What's covered in this guide?:
Overview
The FPS Importer is designed to make the migration of payroll data from other systems into your current setup quick and simple. It automatically populates employee data, tax information, and opening balances based on your most recent submission to HMRC.
This tool helps ensure a smooth transition by validating data accuracy, preventing duplicates, and aligning employee information with HMRC records. You will be shown a preview of the data, along with any issues, before import.
Importer Purpose
The FPS Importer allows users to:
Import opening balances for employees based on the company’s last Full Payment Submission (FPS) to HMRC.
Import employee details such as names, addresses, National Insurance (NI) numbers, tax codes, pay details and payroll number.
The tool will import data for all employees contained in the FPS file:
New users will be created with information and opening balances from the imported file.
Existing users will have their information and opening balances created/updated accordingly if found. Please see below for more information on how the importer attempts to match employee data.
Earnings Rate Requirement
💡Important: Before using the importer, ensure two earnings rates are set up with the following names (case-sensitive)::
Regular Hours (previously known as base rate), and
Salaried
These are required as the importer cannot infer pay structures directly from the FPS file.
Note: These are only required for the import of opening balances and will not affect what earnings rates the employee can be assigned
File Validation
When you upload an FPS XML file:
The system verifies that it matches the current tax year.
It validates the XML against HMRC’s RTI schema.
Errors such as invalid dates of birth or missing required information will be displayed.
If any validation errors are present, the import confirmation will be disabled until corrected.
Review and Match
A preview screen shows all employees found in the FPS file.
New employees will be flagged as new records.
Existing employees are matched automatically using:
First name
Last name
Date of birth
Important: All fields are required to match exactly:
Example: Tom Smith 01/01/2001 will not match Thomas Smith 01/01/2001
If multiple potential matches are found, importing will be disabled until they are fixed, in order to prevent incorrect data.
National Insurance Category
When employees have multiple NI category entries:
The system identifies the correct one by checking for earnings in the previous pay period.
Since FPS files lack precise date ranges, this step may occasionally require manual review.
Import Workflow
Step 1: Upload FPS XML
To upload your FPS XML file into the importer.:
Navigate to Payroll > Payroll Settings > Import/Export
Select FPS XML Import
Upload an XML file containing an FPS
Step 2: Validation
The importer checks:
The XML structure against HMRC RTI schema.
File compatibility with the current tax year.
Data consistency (dates, employee info, etc.).
Step 3: Review & Confirm
Review the list of all new and existing employees’ data to be imported and confirm that it is correct.
Step 4: Import
Once confirmed, the system imports the selected data.
You’ll receive a success or failure message outlining the reason for any errors.
Best Practices
Always verify earnings rates before import.
Ensure the FPS XML is from the latest HMRC submission.
Review each HMRC notification before applying changes.
In case of false/failed matches or validations, please first fix the data in question and then reupload the file.