If your employees are paid their wages by you, then you need to run a payroll.

Payrolls can be run as often as you like, this depends on how ans when you choose to pay your staff, the majority of businesses run their payroll weekly, four weekly or monthly. The more payrolls you run the more paperwork is needed.

You should keep many documents and information in an employee’s payroll file. What is a payroll record supposed to include, exactly? In general, if something helps you run payroll for an employee, put it in the payroll file.

You need to include everyone on the payroll who works for you who is paid a wage or salary. Bonuses and commissions are included in that. If you have employees who are only paid via dividends, then these do not need to be included on the payroll as they are required to complete a separate self-assessment tax return after the end of the tax year.

You need to submit an RTI (Real Time Information) report to HMRC every time you make a payment to an employee. If you pay your employees every week then you will need to do an RTI submission each week. You will also need to report any new starters or leavers that you have since you last reported to HMRC.

You need to give them a payslip for each time you pay them, showing them what they have earned, what deductions have been made and what they are taking home. At the end of the tax year you need to provide them with a P60 form showing them their total earnings and deductions in that year.