Extra options have been added to the report allowing you to filter the report to a single activity type. If you choose to view 'Workshop Job' activities, you will be given further options to filter the results by 'Internal' work, 'External' work, a single 'Customer' or a customer 'Group'.

The "Job Pricing" option in "Workshop Management" will now display the price of a job as it will be charged to the customer when loaded, instead of always showing the price when the job was saved as standard.

• This will obey the "Update prices?" setting for each job and show stored or up to date prices accordingly.

You can now enter a V.A.T. inclusive price in the "New Price" column and hit a function key (F4) to get to the Nett price.

• The "legacy" functions keys for Page Up and Page Down, F3 and F4 respectively, have been retired in this program to make this possible, but Page-Up and Page-Down will work as before.

Changes to Platinum's "Payroll" module that allow you to start processing the year 2017/18, including:

• Printed report P11 has been updated for the new tax year.
• Updated UK PAYE tax rates and bandwidths for 6th April.
• Updated Scottish PAYE tax rates and bandwidths for 6th April.
• If you have an always-on Internet connection then any updates to the PAYE tax rates through the year will be downloaded automatically.
• Updated Class 1 National Insurance Contributions rates.
• The system now automatically changes an employee's National Insurance category letter when they turn 16, when they turn 21, when they turn 25 (if they are using the apprentice under-25 category letter) and when they reach state retirement age (which is determined automatically from their gender and date of birth).
• Updated SSP rates.
• Updated SMP/SAP/SPP/ShPP rates.
• Updated Collection of Student Loans "Plan 1" and "Plan 2" thresholds.

• Operating PAYE in real time, aka Real Time Information - or RTI:

  • Full Payment Submission (FPS), which happens automatically when you close off a period, has been updated for the year 2017/18.
  • Employer Payment Summary (EPS), in "Monthly Procedures/Reports" -> "Internet Filing of Returns", has been updated for the year 2017/18 (to clarify this, the year is included in the option name).
  • If you have not yet submitted your final EPS for 2016/17 then you can still do this by selecting the "2016/17 Final submission for the year" box, or going to "Yearly Procedures/Reports" -> "Internet Filing of Returns".

• See Payroll End of Year for more details.

Coming soon

Automatic Enrolment: Re-enrolment

• We know that at some point this year some of our employers will have to automatically re-enrol certain staff into their workplace pension who previously opted out. Look out for a further Platinum update shortly that will help you take care of this automatically.

Apprenticeship Levy

• For those employers likely to have a "pay bill" of around 3 million pounds or more, we will shortly be releasing a further Platinum update that will help you work out your Apprenticeship Levy due as part of your Employer Payment Summary (EPS), in "Monthly Procedures/Reports" -> "Internet Filing of Returns".

Payrolled Expenses and Benefits

• For those employers who wish to opt in to the new system of deducting tax for certain expenses and benefits in kind through the payroll, we will shortly be releasing a further Platinum update that will help you put these through your payroll as a special kind of payment rate.

• Look out for the release announcements in Platinum Updates news.

An issue has been identified and corrected whereby trying to add a new Task in the "Tasks Outstanding" could instead pick up an existing Task created by the "Retention Centre".

Recalculation of the current line is now possible in the calculated results list. This is useful if for some reason changes have been made and you want to revert to the calculated values. It is also useful after the amendment of a stock item. The current line will now reflect information entered in a stock amendment automatically provided that no prior manual changes to line level have occurred.

If a stock item is amended from the order review list any change to pack quantity is reflected immediately in the values displayed for the current line.

It is now possible to store, import and report on an employee's mobile telephone number and email address.

It is now possible to store, import and report on an employee's mobile telephone number and email address.

• We've made various changes to our Platinum Android App.

• A list of your 5 most recent previous actions is now displayed at the top of most pages to help you keep track of what parts you have already added to workshop jobs, photos added and other actions.
• Photos taken in the app now go into a dedicated "Platinum Mobile" gallery to keep them separate from your main gallery and make it easier to delete them.
• Now compatible with Android 7.0 and 7.1 Nougat.
• Security updates, bug fixes and enhancements.

In various locations where Stock codes appear in a listing, new columns have been added to show Stock Status, and availability of Stock Alternatives.

• "Point of Sale"
• "Invoicing and Customer Orders"
• "Add/Edit/Process Sales/Purchase Orders"
• "Vehicle Sales Documents"
• "Workshop Job Properties"

In addition, many relevant columns which were present in some modules but not in others have been added to help standardise the look and feel.

• Remember you can drag and drop and resize columns to suit your own priorities. See How do I Change the Order of Columns in Platinum? for further reading.