Xero payroll features: Process staff wages with ease, all in one place

Features

• HMRC requirements sorted
• Automated online payroll
• Payroll tasks and reminders
• Multiple pay frequencies
• Off-payroll workers (IR35)
• Directors payroll
• Fully automated workplace pensions
• Calculations and deductions
• Statutory leave and payments
• Payroll reporting
• Single platform
• Empower employees to self serve with Xero Me
• Support
• External integrations

HMRC requirements sorted

Xero payroll software is HMRC-recognised, and compliant with the latest payroll legislation.

• Keep accurate digital records about pay
• Calculate recoveries such as employment allowance
• Automatically submit payment and deduction details to HMRC each payday through the Full Payment Submission (FPS)
• Automatically schedule Employer Payment Summary (EPS) each tax month for submitting employer recoveries and CIS suffered for accurate PAYE payments
• Automatic tax code updates keep employee tax calculations accurate

Automated online payroll

Set up payroll to suit your own business, define your own pay rates, and select the pay cycle that suits your needs.

• Automatic calculation of tax, pensions and leave
• Flexible pay calendars and pay rates
• Email payslips that are password protected and let employees view them online
• Easily pay employees using the BACS/Faster payment file

Payroll tasks and reminders

Easily view tasks to complete, such as:

• leave approvals
• declined RTI filings
• pay runs due to be processed

Calendar view of:

• employee birthdays
• leave and holiday
• pay runs
• upcoming HMRC payments dates

Multiple pay frequencies

Run multiple pay cycles if you need to pay staff at different intervals. You might need one calendar for office staff and a different calendar for retail staff. Xero payroll allows you to run the calendars you need.

Choose from HMRC pay periods of weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually.

Off-payroll workers (IR35)

Add contractors under off-payroll working rules for tax calculations against service-related earnings.

• Simplified entry of worker information
• Leave approval across other regular employees
• Reimburse other costs and expenses to cover full charges
• Review payslips

Director payroll

Process director payroll and manage their national insurance calculations automatically

Fully automated workplace pensions

• Let Xero payroll help you fulfil your legal duty effortlessly
• Direct connections with NEST and TPP are available to simplify your set up and regular reporting needs
• Employees are continuously assessed and added to your workplace pensions scheme once they become eligible
• Contributions automatically allocated and calculated
• Xero payroll reminds you of and manages your re-enrolment obligation every three years
• Send pension reports to your provider every pay period

Calculations and deductions

Xero calculates deductions, so you can rest easy.

• PAYE and NIC (cumulative and non-cumulative tax basis)
• Pensions
• Student and postgraduate loans
• Directors’ NIC calculations: choose from the annual or the alternative method
• Payroll benefits including vans and cars
• Salary sacrifice, such as childcare vouchers

Statutory leave and payments

Add employee details and dates for Xero to calculate statutory leave and pay, helping you remain compliant.

• Maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave and pay leave and pay
• Average weekly earnings (AWE) calculation
• Manage keeping in touch (KIT) days across maternity and shared parental
• Sick leave including linking periods and maternity-related illness
• Bereavement leave and pay
• Applies small employer relief (if applicable) and calculates recoveries on statutory parental pay, reported on the P32 and submitted in the EPS
• If employee changes arrive after your processing deadline or you have a one-off bonus payment, you can manage them easily with an unscheduled pay run.

Payroll reporting

• View a wide range of payroll reports to get valuable information on payroll activity, transactions, remuneration.
• Easily view the amounts due to HMRC using the P32 and P11 reports
• Get an auto-enrolment summary report to view the employee's assessment status, check opt in and opt outs.
• View detailed pension contribution reports for your filing obligations
• Share payslips and P60s to employees via Xero Me
• Manage CIS scheme deductions suffered
• Submit CIS returns and simplify compliance

Single platform

• Automatically generates the payroll journal when posting a pay run and applies the costs to the accounts selected
• Apply payroll tracking to split employees’ pay so it can be easily viewed on the automatic payroll journal; tracking categories can also be applied to timesheets and you can set up an unlimited number of categories
• Xero payroll integrates directly with Xero projects to enable you to import project timesheets.

Empower employees to self serve with Xero Me

Spend less time on manual admin and chasing up staff.

Xero Me allows employees to access their own payslips and P60, submit timesheets and check leave balances and submit leave requests.

Managers with assigned access can be granted permissions to review and approve leave requests.

Support

We have a wide range of support to help guide you through:

• Xero Central
• 24/7 support team
• Payroll learning hub

External integrations

Expand the tools you use to manage employees with apps from the Xero App Store.