In short
The costliest part of payroll is re-keying hours from your time system into payroll by hand. A clean export hands over hours, overtime and absences in one go – ready for your payroll software or provider to file under RTI.
Why the time-to-payroll step goes wrong
In many businesses, the month’s recorded hours end up in a spreadsheet that someone copies into payroll by hand. Every manual step is a chance for error – missed overtime, mistyped hours, absences not accounted for. A proper export closes that gap.
Example: a care home with 40 staff runs days, nights and weekends. One night shift missed in the spreadsheet usually surfaces only when the carer opens their payslip – and then the correction loop with payroll begins.
What gets handed over
- Hours per employee, including overtime
- Premiums for night, weekend and bank-holiday work
- Absences: holiday, sickness, unpaid leave
- The pay elements payroll needs to map it correctly
What goes missing most often is changes to employee details: starters and leavers, new contracted hours, a pay rise, new bank details. They arrive by email or in passing, so collect them in one place for the monthly export.
The handover, step by step
- 1Check and approve the hours – only approved time is exported.
- 2Let premiums be calculated automatically.
- 3Export to your payroll software (Sage, Xero, BrightPay, QuickBooks) or send it to your provider.
- 4Payroll files the Full Payment Submission (FPS) to HMRC under RTI.
Records & retention
- RTI: every pay run is reported to HMRC in real time via an FPS.
- Payroll records: HMRC requires them to be kept for at least 3 years from the end of the tax year (many keep 6).
- Right-to-work evidence: kept for the whole of employment plus 2 years.
- Data protection: payroll data is personal data – restrict access to those who need it.
A month-end checklist with dates
Payday sets the pace: HMRC expects the FPS on or before the day you pay your staff, and the PAYE bill is due by the 22nd of the next tax month (earlier if you pay by cheque). Work backwards from payday.
- 1Agreed cut-off, e.g. ten days before payday: send starters, leavers and contract changes.
- 2End of the pay period: check every team’s hours, resolve queries, approve.
- 3A few working days before payday: export, compare with last month, hand over.
- 4Payday: payslips go out – they must show hours worked where pay varies with time worked.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
- Pay elements mapped wrongly: a night premium booked as plain overtime. Agree the mapping once with payroll.
- Employee IDs that don’t match: export new starters only once their payroll number exists.
- Missing absences: sickness that was never recorded can’t feed into sick pay.
- Changes after the run is closed: correct in the next pay run and note why, never silently.
Agreeing a routine with your payroll provider
Agree on one page who sends what, and when: cut-off dates, the pay-element mapping, how files are sent and confirmed, how late corrections are handled, and a named contact on each side with holiday cover.
What a good solution looks like
- An approval step so only checked hours are exported.
- Premiums calculated by rule, not by hand.
- An export your payroll software or provider can read directly.
- Absences flow through automatically.