The Run Payroll - Umbrella menu can be found under Payroll -> Process.

The main screen for payroll is called 'Payroll Summary' and it will display your last 10 created payrolls from the last 30 days by default.

See a the table below for what each grid column displays/means:

If you are on the payroll summary screen, to create a payroll please select '+Create Pay Run' highlighted below.

The next page will then load, allowing you to enter the payroll details. See the example below with a guide to each field.

Payroll Title - This is a free type box allowing you to label the payroll whatever you want. It doesn't have to be unique but make it easy to read in case there's a query in the future.

Pay Date - Enter the date the worker's would typically receive the funds.

Bank Date - Enter the date the workers will receive funds.

Bank File Type - Select the correct file type dependent on the payroll and bank you use.

Employee Type - Select the employee type you wish to run payroll for. You can run multiple types on one payroll!

Once completed, select 'Next'.

You will then be taken to the below screen.

This is where you select the agency/customer you want to run payroll for.

The invoice count shoes the total number of unprocessed invoices. The paid count shows the total number of invoices that have been matched in the bank and the Unpaid count shows the number of invoices that are unmatched in the bank. The Ghost & on-hold shows the amount of these invoices that are either ghost invoices or on hold for payroll.

Select the agencies for payroll and click 'Load Invoices' as shown below.

Upon clicking “Load Invoices” the screen will then show the invoices ready to be processed on the first tab and the restricted invoices on the second tab, as show below:

From the people list above, if you want to process invoices that have been matched in the bank only, set the invoice status to paid (the end column), however you can still run a payroll for a person whose invoice is marked as unpaid.

You may see the below warning message appear when you select 'Add to Payroll'

This is simply alerting you to the fact this invoice has not yet been paid in the system, and will not stop you from running the payroll, you can simply click “Proceed”.

Step 2 of processing a payroll will show you details of the agencies/customers you added at step 1 and will be running on this payroll. You can see the individuals on the payroll by clicking the icon in the Actions column next to the relevant agency/customer.

If this doesn’t look correct and you need to add more, you can click the “Add Agency” button on the bottom right hand side of the screen which will bring you back to Step One to add more agencies and invoices.

If you need to remove a worker from the payroll, there is the delete icon under the actions column when you are viewing the individuals on the payroll:

If you only need to remove one invoice for a worker you can select the icon under total invoices, shown below.

You will have the below appear on screen.

From there you simply remove the invoice that was incorrectly added and press save.

Once you are sure this is all correct in Step 2, simply click “Run Payroll” in the bottom right hand side of the screen.

Upon clicking this, you will be taken back to the Payroll Summary screen where you will see the payroll in status “In progress” or "Verify" as this process is pretty much instant for small payrolls.

Step 3 of processing a payroll is to verify the data.

When you click on “Run Payroll” at the end of step 2 the system will then run the calculation for each contractor on the payroll.

The payroll function should be instant, but depending on size it can take a minute or two. Hit the ‘Refresh’ button and Once the status turns to “Verify”. You will need to click in the edit button to verify the data.

You will then be taken to the screen below.

This screen provides a quick summary for you to check the details of the payroll. See a guide to each box below.

Pay Date - This is the pay date which all the payrolls will be processed with. This date was entered at step 1 by the user.

Bank Date - This is the bank date which was selected when creating the payroll and dictates when the funds will be received by the worker

People Count - The number of people who are going to have a payslip generated by running the payroll. You can see a list of the people included by clicking on the Payslip Note icon. This will open a pop-up window listing the people in the payroll including their Full Name, employee number, role, Assignments including in the payroll and Invoices included in the payroll. (This box will highlight red if anyone has failed, you can view who by clicking the icon)

Invoice Amount - The total net value of the invoices on the payroll.

Total Pay - The total pay is the sum of all the pay due to the Contractor/employee etc. This is the gross pay plus expenses.

Check Value - This gives you a quick snapshot of the highest value and the lowest value in the check column of the payments by employee report. This box is a quick way to know if there are any significant anomalies in the payroll which you need to check.

Below NMW Count - The number of people on the payroll whose pay is calculating below the national minimum wage. (This box will highlight in red if anyone is below NMW)

The payments by employee report is available at this stage of payroll so that the payroller can conduct checks on the payroll being run before generating payslips and RTI’s.

The report can be found under the reports dropdown as shown below.

Or it can be downloaded on the summary page using the quick link found under the action column as shown below.

The report will display all the workers ran on the payroll, one worker per row. They will be grouped by agency with a sub-total and then a grand total at the footer of the report. The report is quite complex with many columns. The below button leads to a guide that is aimed at helping users understand the data displaying in the report.

If you get to step 3 of running the payroll and realise that you need to make some changes you can modify the payroll before verifying it. There are two ways to edit a payroll, you can:

Modify - This will take you back to step 2, allowing you to remove/add invoices to the payroll before it's verified.

Reprocess - This will allow you to re-process the payroll from step 1, picking up any changes to the workers record like tax codes or expenses for example.

To modify a payroll, locate the payroll on the summary screen and click on the edit button. From there you can select 'Modify' as shown below.

It will ask you if you are sure you want to modify the payroll, click on proceed.

This will then take you back to the payroll step 2 screen. You can add or remove invoices from the payroll as per the step 2 instructions.

To re-process a payroll from step 1, locate the payroll on the summary screen and click on the edit button. From there you can select 'Reprocess' as shown below.

It will ask you if you are sure you want to modify the payroll, click on proceed.

The payroll will now re-process, the title will contain 'Re process (1)' and the status will change to 'Inprogress' as shown below.

This process should be near enough instant, but may take a minute or two dependent on the payroll size. Click the refresh button and it should now be at verify stage for you to re-verify the payroll.

Once you are happy with the payroll reports and are ready to verify the payroll, locate the payroll on the summary screen and click on the edit button. From there you can select 'Verify & Run Payroll' as shown below.

The payroll will then drop into 'Pending' status. This process should be near enough instant, but may take a minute or two dependent on the payroll size. Click the refresh button and the status should change to 'Complete'.

The 'Complete' status is referring to the payroll run, if you click on the three dots next to it, you will then see the below actions and their current status.

The bank status will show as incomplete until you download the payment file. To do this click on the download icon under the action column, shown below. From there, you will be given the option to download the bank file. The options may look slightly different for your company bank but the layout will be similar.

Once downloaded you can check the bank status, which should now be either complete or failed.

The email status will show as incomplete until all the payslips have been sent out to the workers. This will typically be an automated system process based off the settings chosen at Settings -> Company Setup.

Once the system has sent the payslips, the email status should now show as 'Complete'.

The SMS status will show as incomplete until the net pay message has been sent and the user has selected to mark the process as complete. To do this click on the speech bubble icon under the action column, shown below.

You will then see the below screen. From there you can select the employees and send the SMS. The standard SMS template is 'We have now processed your payment and [pay_amount] will credit your nominated bank account on [bank_date]'

This can be edited by selecting the 'Edit SMS Template' button shown below.

​Please Note - It is important to select 'Mark as complete' as this is what the status column looks at for determining if the process is complete.

Once sent, the status should now be 'Complete'.

If you want to send messages from the software, we use TxtAnywhere. For more on their pricing please see - https://www.textanywhere.com/pricing/

The FPS status will show as incomplete until the FPS has been sent to HMRC. This can either be sent manually via the FPS screen, or we have a scheduler which automatically sends all FPS at the chosen time.

FPS Scheduler

To use the scheduler, you first need to have it configured. This is found under Settings -> Company Setup. It is found under the VAT and PAYE Details section and is a simple tickbox and dropdown for selecting the time.

What this means, is everyday at 17:30 the system will go through and submit any FPS with a pay date of today where there FPS status is 'Pending'.

The FPS scheduler won't work if one of the below conditions are met:

Submitting An FPS Manually

Submitting an FPS manually can be good for peace of mind or in the event one of the conditions listed above are met.

To do so, first make a note of the FPS ID linked to the payroll you've just processed. In my example it's 18100 as shown below.

Now you need to go to Payroll -> RTI eSubmission -> Full Payment Submission.

You should see the FPS ID with an FPS status of 'Pending'.

First, you need to download and verify the FPS report which will be in excel format, this allows you to verify the correct TAX, NI, SL are being reported for example.

Once verified, you can now submit the FPS using the Submit button.

If the FPS is late, the system will ask you to submit a late reason,

Once submitted you should get a success message and notice the FPS has changed to success status. And now the payroll status should show the FPS as 'Complete'.

FPS Statuses And What They Mean

The FPS page has six possible statuses, please see below each status and what they mean.

Pending - The FPS has been created and is waiting to be verified and submitted.

Verified - The FPS report has been downloaded, the user can now submit the FPS to HMRC.

Failed - The FPS has failed, you view the errors by clicking the eye icon under the action column.

Acknowledgement Received - The FPS has been sent, but HMRC have sent a holding response. This usually means they are experiencing high volumes so cannot confirm receipt. You can check the status by using the 'Check Status' button.

Fail Please Retry - The FPS could not be sent, there will be a retry button under the action column.

Successful - The FPS has been submitted and HMRC have confirmed receipt.

Sometimes the FPS can fail during the submission part and there are a number of possible reasons for this, these are the most common:

PAYE Authentication Failed - This error message usually means the PAYE details entered into the system are wrong, please check the details by going to Settings -> Company Setup. If you have checked these and they are correct please get in touch with us for further help.

Any other fail reasons can be viewed using the eye icon under the action column. There will then be an error message containing the details received back from HMRC on their response. If you are unsure of what these messages mean or how to correct them please get in touch.

Once everything for the payroll has been completed, the payroll itself can be marked as completed. This allows everyone who is looking at the summary screen to see the payroll has been completed and there is nothing left to do, this is an especially useful tool when you have multiple processors.

To do this click on the green page icon under the action column, shown below.

You will then be asked to confirm the process and once complete, you should see that payroll ID highlighted as green.

If you mistakenly mark a payroll as complete, it can be reversed. the icon is now a red page and clicking this will reverse that process, removing the green highlight.

There is sometimes the need to archive/delete a payroll run, for example if you've entered the wrong pay or bank date.

IMPORTANT - You can only archive a payroll if it's not yet been verified.

To archive a payroll, select the cabinet icon under the action column, shown below.

You will then be asked to confirm the action.

The payroll has now been archived and can be viewed from the 'Archived'

You will then see a list of all the historical payrolls that have been archived.

From this screen you can view historical PBEs if you wish, or even restore the payroll by selecting the cabinet icon again, once restored the payroll will then appear in the main summary screen again.