This April saw the release of the 2016-17 version of Basic PAYE Tools (BPT), the free download application provided by HMRC to support businesses in making their mandatory on-line submissions to the Government Gateway. The product has seen many changes during Pennant’s seven year tenure as developers but none more so than this year. While to the estimated user group of 400,000 employers most of the screens and functionality have remained unchanged, the product’s database structure required a major overhaul to provide efficient implementation of the ongoing legislative changes applied to tax and National Insurance.
Now, two months after its release, only one minor issue has been identified affecting a small percentage of users. This issue will be patched in early June, so hopefully it’s not too early to say that given the extent of change applied to BPT this year, this release has been a huge success for all of the development and quality assurance team involved in its production. But there’s no time for them to rest on their laurels as planning is already underway for the 2017-18 release.
