How To Update QTAC Payroll

With QTAC hosted on our Cloud Desktop, we take care of the software installation and backup, so you can focus on the important task of using the software to process and report your payroll. As part of this, there are some differences in the steps you take when applying software updates when they are released and during the End of Year process. On this page we explain these differences.

If we don’t host QTAC for you, maybe we should . . . Please contact us to discuss.

Apply a Release Update to the Current Year

Occasionally the developers will release an update to the current-year software, e.g. to fix a bug or improve performance or to apply a change in legislation. The software should prompt you when a release update is available, or we will notify you.

If we host your payroll software, we will install the update for you.

If we don’t host the software for you, maybe we should . . . :

• Click here to open a folder list in a new page in your browser.
• Then click the link of the appropriate Y1Y2 year, which should advance to a page containing the update EXE, named in the form QTACY1Y2_99999.EXE.
• Then click the link of the update EXE to download it, noting the folder to which you download it.
• Then find the downloaded file with Windows Explorer and run it, i.e. double click it.
• A form will open to prompt you to extract the file’s contents. This must be extracted to the correct Program folder for the tax year, e.g. C:\Program Files\QTAC\QTACY1Y2\ for the Y1Y2 tax year. Check the default value for this extract path and change it if necessary. It is very important to choose the correct folder. Choosing the wrong folder will corrupt your program installation. It should not take long to extract the files.

The update will be applied when you next run the payroll software. You will first be prompted to take a backup. Please do this, so that the pre-update state can be restored should the update fail. If we host your payroll software, you should save the backup to M:\Backups\.

End of Year Procedure 2023/24

Apart from the installation bit that we do for you, generally follow the standard instructions provided on the following page:

https://support.qtac.co.uk/support/solutions/folders/17000126330

Migrate Last Year’s Data

After you have run the final week or month of the tax year, you must migrate the data from the old tax year to the new tax year, which is done from the new tax year software. By the time you are ready to do this, we will have notified you of the process and installed the new-year software on your Desktop.

Follow the instructions on the following page, a link to which is also provided in the page that is linked above:

https://qtacsolutions.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/17000055354-migrate-last-years-data

The only difference to note for QTAC on our hosted Desktop is the file location, which must be M:\Program\QTAC2324\Datafiles\ when migrating to the 2024/25 tax year (i.e. last year’s data). As for applying a release update, it is very important to choose the correct folder. Choosing the wrong folder will cause the migration to fail, but it shouldn’t corrupt your program or data. You should just have to start the migration again.

Given this, the process should be pretty straightforward and you should soon be able to process your first payroll in the new tax year.