Running the first payroll for a new client without errors

3 days ago
3 min read

Introduction

Payroll is the least forgiving work in accountancy. A bookkeeping error can be corrected next month and nobody outside the business ever knows. A payroll error is noticed within hours by somebody whose rent is due, and it is discussed in the staffroom before anybody rings you.

The first run is where that risk concentrates. You have inherited data you did not enter, for people you have never met, against a payment date that cannot move. Everything about the first payroll should therefore be about verification rather than speed. Build the time in.

1. Running the first payroll for a new client is a data problem

Almost every first-run error is inherited rather than created. Trust nothing you did not enter.

Verify the employee data yourself

Names, tax codes, national insurance numbers, start dates, pay rates. Do not assume the previous provider's figures are right just because they exist. Ask for the source documents.

Reconcile the year to date figures

Gross, tax, national insurance, pension, student loan. If the year to date is wrong, every payslip afterwards is wrong and the correction is visible to staff. Reconcile before the first run, not after.

2. Get the deadlines and access sorted early

There is no flexibility in a pay date. Everything else has to bend around it.

Work backwards from the payment date

Approval, submission, payment run, bank cut-off. Set the internal deadline several days earlier than feels necessary for the first run. Tell the client why.

Confirm authorisations are in place

Agent authorisation, payroll scheme details, pension provider access. Any one of these missing stops the run entirely and some take a fortnight to obtain. Start them on day one.

3. Understand what the client actually does

Payrolls are full of local arrangements. None of them are on the payslips.

Ask about the awkward things

Overtime rules, bonuses, commission, salary sacrifice, benefits, statutory leave, anybody paid differently. These are where errors live. Get the answers in writing.

Find out who approves and who provides hours

One person to send hours, one to approve the run. Hours arriving from three managers on the morning of the pay date is how mistakes happen. Agree one route.

4. Run a parallel or a dry run

The cheapest insurance available. It takes an hour.

Reproduce the previous period first

Run the last period you did not process and compare it to what the client actually paid. Differences show up before they matter rather than afterwards. Investigate every discrepancy.

Send a draft for approval, itemised

Not just a total. A breakdown lets the client spot the person whose hours are wrong, which they can do far faster than you can.

5. Communicate around the first run

Staff anxiety is part of the handover. Manage it deliberately.

Tell employees what is changing

If payslips will look different or arrive by a new route, say so in advance. Unexplained changes to pay documents cause immediate alarm. One short notice prevents it.

Be reachable on the day

Have somebody available when payslips land. One query answered quickly prevents a client's whole morning being consumed.

Conclusion

Payroll errors are noticed within hours by people whose rent is due, so the first run should be built around verification rather than speed. Check names, tax codes, national insurance numbers and rates yourself, and reconcile the year to date figures, because a wrong opening figure makes every later payslip wrong and visibly so.

Work backwards from the pay date with a deliberately early internal deadline, and confirm every authorisation, since a missing one stops the run and some take weeks. Ask about overtime, commission, salary sacrifice and anybody paid unusually. Reproduce a previous period and compare it against what was actually paid, send an itemised draft for approval, warn staff of any change, and be reachable on payday.