Setting Up Payroll

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.

Setting up payroll in Accounted

When payroll launches, Accounted will handle everything from PAYE calculations to RTI submissions, making it simple for sole traders with employees to run payroll without specialist software.

What you'll need before setting up

To set up payroll in Accounted, you'll need:

• An employer PAYE reference — This is issued by HMRC when you register as an employer. It consists of a three-digit tax office number and a reference (e.g., 123/AB45678). If you haven't registered yet, you can do so at gov.uk/register-employer. Allow up to five working days for registration.
• Your Accounts Office reference — A 13-character reference issued alongside your PAYE reference. You'll need this for making PAYE payments to HMRC.
• Small Employers' Relief status — You'll need to know whether you qualify for this, as it affects how statutory payments are handled. Most sole traders with fewer than ten employees will qualify.
• Employee details — For each employee, you'll need their full name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number, and tax code.

Getting started with payroll

Once the feature is available, the setup process will work as follows:

1. Go to Settings > Payroll in your Accounted dashboard.
2. Enter your PAYE details — Add your employer PAYE reference and Accounts Office reference.
3. Set your pay schedule — Choose whether you pay employees weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly, or monthly.
4. Add your employees — Enter each employee's details (covered in the Adding Employees article).
5. Run your first pay run — See Running a Pay Run for the full process.

HMRC connection for payroll

Payroll requires a separate HMRC authorisation from your Making Tax Digital connection. Accounted will need permission to submit Real Time Information (RTI) reports, including Full Payment Submissions (FPS) and Employer Payment Summaries (EPS), on your behalf.

The authorisation process works similarly to the MTD connection — you'll be redirected to Government Gateway to grant permission.

What Accounted will handle

When payroll launches, Accounted will manage:

• PAYE income tax calculations based on each employee's tax code
• Employee and employer National Insurance contributions
• Student loan and postgraduate loan deductions
• Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), and other statutory payments
• Pension auto-enrolment calculations
• RTI submissions to HMRC (FPS after each pay run, EPS monthly)
• Payslip generation (PDF and digital)
• P60 year-end certificates
• P45 generation when employees leave

Penny's role in payroll

Penny will assist with payroll just as she does with bookkeeping. She'll remind you when a pay run is due, flag any issues (such as changes to tax codes or approaching auto-enrolment dates), and confirm submissions to HMRC.

Want to be notified when payroll launches?

Make sure your notification preferences are set to receive product updates in Settings > Notifications. We'll send you an email and WhatsApp message as soon as payroll is available.