Add one-off and recurring pay items

Adding pay items to employee payslips allows you to adjust pay as necessary when paying bonuses, sick pay, parental pay, and more.

Before you begin

There are a number of predefined recurring Pay items that can be added to employee payslips. If the pay item you require isn’t on the predefined list, create a Custom pay item.

1. From the left side bar, navigate to Settings > Pay items.
2. Click Create One-off to create a one-off pay item or Create Recurring to create a recurring pay item.
3. Enter the Pay item name and select the Payment type from the drop down menu. For One-off Net additions and One-off Net deductions click Save & close.
4. For all other pay item types, click Next.
5. Fill in the required information. Click Save & close.

How to add one-off pay items to employee payslips

1. From the left side bar, navigate to Payrolls.
2. Select the relevant draft payroll.
3. Select the relevant employee.
4. Click Add pay item.
5. Select the pay item type (+ Gross addition, + Net addition, - Gross deduction, - Net deduction).
6. Select the Type of addition. Your custom pay items are listed at the bottom of the drop down menu.
7. Enter the Amount. Some pay items will also have a Pensionable option, which you can toggle on if the pay item is pensionable.
8. Click Add [pay item type].

How to add predefined recurring pay items to employee payslips

1. From the left side bar, navigate to Employees.
2. Select the relevant employee.
3. Navigate to the Pay Items tab.
4. Click Add pay item.
5. Select the relevant pay item and fill out the required information.
6. Click Save & close.

Great! That pay item will now appear on all of the employee’s subsequent payslips.

Note: If you are payrolling Benefits in Kind, use these predefined pay items to ensure the benefits are taxed correctly. To learn more, see Benefits in Kind guide.

How to bulk add pay items

If you need to process one-off pay items for multiple employees, you can import the pay items as a CSV, TSV, or TXT file.

1. From the left side bar, navigate to Payrolls.
2. Select the relevant payroll draft.
3. Click Actions in the top right corner.
4. Select Import pay items.
5. To manually enter the pay item data, fill in the pop-up spreadsheet, click Continue, and then Yes. To use a pre-populated file, click Upload data from a file and use the file explorer to select your pay item data file.

   Note: The Employee ID is a mandatory column for both the manual and file upload.

6. Confirm if your file contains a header row or no header row by selecting Yes (if your file contains headers), Select another row (if your file contains headers but in a different row to the row indicated with the arrow), or No header row (if your file doesn’t contain headers).
7. Once headers are confirmed, the column headings will begin matching automatically, which you can confirm by clicking Confirm mapping. If you have any columns that are unable to be matched, a Lookup matching fields dropdown will appear.
8. Click Review to check that the confirmed mapping for the file is correct. Then, click Continue once you’re satisfied with the data review.
9. If you are ready to submit, click Yes. The pay items will appear in the Payslip previews in the payroll draft.

FAQs

What columns do I need if I’m uploading a pre-populated file?
The headings required are listed in the manual data entry section: Employee ID, Type, Title, Pensionable, and Amount.

Tip: If you choose to use your own headings, UK Payroll will automatically try to match your headings, so try to choose similar or easily identifiable headings.

Can I import pay items for an employee who has previously been terminated?
Yes. To do this, enable a Payment After Leaving (PAL) payslip for them first. Once enabled, you can include their payment on the upload file or through manual entry as normal.