Course description

Taking on your first employee is a big step, and payroll can look like a maze of codes, thresholds and deadlines. This course shows you how UK payroll really works, step by step, so you can run it yourself with confidence or check exactly what your payroll provider is doing.

It's a full course of 10 sections and 50 written lessons, using the rates and thresholds for the 2026 to 2027 tax year. You follow Rutendo, who runs a small bakery in Cumbria, as she registers as an employer, takes on four very different staff and runs their payroll month by month: a 19-year-old assistant, a part-time baker, a weekend assistant with another job and a supervisor who arrives with a P45 and a student loan. Every calculation is shown in full, so you can see where each figure on a payslip comes from. Every section has a practice pack with a cheat sheet, calculators, checklists and model answers.

What you'll learn

• Getting set up: employment status, registering with HMRC, employers' liability insurance, right to work checks, records and data protection.
• Gross pay: pay periods, the minimum wage, hourly pay, salaries, overtime and holiday pay.
• Tax and National Insurance: tax codes, cumulative tax, P45s and starter checklists, Scottish and Welsh codes, category letters and the Employment Allowance.
• Deductions and payslips: student loans, court orders, what you can and can't deduct, and a full gross to net payslip.
• Workplace pensions: automatic enrolment, assessing staff, contributions, opting in and out, and the declaration of compliance.
• HMRC: Full Payment Submissions, Employer Payment Summaries, paying on time and correcting mistakes.
• Statutory pay, leavers and year end: sick pay from day one, maternity and paternity pay, final pay and P45s, P60s and getting ready for April.

Who it's for

Small business owners, office managers and bookkeepers, with no payroll experience needed. The course gives general information, not tax, legal or pensions advice, and shows you where to check the current rules on GOV.UK.

What will I learn?

• Register as an employer and set up payroll, records and new starters correctly
• Work out gross pay for hourly and salaried staff, including overtime, holiday pay and the minimum wage
• Understand tax codes and calculate PAYE tax, including P45s, starter checklists and Scottish and Welsh codes
• Calculate employee and employer National Insurance and claim the Employment Allowance
• Take student loan and pension deductions and turn gross pay into an accurate payslip
• Meet your automatic enrolment duties, from assessing staff to the declaration of compliance
• Send Full Payment Submissions and Employer Payment Summaries and pay HMRC on time
• Pay Statutory Sick Pay and family pay, handle leavers and plan for the year end

Frequently asked questions