We’re paying back time with new changes in Xero Payroll

If you’re running a small business that employs staff, you know the administrative ‘to-do’ list can be quite lengthy. Onboarding, managing timesheets, setting wages, processing payroll, preparing for end of financial year… it can all take up valuable time. Pay runs in particular need to be easy and efficient for you, as well as your accountant and bookkeeper. 

We’ve been listening to your feedback about Xero Payroll and excited to share some great new enhancements in the UK, marking the beginning of more improvements to come. These will automate processes and reduce the risk of manual calculation errors, so you can stress less about payroll compliance and get more time back to do what matters most: running your business.

You can now switch to Xero Payroll in a few easy steps

Moving payroll data from one software system to another can be complex and time consuming, and there’s no room for error. If you love using Xero but haven’t tried Xero Payroll yet, we’ve made it super easy to get set up. 

Simply upload your latest government filing (full payment submission) into the payroll switching wizard and Xero will facilitate the automatic transition of these records, streamlining the migration of your data and guiding you step by step through the process. In a few steps, you’ll be set up in Xero Payroll and ready to go.

Tailor your employee working patterns and reduce manual workarounds

In an increasingly flexible world, the idea of working the traditional hours from Monday to Friday is an outdated concept. To reflect this flexibility, we’ve created new employee working patterns templates.

If you’re a Xero Payroll Admin, you can now enter more information about your employees’ contracted working patterns. This is especially useful for annual salaried employees who are working non-traditional hours (for example, a four-day work week). 

Payroll Admins can easily create templates, as well as set multiple weeks for salaried employees who work different hours each week. To set up a new template, navigate to the ‘Working Patterns’ tab within Payroll settings.

We’re excited to roll out this improvement, which was ranked as the second most requested feature in Xero Product Ideas for UK Payroll.

More guidance to set up employee pensions

We’ve also released the new and improved Pensions setup experience, with additional built-in guidance, and interactive steps which only display the relevant details to each employee’s record.  This improvement supports accurate setup and makes the best use of Xero Payroll’s automation on pension assessments.

We’ve also simplified how you manage your auto enrolment obligations with increased flexibility to edit and update fields.

There’ll be more updates to come, but in the meantime if you’d like to learn more about confidently managing your accounting and payroll in the one place, don’t forget to register for one of our Xero Payroll webinars.