What’s covered in this guide?
Company File Transfer
A company file transfer moves an employee between company files (PAYE schemes) within the same Workforce.com organisation.
You don't need to create a new employee profile or move payroll data by hand.
Before you start
Your organisation needs more than one company file. The company file you're moving the employee to must be set up for a reporting location or pay group.
The employee must be active and have a payroll ID on their current company file, so the final FPS and P45 can include it.
An employee can only have one transfer in progress at a time.
Transfer an employee to another company file
To transfer an employee:
Go to Payroll > Staff
Open the employee's profile
Select Payroll > Transfers
Click Start Transfer
Choose the new company file, then the department and pay group on it
Enter the employee's leaving date
Choose whether this is the same legal entity or a different legal entity. This affects how pension, employment start date and holiday are handled.
Choose how to handle each payroll item (see below)
Review the summary and submit the transfer
📝 Important to note:
If the leaving date is today, the transfer will happen immediately
If it’s a future date, the transfer will process on that date
Transfer options explained
When setting up the transfer, you’ll choose how to handle different payroll items:
Leave balance
Carry over: Leave balances move to the new company file unchanged
Pay out: Accrued leave is paid out in the final payslip
📝 Important to note: Leave will only be paid out if your leave settings allow payouts on termination. Learn more here.
Attachment of Earnings Orders and Direct Earnings Attachment Deductions (AEOs & DEAs)
Keep: they stay in place
Remove: they're removed and must be re-added manually
📝 Important to note: If removed, you must notify the relevant authority and reapply the order.
Pension
Shown only if the employee is in a pension scheme
Continue: the pension carries on with no new assessment
Remove: the pension is removed and must be set up again on the new company file
📝 Important to note: If transferring between different legal entities, you will need to reassess the employee for auto-enrolment.
Employment start date
Same legal entity: choose to keep the original date or reset it to the transfer date
Different legal entity: the start date automatically resets to the transfer date
Payroll ID
If automatic payroll ID generation is turned off, you'll be asked for a new payroll ID for the new company file. Their current payroll ID stays with the original company file.
Review and submit the transfer
Before submitting, you’ll see a summary of the transfer and any warnings.
Review all details
Check any warnings
Click Submit Transfer
💡 Tip: You can open the transfer at any time to check its status, see if any action is needed, and find the employee's old and new payroll IDs in Transfer Details.
What happens after the transfer
If leave is paid out
If you selected Pay out leave and payouts on termination are enabled:
The leave payout is included in the employee's final payslip
It's added automatically and can't be edited
📝 Important to note: If leave payouts on termination are not enabled, the payout will not be processed.
Complete the transfer
A company file transfer happens in two stages:
Transferred: the employee moves to the new company file on the leaving date
Completed: the transfer is finalised after the final pay run is posted
📝 Important to note: The transfer is not fully complete until the final pay run is posted.
Complete the final pay run
Complete any manual steps
If you chose to remove the pension or AEOs/DEAs, the completed transfer shows an Action Required list (for example, re-enrolling the employee in the pension scheme for the new company file). Once you've done them, click Mark All as Done.
Go to Timesheets
Click Preview Export
Select the original company file
Create and review the pay run
Click Post Pay Run
📝 Important to note:
Shifts up to the leaving date are paid from the original company file
Shifts after that date are paid from the new company file
📝 Important to note: If a transferring employee is missing from the final pay run, Workforce Payroll shows a warning with a link to the transfer. This can happen if they have no payable items for the final pay period, such as when they didn't work. Review the transfer before posting the pay run.
After posting the pay run
A P45 is generated automatically with the original company file's year-to-date figures
The employee's year-to-date earnings and tax are carried over to the new company file
An FPS with the leaving date is created when the pay run is posted. Submit it as usual.
Important limitations
📝 Transfers must be in the current tax year
The leaving date must fall within the current tax year.
📝 The leaving date can only be backdated within the current pay period. The earliest date you can choose is the first day of the current pay period. Earlier pay periods aren't supported.
📝 The earliest date can be later in some cases. If the employee's new pay group starts later, the earliest date is the day before its current pay period starts.
📝 A transfer can't be created if:
the employee already has a payslip on the original company file's pay run covering the leaving date
the new pay group already has a pay run covering the days after the leaving date
the employee's first pay period on the new pay group would end before the current pay period on the original company file, because the P45 wouldn't be issued in time
FAQs
Why hasn’t the transfer happened yet?
Why hasn’t the transfer happened yet?
A transfer with a future leaving date runs on that date. One with a leaving date of today or earlier runs straight away.
Why wasn’t leave paid out?
Why wasn’t leave paid out?
Check that Payout on termination is turned on for each leave type.
Do I need to do anything for pensions?
Do I need to do anything for pensions?
If you chose to remove the pension, re-enrol the employee on the new company file and mark the step as done. If you're moving between legal entities, you may need to reassess them for auto-enrolment.
Can I backdate a transfer?
Can I backdate a transfer?
Yes, but only as far as the first day of the current pay period, and within the current tax year.