What's covered in this guide?
1. Enable Workforce Payroll
To get started, navigate to the Payroll tab in your account. Read through the terms and conditions, confirm your payment details and click Enable Payroll.
💡 Note: Only account admins can enable Payroll in an account. Once this has been enables, please double check that the payroll integrations is live as well.
2. Add company PAYE details and Government Gateway credentials for RTI
Under Payroll > Settings > Company Setup, configure your company payroll details across the following tabs.
To configure your company payroll details for RTI submissions:
Complete the setup across the following tabs:
HMRC Settings – Enter PAYE details and Government Gateway credentials
Tracking Categories – (Optional) Set up reporting groups
Bank Details – Add your BACS payment details
General Settings – Configure document security
👉 For step-by-step instructions, see: Company Setup (UK Payroll)
📝 Important to note: You must complete the HMRC Settings section before running payroll or submitting RTI.
3. Earnings Rates
Earnings Rates can be imported from Workforce Management by going to Settings > Earnings Rates > Actions > Import Awards.
Important: ***Before doing this make sure earnings rules have export names.
New/additional Earnings Rates can be added if required by selecting the +NEW button:
Learn more in the Earnings Rates help guide.
4. Deductions
Common deductions can be created and later added to the relevant employee's payslips.
To start, setup your deductions under Payroll > Settings > Deduction Types:
Learn more in the Deductions help guide.
5. Pension Providers
Set up Pension Providers for staff and employers to make contributions each pay run.
To start, set up your pension provider and contribution details under Payroll > Settings > Pension Providers:
Name of the Pension Provider
Employer Number (if applicable)
Employee contribution (%)
Employer contribution (%)
Opt in/out for 'Enable automatic pension assessment'
💡Note: If opting into 'Automatically assess new staff for enrolment', Workforce will assess any new staff for enrolment as per the conditions for 'Joining a workplace pension'.
6. Staff Details
Ensure staff have all relevant payroll details on their profiles, including bank details, tax information, and applicable.
If you use Workforce's Employee On-boarding, this information is already collected when staff first onboard. These details will automatically populate in Payroll.
If the required information wasn't collected through onboarding, it can be added in bulk from the Staff page: Go to Staff > Tools > Payroll Setup Checklist to open the staff list (this Tools-menu link takes you to your staff list with payroll-readiness columns - tax declaration, bank accounts, leave types, deductions, opening balances, and pension enrolment status), then use Actions > Bulk Update Staff.
You can also bulk-upload staff information using a set of templates, each containing fields that can be updated. To access the templates, navigate to Payroll > Settings > Import/Export.
Download the relevant template, make any changes, and re-upload the document as a .csv file, selecting the correct Type of Data from the dropdown. For more information, see here
If you're switching from another UK payroll provider, you can instead migrate an employee's tax and opening-balance data in bulk by uploading their FPS XML export, this is also available on the Import/Export page, alongside the CSV templates.
Staff can also update their own details through the Workforce mobile app with Employee Self Service enabled.
7. Staff profiles
Once staff details have been entered, configure any additional payroll details on each employee's profile.
Payroll Details
From a staff member's profile, go to their Payroll Details tab and ensure the following are set:
Auto paid earnings template (generally used for salaried staff)
Leave balances (based on leave types configured in Workforce)
Deductions (select from those configured in step 4)
Employee Benefits
Bank Accounts
Pension Provider Memberships and Pension Provider Contributions are managed separately, on the employee's dedicated Pension tab.
Tax Information
Tax information is provided during the onboarding process. New employees are required to enter their tax declaration details, including their National Insurance Number, Employment Status, and Student Loan Plan (if applicable).
This can be found and edited on the staff member's Tax Information tab.
Opening Balances
Opening balances refer to an employee's year-to-date earnings, taxes, and contributions from earlier in the tax year. This data must be entered to ensure taxes and deductions are calculated correctly for the remainder of the tax year.
What to Do When Starting Payroll Mid-Year:
Use the Earnings Types, Tax Balance, Statutory Leave, Pension Balance, and Benefit Balance sections to record any pay, tax, National Insurance, and pension contributions your organisation has already made to employees during the current tax year.
Only fill in the Previous Employment subsection (found within the same Opening Balances tab) if the employee was paid by a different employer earlier in the same tax year.
Entering previous employment data incorrectly may cause the system to think the employee has additional income, leading to higher tax deductions.
💡 Why Opening Balances Matter: Missing opening balances can lead to incorrect cumulative tax calculations, causing the system to treat each pay run as the employee’s first for the year. Ensure year-to-date figures for earnings, tax, National Insurance, pension contributions, and benefits are accurate.
How to Enter Opening Balances:
Through Staff > Tools > Payroll Setup Checklist > [click staff name] > Opening Balances ensure the following fields have any necessary details for your staff:
On the staff member's Opening Balances tab, ensure the following are set:
Earnings Types - enter year-to-date earnings (total gross pay so far this tax year, including any earned with a previous employer if relevant).
Tax Balance - enter income tax and National Insurance already recorded this tax year:
Income Tax
Employee National Insurance Contribution
Employer National Insurance Contribution
National Insurance earnings: up to LEL (Lower Earnings Limit), LEL–PT (Primary Threshold), PT–UEL (Upper Earnings Limit)
Statutory Leave - any statutory leave already used or entitled to this tax year.
Pension Balance - total employee and employer pension contributions made this tax year.
Benefit Balance - total value of any non-cash benefits (e.g. health insurance, company car) provided this tax year.
Previous Employment - only if the employee had a different employer earlier in this same tax year (see note above).
Bulk Upload Option
If you need to enter opening balances for multiple employees at once, you have two options:
CSV templates - go to Payroll > Settings > Import/Export, download the relevant template, fill it in, save as
.csv, and re-upload, selecting the correct Type of Data. For detailed instructions on using these templates, please click here 📝FPS XML import - if migrating from another UK payroll provider, upload their FPS XML export on the same Import/Export page to populate opening balances, tax codes, NI category, and pension/benefit balances in bulk, without manual re-entry. For detailed instructions on using these templates, please click here 📝
8. Salaried Staff Profiles
Configure earnings templates for salaried staff to define how their salary and other earnings are calculated, processed, and applied each payroll cycle.
Configure earnings templates by navigating to Workforce > Staff > [staff member] > Payroll Details > Autopaid Earnings.
Click here to learn more about earnings templates.
9. Leave accruals
For leave balances to accrue and pay accurately, ensure the settings for your leave types have been configured correctly in Workforce.
Configure your leave types by navigating to Payroll > Settings > Leave Types:
Click on the relevant leave type and scroll to the Leave Rules section. Here you can set who each rule applies to via Leave Applies to, and confirm that a Pay Rate and Accrual Rate have been entered.
Ensure that a Pay Rate and Accrual Rate have also been entered:
10. Payroll Journals
Payroll Journals are accounting records used to document all payroll-related transactions within a business. These journals capture detailed information about employee wages, salaries, deductions, taxes, and employer contributions, ensuring accurate financial reporting and compliance with legal requirements.
By default, your Workforce account is pre-configured with generic accounts. You can edit the name and code of these to match what you already have set in your account platform.
To do this, navigate to Payroll > Settings > Journal Setup (Accounts).
