When someone joins your organisation you need to add them to Flow Payroll before they can appear in a pay run. You can add one person at a time using the onboarding wizard, or import many people at once using the CSV importer.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.flowpayroll.ai/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Before you start
Have these details to hand for each new starter:- Full legal name, email address, date of birth, and birth gender.
- National Insurance number (or at least two lines of home address if no NI number yet).
- Start date and starter declaration (A, B, or C).
- Tax code — if you have a P45 from a previous employer, bring the P45 gross and tax figures too.
- NI category (usually A for employees under State Pension age).
- Bank account details (sort code, account number, account holder name).
- The payroll schedule this person belongs to.
Adding an employee individually
Open the onboarding wizard
Go to People, make sure you are on the Team tab, and click Add employee. The wizard opens with a checklist sidebar on the left that tracks your progress through each step.
Personal information
Enter the employee’s personal details exactly as they appear on official documents — HMRC validates these fields on the FPS. Required fields are:
- Employee ID (auto-generated, but you can change it)
- First name and last name
- Email address
- Date of birth
- Birth gender
If you don’t have the NI number yet, enter at least two lines of the employee’s home address — HMRC requires one or the other on the FPS.
Job details
Fill in the employment specifics:
- Start date — required.
- Hours worked per week — choose the band (up to 16, 16–24, 24–30, above 30, or other). This is an HMRC-required field.
- Job title and department — optional, but used for filtering and reporting.
- Working pattern — tick the days the employee typically works.
- Irregular payment pattern — toggle on if pay varies and there is no regular cycle.
- Off payroll worker (IR35) — toggle on for workers inside IR35.
Payroll and tax
This step contains four required items and several optional ones.Required:
- Payroll schedule — assign the employee to an existing pay run configuration.
- Starter declaration — select A, B, or C based on what the employee has told you:
- A — first job since 6 April, no other job or pension.
- B — this is their only job (they may have another source of income but no other employment).
- C — they have another job or receive a pension.
- Tax code — enter the code for the current tax year (for example
1257L). If you have a P45 from the previous employer, use the code shown there. Otherwise use the emergency code appropriate to the starter declaration. Tick W1/M1 if the code should be applied on a non-cumulative basis. - NI category — select the appropriate HMRC NI category letter. Category A applies to most employees. The wizard can suggest a category based on date of birth when you have provided it.
- Salary — the annual gross salary for reference.
- Director settings — appointment date and NIC calculation method if the employee is a company director.
- Student loan — plan type (Plan 1, 2, 4, or 5) and dates if applicable.
- Postgraduate loan — if the employee has a postgraduate loan.
- Pension — assign the employee to a pension group at onboarding. Auto-enrolment assessment runs every pay run regardless, but you can manually assign a group here.
- Holiday policy — attach a holiday accrual policy.
Bank information
Enter the employee’s bank account details. All three fields are required when providing bank details:
- Account holder name
- Account number (8 digits)
- Sort code (6 digits)
Year-to-date figures (optional)
This step is for employees joining mid-tax-year who have already had pay processed elsewhere. Enter the cumulative figures from their P60 or last payslip so that tax and NI calculations for the remainder of the year are correct:
- YTD gross, taxable pay, and tax paid.
- YTD employee and employer NI.
- YTD student loan and postgraduate loan deductions.
- Statutory pay received to date (SSP, SMP, SPP, SAP, ShPP, SPBP, SNCP).
- Pension contributions.
Review and save
The Review step shows a summary of every section. Scroll through to check the details. Click Save employee to create the record. The checklist sidebar shows a tick on every completed section — any incomplete required fields are highlighted before you can save.After saving, you are taken to the new employee’s record where you can continue adding details.
Draft saving
The wizard saves your progress automatically as you type. If you navigate away mid-onboarding, Flow Payroll offers to resume your draft when you return. Discard a draft to start fresh.Importing employees via CSV
For bulk onboarding — for example when migrating from another system — use the CSV importer.Choose the import mode
Select New starters for employees who have not been in Flow Payroll before, or Migration if you are importing employees part-way through a tax year and want to carry in year-to-date figures. Migration mode adds optional YTD fields and relaxes the starter declaration requirement.
Upload your file
Upload a
.csv file. The importer auto-detects column headers using fuzzy matching — it recognises a wide range of names for each field (for example “Date of birth”, “DOB”, and “BirthDate” all map to the birth date field). Review the column mapping and correct any mismatches.Review and fix errors
The importer validates every row against the same rules as the manual form. Rows with errors are flagged in red with a description of each problem. Fix them in your CSV and re-upload, or correct individual cells in the preview. Rows with only warnings (such as an unusual postcode format) can still be imported.
Required columns for new starters
| Column | Notes |
|---|---|
| First name | |
| Last name | |
| Birth date | DD/MM/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD |
| Birth gender | Male or Female |
| Start date | DD/MM/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD |
| Starter declaration | A, B, or C |
| Hours worked | Band — for example “Above 30 hours” |
If you provide bank details, all three fields — account holder name, account number, and sort code — must be present for the same employee.
Where to go next
Managing people
View and edit employee records after onboarding.
Leavers
Process a leaver and issue a P45.
Running a pay run
Include your new starter in their first pay run.
Auto-enrolment
Understand how new starters are assessed for pension.