New Employer Guide

HMRC - Set up

You will need to register your PAYE scheme with HMRC up to 28 days before you plan to make your first salary payments (even though the HMRC link below states employers can apply up to two months before payday!). If we are going to be running your payroll, we can do this for you. Alternatively, you can click on the following link to register for PAYE yourself: www.gov.uk/register-employer
HMRC will send two codes to your registered office: the Accounts Office Reference number and the PAYE Reference number. Please share these reference numbers with us as soon as you have received them.
Using these reference numbers, we will apply to be your agent. HMRC will send you a code commencing PE followed by 8 digits. Once you provide us with this code, we will be able to speak to HMRC about your PAYE scheme on your behalf.

The software we use to run your payroll is BrightPay Connect. This is an online payroll bureau which you and your employees can access at any time.
You will receive a request to register as a user which you will need to set up to access your company payroll documents. Each employee will also receive a link to register in order to access their payslips and personal documents through the BrightPay Employee app.

The monthly payroll process has two stages: Payroll Entry Request (PER) and Payroll Approval Request (PAR)
- PER: This is a summary of your employees and their pay. You can click into each employee to amend their pay, add bonuses or any adjustments you would like to make. This is also where you add all the details of any new employees. Once completed, you will send this back to us.
- PAR: This is the point at which you approve the payroll for completion and is sent to you once we have checked through the PER and made any necessary adjustments. Once approved, you will send this back to us.
We finalise your payroll, advise you on how much and when to pay your PAYE liability to HMRC. At this point, you can access your payroll documents. On the designated payment date (usually the last day of the month), your employees will be able to access their documents. We will then submit your PAYE information to HMRC and your pensions information to your provider.
We will post your payroll journals into your bookkeeping software to keep your records up to date (where we have access).

As an employer, you must by law provide your employees with a workplace pension scheme.
We will provide you with guidance on how to set this up as well as enrolling your employees for you, monitoring their pension calculations and processing their contributions.

We will ask you to provide us with a P45 from your new starter’s previous employer and/or a HMRC starter checklist. Click the following link for a copy of the HMRC starter checklist: www.gov.uk/guidance/starter-checklist-for-paye
You will complete the PER with all their details including pay (we can assist you with calculating employee’s pay)
You will inform us whether you want the employee to be enrolled immediately into your workplace pension scheme or postpone enrolment for up to 3 months.

Once you have a confirmed leave date for an employee please let us know. We can help calculate their final pay if it is part way through the month.
After their leave date we will issue them with a P45.