Dealing with attachment of earnings orders

An attachment of earnings order (AEO) is an official form issued to an employer, usually by a court, instructing them to deduct an outstanding debt directly from an employee's wages. It's a legal requirement for an employer to recover the correct amount stated on an AEO from their employee until the AEO ceases.

Using Sage 50 Payroll you've got full control over the name, priority and number of orders assigned to an employee. AEOs are calculated and deducted from the employee's net pay and stop automatically once the balance has been recovered.

The details of each type of AEO, or deductions from earnings order (DEO), are already set up ready for you to use. You can personalise their descriptions and deduct an administration fee from your employee to cover the cost of administering the order.

Note: When dealing with an AEO or DEO, you must follow the instructions provided by the issuing authority.

To deal with attachment of earnings orders

Company > Pay Elements > Attachment of Earnings Orders > enter a new name in Replacement Description.

Tip: Changes to the description are applied to any existing orders assigned to employees.
To deduct an administration fee, from the Admin Fee drop-down list > Yes > OK.

Employee > select the employee > Employee Record.
Employment > Pay Elements > Attachments of Earnings Orders.
Attachment Name box > from the drop-down list, choose the option required > OK.
Enter details of the attachment in the boxes provided. Find out more.
Select the Use Tables for Community Charge, Council Tax, Earning Arrestments, Fines Enforcement and Direct Earnings Attachments check box.

This automatically calculates the deduction percentages each pay period for Community Charge, Council Tax attachments, Scottish earnings arrest orders and Direct Earnings Attachments.
Save > Close.

Once assigned, the order issue date determines when payments start being taken from your employee's pay. When using the Enter Payments option to pay your employee, the order payment details appear on the Summary tab. For more information, see Paying people.

If you're dealing with a DEO, you must produce a payment schedule for the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC) which they use to confirm the deductions for each employee. To do this > Reports > Period End > double-click the DEO Schedule Report.

Note: You should confirm with CMEC how they want to receive this information. For example, they may accept it as a PDF in an email. For help saving the report in another format, see Saving reports in other formats.


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