To import your employees into Sage Payroll, you need to use a Full Payment Submission (FPS) file. This is the form that submits to HMRC each time you complete your payroll.

You must export the most recent file from your previous payroll software.

An FPS is specific to a pay frequency, so export one FPS file for every pay cycle you run.

For example, if you have a weekly and a monthly pay run, you need a total of two FPS files.

The process for creating your FPS file varies depending on your old payroll software

I'm moving from Sage 50 Payroll to Sage Payroll

Create the FPS file

In Sage 50 Payroll, you create your FPS from the Payroll navigation bar. Select Full Payment Submission.

Locate the FPS file

1. From e-Submissions select FPS Viewer.
2. Select the FPS you want to export then Export XML.

To find your most recent submission, the filename is SgeFPS-<YEAR>-<MONTH>-<DAY>-<HOUR>-<MINUTE>-<SECONDS>.xml.

For example: SgeFPS-2021-02-03-13-22-05.xml

My previous payroll software wasn’t Sage 50 Payroll

The process is specific to your software provider. If you're unsure of how to get the FPS file, you must speak to them. 

The next stage is to import the FPS into Sage Payroll. This creates the employee records based on the information in the FPS file.

For a step-by-step guide on the process, read Import employees - Import FPS file.

Import employees - Import FPS file

Import employees - Check and update employees

Import employees using an FPS file