How do I create an employee in the payroll?

Summary

This article describes how to create an employee record in the Payroll.

More Information

Video Tutorial

How to Create a New Employee

Further Explanation

Brief Setup Information

Go to " Payroll Maintenance Options Add or Edit Employees".

The minimum information required to create an employee in Platinum for use with the Real Time Information (RTI) is as follows:

Page 1
- "Surname" #
- "Forenames" #
- "Address" #
- "Date Of Birth"
- "Start Date"
- "Gender"
Page 2
- "Tax Code"
- "NI Code"
- "NI Rate"
Page 4
"Pay Frequency"
"Std Rate"

RTI UPDATE' -It is IMPORTANT that all employees have their FULL Name (including middle names), they MUST Have "Date of Birth" and "Date Started" are filled in. THE NAMES AND ADDRESSES MUST NOT INCLUDE COMMAS (,) OR ANY "SPECIAL CHARACTERS" as these will make the RTI Submission Fail.

When entering the employees' holiday days this usually includes bank holidays in the allowance.

PAGE 1 is self explanatory apart from "Department".
If you want to create departments, which can be useful for reporting, then move the cursor to "Department" and press <Ctrl+F1>.
- Click <Add>.
- Enter a four character department code, with a thirty character description and you can create further sub groups of that department code if necessary. But for this example we shall simply create an Admin Department Code.

'0001' with a description of 'Administration2'.

All new employees will be put "on hold" when they are first entered. This allows you to enter their details at any time, but only activate them once you have closed the period prior the first one in which you will be paying them. Simply change the "Payroll Hold" flag from 'Yes' to 'No' at the appropriate time (and not before).

On the second page of information for the employee, you have the "Tax Code:". Enter the appropriate Tax Code, either from a P45 or the emergency code in force at the time.

The "NI Rate:" should be set appropriately. If there is no company pension scheme, then it is likely that most of your employees will be on "NI Rate:" 'A', but you should ensure that you are using the correct rate for each employee according to current legislation.

Move on a couple of pages to the "Basic Pay" page, and enter the "Payment Frequency", "Payment Type", "Std Hours" and "Std Rate".

This covers the fields for creating a basic employee record.

Detailed Setup Information

General

Enter the code for the employee. There are six characters for this. You may already have employee numbers that you can use, or you can design a coding system for yourself. Whatever system you choose, make sure that you document it in your procedures for new starters so that it can be followed in future.
Enter the other details for the employee, including a department if required. You might want to split your employees up into different departments for reporting and accounts purposes, so use the department for this.
Avoid commas or other odd characters in the employee name and address since these will upset on-line filing, which is of course now mandatory for us all.
All new employees will be put "on hold" when they are first entered. This allows you to enter their details at any time, but only activate them once you have closed the period prior the first one in which you will be paying them. Simply change the "Payroll Hold" flag from 'Yes' to 'No'.

Tax, NI & Pension

On the second page of information for the employee, you have the "Tax Code:".

If the employee has brought a P45, their current tax code will be shown thereon, and there may be an "X" in the Week1/Month1 field. If so, then the "Wk/Mth 1?:" should be set to 'Yes'.
If the employee does not have a P45, then follow HMRC rules in force for new employees without a P45. The tax code you should use here will generally be the standard single person's code effective at the time, but set the "Wk/Mth 1?:" to 'Yes'.

You will also see here "NI Number:" and "NI Rate:".

You must get an "NI Number:" for your employee - HMRC provides a method to find the number if the employee does not know it.
The "NI Rate:" should be set appropriately. If there is no company pension scheme, then it is likely that most of your employees will be on "NI Rate:" 'A', but you should ensure that you are using the correct rate. See here for more details.

Basic Pay

Enter the "Payment Frequency :" and "PaymentType:" for this employee. The options for these fields are shown alongside them.
Where the "PaymentType:" is 'S' for Salary, the "Std Hours:" is not relevant in the actual wages calculation, and there may be no "standard" hours for the job! Decide on a figure that you consider appropriate since this is a requirement for RTI.
The rate or rates of pay can be entered here. The system can cope with a wide variety of options including basic salary, basic salary plus overtime paid at an hourly rate, basic plus a fixed amount for Saturday working, hourly basic rate plus overtime at time and a half (or other rate), and so on.

Bank

If you wish to store employee bank details, you will first need to create bank records in the Payroll Settings.

To get straight into the Bank Maintenance program, without having to exit this screen, follow the instructions below:

Press <Shift+F10> while the cursor is on the "Sort Code" field.

You will be taken into the Bank Properties program.

Enter the "Sort Code", "Name" and "Address" of the Bank.
Press <Esc> and [Accept] the new record.
Press <Esc> again to return to the employee record.
Once you have created the necessary Bank Records, enter the Sort Code for the employee's bank. Pressing <F1>/<Shift+F1> allows you to scroll forwards/backwards through Bank Sort Codes already on file.
Enter the employee's Account details and the Payment Reference number, if applicable. Various Payroll reports can be produced to show these details along with relevant pay information for ease of payment e.g. a Natwest Autopay Report which will show Nett Pay and the employee Reference number to make entering BACS details quick and easy.

If you do not need or want to record the employee's bank details, you may leave this page blank.

Adjustments

If you have an employee who has a fixed value addition or deduction each period to or from their pay, enter it here.
The amount will appear automatically when you run the payroll. If you have a variable or irregular addition or deduction, don't enter it here, but remember to deal with it when you actually run the payroll for the period.
Check carefully whether the amount is subject to tax and national insurance, and that your adjustment option that you use is set up correctly.

New Starters

When adding an employee record for a new starter please save their new record then follow the extra steps in this article to enter their P45 details.

As of April 2010, all Payroll Year End and P45 details have to be filed on-line. Your Government Gateway user name and password should have been entered into Platinum already, but see here for details of how to set them up.

HMRC Starter Checklist

The HMRC also provides a PDF document to help you collect the required information for a new employees. Click here to download this document from the HMRC website.

Troubleshooting Document Download Issues

There are occasions, depending on your internet browser in which the above document will not download.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 and above also Apple Safari 5.1 and above have no issues with displaying this document.

When trying to view in Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, it will show a page with the following text.

Please wait...
If this message is not eventually replaced by the proper contents of the document, your 
PDF viewer may not be able to display this type of document...........

In Mozilla Firefox

At the top of the browser if got a message saying

"This PDF Document might not be displayed correctly."

To the right of this there is a box saying:

"Open with a different viewer" on the to top right of your Firefox browser.

In Google Chrome

Hover the mouse over the Bottom right of the document and a small toolbar will appear, simply click the picture of a "Disk" and save the file to the desired location.