Review the workspace default before starting a new payroll preparation. Workspace Settings → Statutory Packs shows the signed, compatible pack selected for the chosen effective date. Compliance provides Rules and non-posting Tax Preview. A preparation that already exists keeps its own captured pack even after the default changes. These screens do not provide a legal approval decision.

When to use it

Use this guide before a payroll calculation, tax preview, pack update review, or statutory-output generation.

Before you begin

  • Choose the statutory effective date. You can inspect workspace packs before selecting an organisation.
  • Use a local user with statutory-pack read permission. Changing a workspace default requires workspace pack-management permission. Compliance > Rules and Tax Preview remain available on their separate screen.
  • If you are checking a new release, install it for review first; the install does not change the workspace default.

Steps

  1. Choose the effective date

    Open Statutory Packs and set the effective date.

  2. Inspect the workspace default

    Locate Default for new payroll. Record its release identity, policy revision, effective range, signature, and dependency hashes.

  3. Review pack history

    Check persisted pack history. Check for updates and Install for review do not by themselves change the default.

  4. Inspect statutory rules

    Open Compliance > Rules and choose the exact default or review-installed pack whose rules you want to inspect.

  5. Run a detached preview

    Open Compliance > Tax Preview, choose an eligible exact pack, and submit hypothetical employee and employer facts. Review the non-posting result and its resolved pack/dependency binding.

  6. Check generated output context

    Before generating a statutory file, open Documents → Statutory Filings and confirm the output’s source context. Run-backed evidence uses its captured pack; monthly outputs can include several finalised source runs. The workspace’s current default may have changed since those runs began.

What to check

For a new preparation, the applicable workspace default should be signed, compatible, and cover the preparation’s statutory date. A downloaded or installed review pack is not a default. Tax Preview uses detached hypothetical facts; payroll and statutory document readiness still depend on the actual organisation and employees during payroll work.

What happens next

Use Generate statutory outputs to validate and generate the selected official-template file. Keep the preview and pack references with the review record, and follow Official submission notes for any filing outside Paydae.

Common problems

No workspace default covers the date

choose the correct date or follow the authorised policy process; do not override the effective date in a document.

The pack is installed for review

check candidate validation and workspace permission before proposing it as a default.

The policy revision changed

refresh policy, confirm the new default, and repeat the impact review.

Tax Preview warns or cannot run

supply the missing hypothetical fact listed by the selected pack’s input contract, then rerun the preview.

Documents show a different pack

inspect the run’s pinned binding. Existing payroll work preserves its original pack by design.

Bureau and single-organisation notes

The workspace default applies to new payroll preparations across the workspace. It is not a per-organisation activation. Bureau users still review each organisation’s real employer and employee facts in payroll readiness; those facts do not change the shared pack default.

Related guideStatutory packsRelated guideStatutory and compliance overviewRelated guidePAYE overviewRelated guideNSSA overviewRelated guideGenerate statutory outputs