2026 payroll checklist

A simple, printable checklist for quick monthly payroll checks
Comprehensive guidance on UK payroll tasks, with tips and mistakes to avoid
Help meeting HMRC compliance
Advice for automating payroll processes

FormatPDF

Publication date19/12/2025

AuthorThe Payfit team

A payroll checklist that will guide you through the UK payroll process

Running payroll in the UK might be more straightforward than in other countries. However, there are still many moving parts for any business to take into account, in order to ensure compliance with legislation, to keep accurate records, and to make all of your payments on time.

This monthly payroll checklist will help you stay on track with all of your tasks. You can even use it to put together your own template tailored to your own organisation’s needs.

What is a payroll checklist?

A payroll checklist is a step-by-step guide to ensuring all the necessary tasks are completed for processing employee pay accurately, on time, and in full compliance with regulations.

Our comprehensive payroll checklist outlines all the processes you will have to take care of across the UK payroll lifecycle. This covers the management of new starters and leavers, leave, running the monthly payroll, guaranteeing pensions, benefits, the payment of taxes and contributions, and the meeting of UK regulatory compliance requirements.

Never miss a payroll checklist beat. Check off items like processing starters and leavers, updating employee information, through to actually running payroll, paying your employees, and meeting those all-important, time-sensitive HMRC obligations.

With our monthly payroll checklist, each payroll run will pass off smoothly, and ensure full compliance for your business.

Looking to automate your monthly payroll checklist items?

Payroll can be a needlessly manual and time-consuming process that gets in the way of doing more strategic work. However, there is another way. If you automate many of those fiddly monthly payroll processes with the right software, you’ll free up time for more impactful HR and strategic business initiatives.

Find our contact details at the bottom of our free, downloadable payroll compliance resource. Get in touch to learn how Payfit helps teams win back valuable time each month, and get further advice on optimising your payroll process.

What’s in our payroll compliance checklist?

Our task list is split into three key phases, to facilitate your team in tackling the monthly payroll run, and make sure you stay fully compliant with UK employment legislation and regulations on taxes and contributions. The three phases covered are as follows:

Before payroll: covering essential set-up tasks, like needing to register as an employer with HMRC, choose payroll software, gather employee information (such as tax codes and personal data), ensure GDPR compliance, and set-up your workplace pension scheme.
While running payroll: detailing what you need to remember in order to manage the core monthly work of calculating accurate pay and deductions (including PAYE tax and National Insurance), issuing itemised payslips to employees on the correct date, and submitting your Real Time Information (RTI) report to HMRC.
After payroll: listing the crucial follow-up steps to ensure compliance all year round, such as making payments to HMRC, proper management and storage of payroll records, and issuing annual forms like P60s and P11Ds.

Download our payroll checklist to:

Learn what tasks are involved in monthly payroll
Ensure everyone on your team follows the same process
Meet all UK regulatory and compliance requirements

FAQs

Why is a payroll checklist important?

When you’re running payroll, it can be easy to forget to go through certain steps or procedures. But the consequence of this is that payroll compliance falls by the wayside, leaving you open to fine-attracting errors and pay discrepancies. A payroll implementation checklist will:

Identify potential issues
Help you stay on track
Ensure monthly compliance
Serve as a payroll audit checklist, when the time comes for an audit

How do I prepare for payroll in the UK?

If you’ve not done so yet, you’ll want to register as an employer with HMRC. All employers must do this. Then, you’ll need to decide on pay dates, and calculate what deductions need to be made from salaries. This includes minimum wage calculations for your workers. In addition to sending out payslips, you’ll need to make RTI submissions to HMRC (payroll software can help automate this). And a monthly payroll checklist will help you remember to do all of this, so make sure you incorporate it into your monthly work routine.

What information is needed to process payroll in the UK?

As an employer, you are legally required to register most of your workers into a workplace pension scheme (via auto-enrolment). The corresponding deduction is, of course, processed through your payroll.
All taxable benefits, like company cars, must be reported to HMRC, usually through a P11D form at the end of the accounting year. You must also guarantee that, considering everything, all your employees receive at least the National Minimum Wage.

What are the main deductions I need to make?

The two main deductions you have to apply are PAYE tax and National Insurance. PAYE (Pay As You Earn) is the system that you, as an employer, must use to collect Income Tax and National Insurance contributions from your employees’ pay as they earn it. These payments are sent directly to HMRC. Calculating these taxes and deductions accurately is a key part of payroll compliance.

What if I need to make changes after running payroll?

If you discover an error after paying an employee or submitting your RTI report to HMRC, you will need to correct it. This usually involves submitting an additional report (a Full Payment Submission) to HMRC reflecting the changes. It’s crucial to manage these corrections by the next pay date if possible. This is where payroll software can be invaluable, in helping your team manage changes and ensure all information sent to HMRC is accurate and up-to-date.

How long must my business keep payroll records?

UK employment legislation requires you to keep payroll records for at least 3 years from the end of the tax year they relate to. However, HMRC can request records going back further, so many employers opt for 6 years. These records include employee details, pay amounts, deductions, and payments made. Proper data management is essential, especially when handling sensitive personal data. Keeping accurate records is also vital in case of an HMRC audit.