Use this article if you've been using a different payroll system and have existing year-to-date figures.
If you’re doing this at the start of the tax year, so don't have year to date figures, read Setup a new company.
If you have a Full Payment Submission (FPS) file from your previous software, you can upload this into Sage Payroll. This will save you time by not manually entering the data. For more information, read Import employees - Import FPS file.
Cause
Resolution
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When to migrate your data
Make sure your FPS year to date values match with HMRC records. To do this:
Migrate your data at the start of a new tax month or quarter
Make sure you complete all pay runs in your previous software
Enter your total payroll values in Sage Business Cloud Payroll up to that date
A tax month runs from the sixth of one month to the fifth of the next.
The first tax quarter runs from 6 April to 5 July then every three months after that.
Example:
If you’ve processed the first two weekly pay runs of the current tax month in your old software:
Process the remaining weekly pay runs of the reporting period in the old payroll system
Make the relevant online submissions
Migrate to Sage Business Cloud Payroll at the beginning of the next tax month or quarter
Before you start
Once you’ve confirmed that this is the correct process for your situation, you must collect certain information from your previous payroll system.
This information must be accurate to ensure consistent reporting to HMRC.
P11's give you totals for PAYE, National insurance (NI), Student Loan, and statutory payments to enter.
You need a P11 for every employee this tax year. This includes leavers, starters, directors, students, and casual employees.
P45 or P46 information
For employees who started in the current tax year, you need their P45. The P45 contains figures from their previous employment.
Start dates
The start dates of current employees.
Leaver dates
If anyone has left during the current tax year, you need the date they left.
Statutory payments information
For employees who got statutory payments this tax year, you need their year-to-date values.
Use their absence dates and average weekly earnings on the P11 report.
Directorship details
The date they became a director.
Your employees RTI Pay ID
When you've already submitted information to HMRC, you need to have the correct RTI Pay ID for each employee. If you enter the wrong ID, this could duplicate HMRC records for the employee.
If your previous payroll system didn’t use an RTI Pay ID, you must enter an ID of your choice.
Inform HMRC that you’re moving software systems and don’t have the original RTI IDs already used
P32 reports
You need P32 reports for the pay runs processed in the current tax year in the previous payroll system. You need these to enter the statutory pay or employment allowance you’ve claimed during the year.
You also enter Class 1A Employers national insurance (NI) payments made on redundancy payments over £30,000.
Keep the P32s for your records.
Detailed Reports
You need these reports if you paid over £30,000 in termination payments to more than one employee in a P32 period.
You get the breakdown of Class 1A Employers NI made for each employee.
Setting up
When you log in to Sage Payroll for the first time, you must enter details about your company. You then have to choose how you want to enter your employee details.
TIP:
You can leave the setup at any time before fully completing all sections. select Save and Next.
Enter your company details in the Get started with Payroll screen and select Submit.
Select when your employees get paid by checking the appropriate frequency boxes.
For each of your pay frequencies, choose the day of the week or month you want to pay your employees.
Payroll will adjust dates that fall on weekends and bank holidays to the preceding work day. Select the Avoid Public Holidays and Weekends checkbox, then select Next.
When you've entered your employee's details, select Save then Next. You can then review the details and select Submit.
Enter employer and employment allowance values
Enter the amount of employer contributions for any statutory payment recovery and compensation that you’ve received so far, such as employment allowance values.
Enter this information before completing your first pay run.
Select Next Steps in the Migrate Payroll Data wizard, or select Settings, and Migrate Employer Statutory Payment Values and Migrate Employment Allowance Values.
If you have an Auto Enrolment pension in place, then you need to set this up within the program. This isn't part of the migration process and you can't add year to date figures.
For steps on setting up your pension scheme, read Set-up pensions.
TIP:
Use the correct staging date when you set up your pension scheme. If you aren't sure what this is, speak to The Pension Regulator (TPR).
Employees
With the pension added, set the employee's Workplace Pension status.
In this example, you enrolled your employee.
Select the Employee tab.
Select the relevant employee record, then Edit.
Select the Workplace Pensions tab.
In the Workplace Pension section, select the Status dropdown menu. Select Enrolled.
Enter the correct Enrolled Date, then select Save.
Repeat the above step for each employee, if required.
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