Governance Library

Payroll Governance Compendium

Each compendium is a complete governance suite - structured procedures, statutory references, and compliance checklists written by a qualified AAT accountant with 13+ years of senior finance experience.

Grounded in UK statute
Practice-ready from day one
Obsidian-compatible Markdown
Instant digital download

What's Included in this Compendium

SOP-001

New Starter Protocol

New starter onboarding — P45 or starter declaration capture, RTI new-starter submission, tax code application, pension assessment, and first-pay verification.

SOP-002

The Payroll Cycle & Timeline

Monthly payroll cycle and timeline — cut-off dates, processing windows, approval gates, BACS deadlines, and RTI submission timing.

SOP-003

Master Data Management

Employee master data integrity framework — change-control procedure for personal data, tax codes, NI categories, and bank details with audit trail.

SOP-004

Time & Attendance (Overtime & Variable Pay)

Time and attendance capture procedure — variable pay element calculation, manager approval workflow, and integration to payroll processing.

SOP-005

Holiday Pay & Entitlement

Statutory holiday entitlement calculation — 5.6-week minimum, accrual method, irregular-hours worker treatment under post-2024 reforms, and rolled-up holiday pay rules.

SOP-006

National Minimum Wage (NMW) Monitoring

NMW/NLW compliance monitoring — age-band rates, working-time definition, deductions and benefit-in-kind impact, and HMRC enforcement risk controls.

SOP-007

Sickness Absence Management

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) administration — qualifying days, PIWs, three-day waiting period, SSP1 issuance, and absence-management policy integration.

SOP-008

Family Leave Management

Statutory family leave — maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, and parental bereavement. Includes eligibility checks, pay calculation, and reclaim mechanics.

SOP-009

Other Statutory Leave

Other statutory leave types — emergency time off, jury service, redundancy time off, and unpaid parental leave. Includes record-keeping and pay treatment.

SOP-010

Tax Code Intervention & Governance

Tax code change handling — HMRC P6/P9 notices, P45 codes, week-1/month-1 application, and intervention against erroneous codes that disadvantage employees.

SOP-011

Pension Auto-Enrolment & Salary Sacrifice

Auto-enrolment integration into payroll — assessment cadence, contribution deduction, salary sacrifice mechanics, and TPR compliance evidence.

SOP-012

Court Orders & Attachments Of Earnings

Attachment of Earnings Orders, Council Tax AEOs, Direct Earnings Attachments, and CSA/CMS deductions — protected earnings, priority hierarchy, and deduction calculation.

SOP-013

Student & Postgraduate Loan Deductions

Student and postgraduate loan deduction — Plan 1, 2, 4, 5 and PGL thresholds, deduction calculation, P45 carryover, and RTI reporting.

SOP-014

The Leaver Protocol

Employee leaver process — final pay calculation, holiday accrual settlement, P45 issuance, RTI leaver flag, and pension scheme notification.

SOP-015

Real Time Information (RTI) Submission

FPS and EPS submission procedure — required data fields, submission deadlines, late filing penalties, and reconciliation to payroll output.

SOP-016

P32 Reconciliation & HMRC Payment

Monthly P32 reconciliation — PAYE, NIC, SLD, Apprenticeship Levy, and CIS offsets. Payment to HMRC and reconciliation to nominal ledger.

SOP-017

Net Pay Variance Analysis

Net pay variance analysis — period-over-period change investigation, outlier identification, root-cause classification, and pre-BACS sign-off discipline.

SOP-018

Manual Payments & Advances (Emergency Protocol)

Manual payment and salary advance protocol — authorisation gates, recovery procedure, RTI alignment, and prevention of duplicate payment.

SOP-019

Year-End Closure & P60 Production

Payroll year-end procedure — final EPS, week-53 handling, P60 issuance, P11D preparation interface, and new tax-year readiness.

SOP-020

Payroll Business Continuity & Data Protection

Payroll BC/DR procedure — alternative processing arrangements, data backup discipline, UK GDPR safeguards, and breach-notification readiness.

SOP-021

Tax Calendars & Period Definition

PAYE tax calendar — tax week and month definitions, week 53/54, leap-year handling, and impact on tax code application and NI category.

SOP-022

Working Days Calendar & Daily Rate Divisor

Working days calendar maintenance and daily rate divisor methodology for partial-month starters, leavers, and unpaid leave calculations.

SOP-023

Holiday Buy & Sell Scheme

Holiday buy/sell scheme administration — eligibility, salary impact, deduction mechanics, and tax/NI treatment.

SOP-024

Staff Loans & Advance Recovery

Staff loan and advance recovery procedure — written agreement, statutory deduction limits, benefit-in-kind threshold, and recovery on leaving.

SOP-025

Cycle To Work Scheme

Cycle to Work scheme administration — salary sacrifice mechanics, eligibility, transfer-of-ownership treatment, and end-of-hire procedure.

SOP-026

Payments After Leaving

Payments after leaving — tax code 0T week-1 application, RTI 'payment after leaving' flag, and reconciliation to original P45.

SOP-027

Overtime & Variable Pay Cycles

Variable pay element processing — overtime, commission, bonus, and shift premium. Includes holiday pay impact under post-2024 reforms.

SOP-028

Retroactive Statutory Correction & Maternity Reconciliation

Retroactive correction of statutory payments — SMP/SPP/ShPP/SAP overpayment recovery and underpayment top-up, with corresponding RTI submissions.

SOP-029

Statutory YTD & NI Corrections For Leavers (Locked Payroll)

Year-to-date statutory pay and NI corrections for leavers in a locked payroll — re-opened period vs current-period adjustment decision framework.

SOP-030

Shadow Payroll & RTI Reconciliation (The Zero-Net Protocol)

Shadow payroll for inbound assignees and dual-resident workers — modified PAYE, zero-net mechanics, and RTI reconciliation against host-country payroll.

Single Compendium Purchase
£199.00

Includes all 30 Platinum Standard SOPs listed on this page, delivered securely as PDF via our Cloudflare R2 fulfillment engine.

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