Apprenticeship levy in nominal journals

You can choose to include Apprenticeship Levy The Apprenticeship Levy is a UK tax on employers which is used to fund apprenticeship training. It is payable by all employers with an annual pay bill of more than £3 million, at a rate of 0.5% of their total pay bill. It is collected through PAYE alongside other employment taxes. values in your Payrun Journal. This allows for more complete payroll costings and accurate reconciliation.

This feature currently mirrors the Employer NIC reporting logic but does not yet support costing splits. Future updates will extend this functionality.

Before you benign, you must switch on the setting.

Before you can see Apprenticeship Levy values on your journal, ensure your pay schedule(s) have been fully completed and updated for the period. This is in line with the existing Apprentice A person who is employed to learn a skilled trade, and who will typically work alongside experienced professionals in their chosen field. Levy Report.

  1. Open the required company.

  2. Go to Reports and select Pay runs.

  3. Select Pay Run Journal.

  4. Select the required period and select Include Apprenticeship Levy.

    Include Apprenticeship Levy is only available if all pay schedules for the period are updated.

Nominal codes

To support the journal entries, two nominal codes are used:

Employer Codes: from the Settings menu select Pay Codes then Nominal Codes and finally Employer Codes.

  • APPLEVY: Represents the Apprenticeship Levy liability.

    Costed like ERSNIC, but without split breakdowns (yet).

Control Codes: from the Settings menu select Pay Codes then Nominal Codes and finally Control Codes.

  • APPLEVYRECLAIM: Acts as the balancing credit entry.

    Functions similarly to NIER.

Journal Entries

When processed, the Apprenticeship Levy will appear in the journal as:

Code Entry Type Amount
APPLEVY Debit Full levy amount
APPLEVYRECLAIM Credit Full levy amount

This applies to:

  • Monthly payrolls (once updated).

  • Weekly/Fortnightly/4-weekly payrolls (.after the final schedule of the period is completed and updated).

If you try to include the Apprenticeship Levy before all relevant schedules are updated, the value will not appear. We recommend processing journals only after all applicable payrolls are complete.

Running Journals with Multiple Schedules

If your payroll includes multiple schedules (e.g., Weekly and Monthly), the system must wait until all payrolls for the period are marked as updated before the levy can be included.

Example: April 2025

  • Weekly Pay Dates: April 11, 18, 25, and May 2

  • Monthly Pay Date: April 25

Although the monthly payroll is complete on April 25, the journal including levy cannot be run until Week 4 (May 2) is processed.

Schedule-Level Apportionment

When using multiple pay schedules, the Apprenticeship Levy is apportioned between them based on the NIable pay reported in the period.

How It Works

  1. Calculate the total NIable pay for each schedule.

  2. Determine the percentage split for each.

  3. Multiply that percentage by the total levy for the period.

Example Calculation:

Schedule NIable Pay % of Total NIable Pay Levy Share (of £1,063)
Weekly £285,691.56 61.74% £656.26
Monthly £177,050.09 38.26% £406.74

Good to know...

  • If the Apprenticeship Levy is not showing on the journal:

    • Ensure that:

      All pay schedules for the period are marked as updated.

      The 'Include Apprenticeship Levy' checkbox is selected.

      You’re running the journal for the correct period.

  • You can run the journal for each schedule individually, or choose All Schedules to combine them into one report.

  • This feature currently mirrors the Employer NIC reporting logic but does not yet support costing splits. Future updates will extend this functionality.

  • Before you can see Apprenticeship Levy values on your journal, ensure your pay schedule(s) have been fully completed and updated for the period. This is in line with the existing Apprentice Levy Report.

  • If you try to include the Apprenticeship Levy before all relevant schedules are updated, the value will not appear. We recommend processing journals only after all applicable payrolls are complete.

  • You can run the journal retrospectively for earlier periods, provided those periods are marked as updated.

We're working on...

  • The option to use cost splits.