Payroll - Frequently Asked Questions

Payroll 2013/14

Do I have to run payroll?

You don’t need to set up payroll if you don’t have any employees and the company doesn’t pay you a salary. If the company has a PAYE scheme (eg. because the company is reimbursing expenses) then you should be running payroll and filing RTI.

Do I have to run payroll each month?

Yes. You might have previously run your payroll quarterly or annually but FreeAgent only supports running a monthly payroll. If you want, you can choose to run payslips with a 'zero' value to work around this.

Can I use other payroll software with FreeAgent?

You might have previously used FreeAgent's payroll alongside another payroll system. With the requirement to submit PAYE information in real time it's not advisable to do this. You should make payroll entries by journal instead.

Can I only run payroll one month at a time?

You should run your payroll in FreeAgent once each month. It’s likely that you’ll need to make adjustments to your payroll throughout the year eg. employees leaving/new employees starting work or changes to items like overtime, commission or bonuses.

RTI

What is RTI?

RTI stands for Real Time Information and it's the new way to report wages, salaries, PAYE and National Insurance to HM Revenue & Customs. Traditionally, PAYE data would be submitted at the end of the tax year, but the new changes will require data to be submitted to HMRC online whenever employees are paid.

Learn more by downloading our free 'Getting ready for RTI' white paper.

How does RTI work in FreeAgent?

FreeAgent will submit your RTI for you as part of your payroll. You'll need to enter your Government Gateway ID details when prompted after running each monthly payroll.

What gets sent to HMRC in my RTI submission?

For an RTI submission to HMRC, FreeAgent will send information you've entered into each individual payroll profile, payslip information (including Tax and NI calculations) and also some of your company information.

Payroll Profiles

‘New Employee’ or ‘Existing Employee’?

When first setting up your payroll in FreeAgent at the start of the tax year (eg. starting April 2013) add any existing members of staff as ‘existing employees’ when creating their payroll profiles.

If an employee joins the company sometime during the tax year, then add them as a ‘new employee’.

How do I mark an employee as having left the company?

If an employee leaves the company and you need to remove them from the payroll you simply need to edit their payroll profile, and add a leaving date.

Once you’ve marked an employee as having left the company they will still be included in the next payroll and FreeAgent will include the leaving details in your next RTI submission to HMRC.

• If they leave during the payroll month they will have a full payslip in the next payroll.
• If they leave before the start of the payroll month they will have a zero payslip in the next payroll.
• If they leave before the start of the payroll month, and we’ve already told HMRC about them leaving in an RTI submission, they will no longer be included in your monthly payrolls.