Running a Pay Run

Coming Soon — Payroll is currently in development and will be available in a future update. This article describes how the feature will work when it launches.

Running a pay run

A pay run is the process of calculating your employees' pay, deductions, and take-home amounts for a given pay period. Accounted will automate the calculations and submit the necessary reports to HMRC on your behalf.

What happens during a pay run

When you run payroll, Accounted calculates the following for each employee:

Gross pay

• For salaried employees: their annual salary divided by the number of pay periods
• For hourly employees: hours worked multiplied by their hourly rate
• Plus any overtime, bonuses, or additional payments

Deductions

• PAYE Income Tax — Calculated based on the employee's tax code, using the cumulative basis. Accounted applies the correct tax bands and personal allowance automatically.
• Employee National Insurance — Calculated on earnings above the Primary Threshold, using the current NI rates (currently 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, and 2% above that).
• Student loan repayments — If applicable, calculated as a percentage of earnings above the relevant plan threshold.
• Pension contributions — The employee's contribution percentage applied to qualifying earnings.

Employer costs

• Employer National Insurance — Calculated on earnings above the Secondary Threshold (currently 13.8%).
• Employer pension contribution — Your contribution percentage applied to qualifying earnings.
• Employment Allowance — If you qualify, this reduces your employer NI bill by up to £5,000 per year.

Net pay

• Gross pay minus all deductions equals the employee's take-home pay.

How to run a pay run

1. Go to Payroll > Run Payroll in your dashboard.
2. Review the pay period — Accounted will show the current pay period dates and the list of employees to be paid.
3. Enter any variables — For hourly employees, enter the hours worked. Add any overtime, bonuses, or adjustments.
4. Review the calculations — Accounted shows a breakdown for each employee: gross pay, each deduction, and net pay. The totals across all employees are shown at the bottom.
5. Approve and submit — Once you're happy, click "Approve Pay Run". Accounted will:
   • Generate payslips for each employee
   • Submit a Full Payment Submission (FPS) to HMRC via RTI
   • Record the payroll expense in your books

Payslips

After each pay run, Accounted generates a payslip for each employee showing:

• Pay period dates
• Gross pay breakdown
• Each deduction with an explanation
• Net pay
• Year-to-date figures for pay and deductions

Payslips are available as PDFs in the dashboard and can be emailed to employees automatically.

HMRC submissions

Accounted handles HMRC payroll submissions automatically:

• Full Payment Submission (FPS) — Submitted on or before each payday. This tells HMRC how much each employee has been paid and what deductions have been made.
• Employer Payment Summary (EPS) — Submitted monthly if you need to report statutory payments, claim the Employment Allowance, or report that no employees were paid in a tax month.

Paying HMRC

After each pay run, Accounted will tell you how much you owe HMRC for PAYE and NI. This amount is due to HMRC by the 22nd of the following month (if paying electronically) or the 19th (if paying by post). Penny will remind you before the deadline.

Small employers (those with average monthly PAYE/NI payments below £1,500) can choose to pay HMRC quarterly instead of monthly. Accounted will keep a running total and let you know when each quarterly payment is due.

Recording in your books

Payroll expenses are automatically recorded in your Accounted books as:

• Gross wages — Under the "Staff costs" expense category
• Employer NI — Under "Staff costs"
• Employer pension — Under "Staff costs"
• PAYE/NI liability — As an amount owed to HMRC until you pay it

This means your profit and loss report and tax position are always up to date, with no manual journal entries needed.