Fig.1 - Example Pre Tax Year Notification

    Mail merge codes to automatically pull data from the system into the template are available in the appendix of this article.

    Apply them as they are written in this article to correctly pull through the data. 

    For Example:

    • If the employee's first name is "Benny", then <?Employee First Name?> will return Benny in the document when sent
    • If the employee's last name is "Fitz", then <?Employee Surname?> will return Fitz in the document when sent

     

    Setting Up a Pre Tax Year Notification

    Important: If Pre Tax Year Notifications are going to be used within the BIK module (customers can choose not to and handle communications outside of the system if they wish), then they should be configured before any benefit is applied to an employee. This is because the application of a benefit to an employee is the trigger to schedule and send a Pre Tax Year Notification to that employee.

    Before configuring a Pre Tax Year Notification, it is important to understand that they are configured for each company individually. To configure a Pre Tax Year Notification, go to:

    • BIK > Administration > Company Setup > select Company
    • Select Click Here To Upload A Pre Tax Year Notification
    • Select Browse, and locate & select the file to upload (accepted format is .docx)
    • Then select Upload
    Fig.2 - Uploading a Pre Tax Year Notification
    • The template uploaded will then be used to send the Pre Tax Year notification to employees, triggered upon the application of a first benefit
    • The uploaded template can be downloaded if required

    Please note: Once uploaded, a template cannot be deleted. It can only be replaced by uploading a new template in its place using the steps above. Documents already sent to Employees will continue to display the original template, as it was when originally sent. If the automatic sending of the Pre Tax Year Notification needs to be stopped for a legitimate reason, this must be requested via Fourth's Support team

     

    Sending a Pre Tax Year Notification & Document Tracking

    As mentioned earlier in this article, the trigger to send a Pre Tax Year Notification is triggered by the application of a first benefit to an employee. It is important to upload a template before applying any benefits to employees in the BIK module. 

    Once a benefit is applied to an employee, the system will generate and schedule a Pre Tax Year Notification to the employee. This can be tracked by going to:

    • BIK > Administration > Company Setup > select Company
    • Select Document Tracking
    Fig.3 - Document Tracking Button

    A list of employees who have either been sent a document or are scheduled to be sent one will be displayed

    Where a 'Date & Time' is present, the document has been sent. If it is blank, then the document is currently queued.

    Please Note: During the initial undertaking of the BIK module, we anticipate that the time to send these documents will be slower than regular operation due to the vast number of employees that will have benefits applied and documents scheduled.

    Fig.4 - Document Tracking Page
    • Search for specific employees by typing into the Employee Name and Number fields - results will automatically update onscreen
    • Also, use the Show All, Show Sent, or Show To Be Sent filters as required
    • The Reset button clears all filters
    Fig.5 - Document Tracking Page Filters

    Employee Documents

    Once a document has been generated and sent to an employee, it will be available in three locations.

    Employee Self Service (ESS)

    Available in the My Documents section in ESS, for the employee to view:

    Fig.6 - Employee Document visa Employee Self Service (ESS)

    Document Tracking Page

    The document can be viewed in the Document Tracking page. Go to:

    • BIK > Administration > Company Setup > select Company > Document Tracking
    • Select an employee who has had the document sent with a Date & Time:
    Fig.7 - Employee Document via Document Tracking
    • Select the document to open and view a PDF version

    Employee Benefit Record

    The document can be viewed in the employee's benefit record page. 

    • Go to BIK > Employees > Employee List > find & select Employee

    The employee's record, and if a document has been sent and saved for the employee, will appear in the Employee Benefit Documents section (which can also be collapsed/minimised if needed). 

    • Select the document to open and view a PDF version
    Fig.8 - Employee Document via Employee Benefits Record

     

    Appendix

    Available Mail Merges

    These are the mail merges likely to be used as part of the BIK-related notifications:

    Data Field Mail Merge
    Employees Title (Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr) <?employee title?>
    Employees Full Name (First Name + Surname) <?employee full name?>
    Employees First Name <?employee first name?> 
    Employees Middle Name <?employee middle name?>
    Employees Surname <?employee surname?>
    Employees Preferred Name <?employee preferred name?> 
    Employees Date of Birth <?employee date of birth?>
    Employees Personal Email Address <?employee personal email address?> 
    Employees Address, Line 1 <?employee address line 1?> 
    Employees Address, Line 2 <?employee address line 2?> 
    Employees Address, Line 3 <?employee address line 3?> 
    Employees Address, Line 4 <?employee address line 4?> 
    Employees Address, Town/City <?employee town or city?>         
    Employees Address, County <?employee county?> 
    Employees Address, Postal Code <?employee postcode?>         
    Employees Address, Country <?employee country of residence?>         
    Employees Mobile Phone Number <?employee mobile phone number?>
    Employees Home Phone Number <?employee home phone number?>
    Employees National Insurance Number <?employee national insurance number?>
    Employees System Employee Number <?employee number?> 
    Employees Employment Start Date <?employee start date?> 
    Employees Length of Service <?employee length of service?>
    Employees Length of Service Start Date (Where Continuous Start Date is used) <?employee length of service start date?>         
    Employees Job Title <?employee job title?>
    Employees Reporting Manager <?employee reporting manager?>
    Employees Reporting Managers Job Title <?reporting manager job title?> 
    Employees Pay Type (Salaried/Hourly/Shift) <?employee pay type?>         
    Employees Rate of Pay (Hourly or Shift Rate) <?employee rate of pay?>
    Employees Annual Salary <?employee annual salary?>
    Employees Contract Name <?employee contract?>         
    Employees Contracted Hours <?employee contracted hours?>         
    Employees Employment Type (Full Time, Part Time, Flexible or Casual) <?employee employment type?>
    Employees Location <?employee location?>         
    Employees Company Name <?company name?>
    Employees Company Address, Line 1 <?company address line 1?>
    Employees Company Address, Line 2 <?company address line 2?>
    Employees Company Address, Line 3 <?company address line 3?>
    Employees Company Address, Line 4 <?company address line 4?>
    Employees Company Address, Town <?company town?>
    Employees Company Address, County <?company county?>
    Employees Company Address, Postal Code <?company postcode?>
    Employees Location Address, Line 1 <?location address line 1?> 
    Employees Location Address, Line 2 <?location address line 2?> 
    Employees Location Address, Line 3 <?location address line 3?> 
    Employees Location Address, Line 4 <?location address line 4?> 
    Employees Location Address, Town <?location town?>         
    Employees Location Address, County <?location county?> 
    Employees Location Address, Postal Code <?location postcode?>         
    Employees Division <?employee division?>         
    Date the Document was generated and sent <?processed date?>    

    Here are other mail merges, potentially less likely to be used as part of a BIK Notification:

    Data Field Mail Merge
    Employees 1st Next of Kin, Title <?next of kin 1 - title?>         
    Employees 1st Next of Kin, First name <?next of kin 1- first name?>         
    Employees 1st Next of Kin, Surname <?next of kin 1 - surname?> 
    Employees 1st Next of Kin, Email Address <?next of kin 1 - email address?>         
    Employees 1st Next of Kin, Mobile Number <?next of kin 1 - mobile phone number?> 
    Employees 1st Next of Kin, Alternative Phone Number <?next of kin 1 - alternative phone number?>
    Employees 1st Next of Kin, Relationship with Employee <?next of kin 1 - relationship?>
    Employees 2nd Next of Kin, Title <?next of kin 2 - title?>         
    Employees 2nd Next of Kin, First name <?next of kin 2 - first name?>
    Employees 2nd Next of Kin, Surname <?next of kin 2 - surname?> 
    Employees 2nd Next of Kin, Email Address <?next of kin 2 - email address?>         
    Employees 2nd Next of Kin, Mobile Number <?next of kin 2 - mobile phone number?> 
    Employees 2nd Next of Kin, Alternative Phone Number <?next of kin 2 - alternative phone number?>
    Employees 2nd Next of Kin, Relationship with Employee <?next of kin 2 - relationship?>
    The ID of the Employees Division <?divisionid?>
    The ID of the Employees Location <?locationid?>
    Employees FTE Days (Override FTE) <?employee fte days?>         
    Employees FTE Shifts (Override FTE) <?employee fte shifts?> 
    Employees FTE Hours (Override FTE) <?employee fte hours?>
    Employees Holidays Taken In (Days/Hours) <?holidays taken in ?>
    Employees Holiday Allowance <?employee holiday allowance?>
    Employees Tronc Rate <?employee tronc rate?> 
    Employees Termination Date <?employee termination date?>         
    Employees Status (Current/Former) <?employee status?> 
    Employees Gender (Not Gender Identity, as per Sensitive Information) <?employee gender?> 

     

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