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If you’re moving your UK payroll to Flow Payroll from another provider, start here. This page explains when to switch, what you need before you begin, and the order to do things in. The detailed steps for bringing your data across are in Onboard using data templates. You can do the switch yourself, or Flow can do it with you. Either way, the steps are the same.

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Choose when to switch

You can switch at any point in the tax year, but the timing changes how much you need to bring across.

At the start of the tax year

Switching for your first pay run after 6 April is the simplest option. Your old provider handles the year-end (final FPS and P60s), and you start in Flow with no year-to-date figures to bring across.

Part-way through the tax year

You’ll also need each employee’s year-to-date pay, tax and NI, and your organisation’s year-to-date balances, so Flow calculates correctly from your first pay run and issues accurate P60s at year-end.
Switch at the start of a pay period, not halfway through one. Process your last full pay run with your old provider, then run the next one in Flow.

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Before you start

Gather these before you begin. It’s much faster than stopping halfway to look things up. Company and HMRC details
  • Your PAYE reference (for example 123/AB12345) and Accounts Office reference.
  • Your HMRC Government Gateway user ID and password, or your agent’s details if an agent submits for you.
  • Whether you claim Employment Allowance or Small Employer Relief.
  • The bank account you pay wages from.
From your old provider
  • A full employee export, including each employee’s payroll ID.
  • A year-to-date report from your last pay run, if you’re switching mid-year.
  • A list of the pay elements you use (salary, overtime, bonus, deductions and so on).
  • Details of your workplace pension scheme, and any active statutory payments, court orders or attachments of earnings.

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The switch at a glance

1

Set up your organisation and HMRC details

Go to Settings and complete the Company info and HMRC tabs, including your Government Gateway credentials so Flow can send RTI submissions for you.Set up your organisation →
2

Add your pay schedule

Go to Settings → Pay run and add a schedule for each pay frequency you use. Your employees are linked to a schedule when you bring them across, so this needs to exist first.Configure pay run settings →
3

Bring your data across

Fill in Flow’s data templates, then import them yourself or send them to your onboarding contact to import for you.Onboard using data templates →
4

Check everything and run your first pay run

Compare a sample of employees with their last payslip from your old provider, then run, review and approve your first pay run. Flow sends your Full Payment Submission (FPS) to HMRC when you lock it.Run a pay run →
5

Close down your old provider

Once your first pay run in Flow has gone through, wrap things up with your old provider. See below.

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Close down your old provider

Your employees haven’t left, and your PAYE scheme hasn’t closed. Don’t send a “final submission” or “scheme ceased” EPS from your old software, and don’t issue P45s to employees who are moving across with you.
If you need to report Employment Allowance, statutory pay recovery or a no-payment period for a month you ran with your old provider, send that EPS from your old software before you cancel it.
HMRC requires you to keep payroll records for at least three years from the end of the tax year they relate to. Download payslips, P60s, P11D records and submission history from your old provider before your access ends.

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Next steps

Onboard using data templates

Download the templates, fill them in, and import your data. Includes a short video walkthrough.

Key concepts

What PAYE, RTI, FPS, EPS and other payroll terms mean.