Payroll Year-End Checklist for 2022/23: Tasks & Deadlines for Small Businesses

As an employer, you'll know that paying your people is an important responsibility. So with the UK payroll year-end on 5 April 2023 fast approaching, we’ve put together this payroll processing checklist to help you meet the calendar deadlines.

We also cover two things you need to do to get ready for your next payroll year. And, along the way, you’ll also learn how payroll software can help make your job easier than ever.

You can jump to a step in our payroll year-end checklist below:

• 1. Check when your payroll ends

• 2. Ensure leavers and starters are processed

• 3. Process the year-end payroll

• 4. Generate P60 and P11D reports

• 5. Get ready for the new tax year

• Important dates and deadlines

Step 1. Check when your payroll ends

Most payrolls run on a monthly-pay frequency. If this is you, then you can skip this step.

You’ll only need to check when your payroll ends if:

• You process payroll weekly, every two weeks or every four weeks, as opposed to monthly

• Your usual processing deadline falls on 5 April in any year or 4 April on a leap year

What do I need to do?

In 2023, 5 April falls on a Wednesday, and it’s unlikely most weekly, fortnightly or four-weekly pay runs will pay your employees on a Wednesday. This means that, for most payrolls in 2023, there won’t be a week 53. If you do happen to have Wednesday 5 April as a payment date you will have a week 53.

In other years, if you pay fortnightly or 4-weekly, it’s worth remembering that your payroll year may have a week 54 or 56.

If you need to account for a week 54 or 56, make sure you switch your employees to a week one tax code for the extra week. This may mean your employees have a tax liability, as they’ll have received an additional week (or weeks) tax allowance.

Step 2. Ensure leavers and starters are processed

Next, you need to account for any new or leaving employees. While you probably processed leavers and starters when they joined or left, payroll year-end is a good time to check everything is in order.

What do I need to do?

Check your employees are all up to date. It can be very difficult to go back and fix these details later on. 

Crucially, this needs to happen before you submit your Full Payment Submission (FPS) or Employer Payment Summary (EPS).

Step 3. Process the year-end payroll

Once you’ve clarified your final payroll end date, accounted for any starters or leavers, and got all the relevant forms ready, you’re ready to finally process your year-end payroll.

The normal payroll calendar deadline for submission of your FPS remains the same - it has to be sent on or before the employees are paid.

What do I need to do?

1. Make sure your processing date is set to 5 April in your payroll software. Submit your final payroll on or before you pay your employees. 

2. The software will inform HMRC that this is the final payroll of the tax year

Note: While you can send out your P60s and P11Ds after this step, it’s good to know what information you need for these forms as part of your overall year-end process.

What is the deadline for retrospective adjustments?

19 April. Before 2020-21, businesses could make retrospective adjustments through the Earlier Year Update (EYU). Now, if you become aware of an error, you can amend the final payroll and send a new revised FPS. It is best to send this before 19 April.

Step 4. Generate P60 and P11D reports

As an employer, there are a lot of key forms you need to generate and send out to both your employees and the government at the end of the tax year. Two of the most important forms for the payroll year-end are P60s and P11Ds.

P60s

A P60 details employee pay and deductions for the year. It’s a summary of the last 12 months of an employee’s payslips. The P60 is a crucial piece of documentation and is generated automatically when the final payroll run is made. Your employee must keep their P60. They’ll need it, for example, when taking out a mortgage or starting a new rental agreement.

What do I need to do?

By 31 May, you need to send a P60 to all employees who are employed by you on 5 April. You should send out your P60s after your employees have received their final regular payslip of the tax year.

Sending P60s before 31 May means you can correct any errors before the deadline.

P11Ds

A P11D outlines the expenses and benefits you’ve provided to your employees

What do I need to do?

You’ll need to produce a P11D form for each eligible employee and send it to HMRC by 31 July. You’ll also need to pay the Class 1A NICs for each of your eligible employees.

If you’ve submitted any P11Ds, you’ll also need to send a P11D(b) form to confirm the amount of your Class 1A National Insurance Contributions you need to pay.

Note: Some employee benefits like company cars and health insurance can be payrolled rather than submitted via a P11D. If you want to do this in the new tax year, you'll need to inform HMRC before 5 April.

Step 5. Get ready for the new tax year

As one tax year ends, another begins. With this in mind, it makes sense to get ready for your next payroll year now. Think of your end-of-year and start-of-year tasks as one overall process instead of two.

What do I need to do?

First, ensure the tax codes for the new tax year are correct. Most software will do this automatically for you. But if you need to do it manually, then check HMRC’s P9X to see which tax codes you need to change from 6 April and which you can carry forward.

Then you can set your employees up for the next year of payroll.

Note: If eligible, you need to inform HMRC of your employment allowance status. Again, you should be able to set your payroll software to do this automatically, guaranteeing it’s done on time and correctly.

Important calendar dates and deadlines to keep in mind

There are the important dates you need to be aware of for payroll year-end. Knowing these payroll calendar dates for 2023 - and what you need to do - means you’ll be prepared for the year-end deadlines. You’ll also need to make sure you know how your business processes payroll.

As a small business, payroll year-end processing is one of many responsibilities - and another area that the right accounting software can help you out with.

Accounting software can make everything easier, from processing payments to settling up with HMRC. Make sure you’re ready for payroll year-end by using the right software.

Feel like you’re prepared for payroll year-end? We know how busy it can be, which is why we’re dedicated to helping small businesses get their processes in place.

Discover QuickBooks payroll software.