Overview
The Payroll section lets you manage your entire payroll process — from setting up employee pay details, to running pay runs, issuing payslips, and tracking pay history.
Beeswax integrates with the Australian Taxation Office via Single Touch Payroll (STP). Every time you run payroll, Beeswax can automatically lodge the data with the ATO so you stay compliant without any third-party tools.
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Beeswax handles payroll calculations for UK employees including PAYE Income Tax, National Insurance contributions, workplace pension deductions, and student loan repayments — all based on the employment details you configure for each employee.
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All Payslips
This page lets you search and review all payslips across your account. Use the date range picker to filter by pay period.
Search Filters
| Filter | Description |
|---|---|
| Date Range | The pay period to search within. Defaults to the current month. |
| Employee | Optionally filter to a specific employee. |
Results
The results show a summary row with totals across all matching payslips:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Total Gross | Sum of all gross wages. |
| Total PAYG Withheld | Sum of all income tax deducted. |
| Total Super | Sum of all superannuation contributions. |
| Total Net Pay | Sum of all net amounts paid to employees. |
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Total Gross | Sum of all gross wages. |
| Total PAYE | Sum of all income tax deducted. |
| Total Pension | Sum of all pension contributions. |
| Total Net Pay | Sum of all net amounts paid to employees. |
Below the totals, payslips are grouped by employee. Each row shows the payslip ID, bank date, pay period, gross amount, deductions, tax withheld, and net pay. Click the payslip ID to view its full details.
HMRC Employer Details
Before your first pay run, Beeswax needs the references HMRC issued when you registered as an employer. They appear on every payslip and on every FPS / EPS submission, so getting them right up front avoids re-issuing payslips later.
Set them on the Payroll Dashboard → HMRC Employer card → Edit.
The three references
| Field | Format | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Office Number | 3 digits (e.g. 905) |
The HMRC tax office that administers your PAYE scheme. |
| PAYE Reference Number | 1–10 alphanumeric chars (e.g. JZ51309) |
Identifies your employer scheme on FPS, P45, P60. Combined with the office number on the P45 as 905/JZ51309. |
| Accounts Office Reference | 13 chars: 123PA00012345X |
A separate identifier used on EPS submissions and HMRC payment slips — used when you pay HMRC, not when you submit RTI data. |
Where to find them
- Welcome pack from HMRC — posted ~5 working days after you register as an employer.
- P30BC payment booklet — the yellow PAYE payment slips have the Accounts Office Reference printed on every page.
- HMRC online account — sign in and look under "PAYE for Employers".
- Lost them? Call the HMRC Employer Helpline on 0300 200 3200. HMRC will not email these references.
Heads up: the PAYE Reference and the Accounts Office Reference are different numbers — don't enter the same value in both fields. If you've never registered as an employer with HMRC, you need to do that first (via GOV.UK) before you can run payroll.
Getting Started with Payroll
1. Set Up Your Team
Navigate to Employees and toggle each team member on as an employee. This creates their Employee Card with regional defaults.
Then complete their employment details:
- Tax Scale — select the correct ATO withholding scale.
- Salary or hourly rate — their base pay.
- HELP/HECS liability — toggle on if applicable.
- Superannuation — employer contributions are calculated automatically.
- Default Pay template — review the template to ensure all recurring items are correct. <!-- /region -->
Personal details (P45 Part 3 fields):
- NI Number — National Insurance number in HMRC format (e.g. JW024971D).
- Date of Birth — drives NI category boundaries and pension auto-enrolment eligibility.
- Home Address (street, city, postcode) — required for FPS submission and shown on payslips.
Tax & employment:
- Salary or hourly rate — their base pay.
- PAYE Tax Code — as issued by HMRC (e.g. 1257L). Scotland (S-prefix) and Wales (C-prefix) variants are supported.
- National Insurance Category — A, B, C, H, or M (drives both employer and employee NI calculation).
- Student Loan Plan — Plan 1, 2, 4, 5, or Postgraduate (only if HMRC has issued an SL1/PGL1 notice).
Workplace pension:
- Opt-out status — defaults to enrolled.
- Pension Tax Relief Method — Net Pay arrangement (default), Relief at Source (typical for NEST), or Salary Sacrifice.
- Employee Rate (default 5%) and Employer Rate (default 3%).
Other:
- Default Pay template — review the template to ensure all recurring items are correct.
Tip: A warning banner appears on the employee's salary page if any of NI Number, Tax Code, Home Address, Date of Birth, or NI Category are missing. Resolve these before your first pay run to ensure clean FPS submissions.
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For a full guide on every field, see the Employee Details help page.
2. Review Default Pay Templates
Each employee has a Default Pay template that defines their standard payslip — base pay, tax deductions, and employer contributions. When you create a payslip, it's pre-filled from this template.
Review each employee's template before running your first pay run to make sure the calculated amounts look correct.
3. Run Payroll
Use the Pay Run page to generate payslips for all active employees in one go. See the Pay Run help page for details.
Payroll Accounting Flow (End-to-End)
When you run payroll, the accounting happens in three stages: the payslip recognises the cost and creates the liabilities, payday clears the employee's portion, and the monthly HMRC and pension settlements clear the rest.
This section walks through a worked example for one employee with gross pay £3,333.34, employer NI £437.45, and employer pension £84.40.
Stage 1 — When the Payslip is Created
When you save a payslip, Beeswax automatically posts a balanced journal entry that:
- Records the full cost of employment as expenses on your P&L.
- Records each amount you'll owe later (to the employee, HMRC, and the pension provider) as a liability on your balance sheet.
How the Numbers Tie Out
Total expense recognised — £3,855.19 (your true cost of employment for the period):
| Account | Type | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Employee Base Pay | Expense | £3,333.34 |
| Employer NI | Expense | £437.45 |
| Employer Pension | Expense | £84.40 |
Liabilities created — £3,855.19 (amounts you now owe):
Employee deductions (withheld from gross to arrive at net pay):
| Account | Owed To | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Net Pay Payable | Employee | £2,476.84 |
| PAYE Payable | HMRC | £429.00 |
| Employee NI Payable | HMRC | £182.83 |
| Student Loan Payable | HMRC | £104.00 |
| Employee Pension Payable | Pension provider | £140.67 |
Employer's own contributions (extra cost on top of gross):
| Account | Owed To | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Employer NI Payable | HMRC | £437.45 |
| Employer Pension Payable | Pension provider | £84.40 |
Cross-check:
- Gross £3,333.34 = Net Pay £2,476.84 + Employee deductions £856.50 ✓
- Total expense £3,855.19 = Total liabilities £3,855.19 ✓
Stage 2 — Paying the Employee (on Payday)
When you pay the net wage from your bank account and reconcile it against the payslip, the Net Pay Payable liability is cleared.
| Account | Amount | |
|---|---|---|
| Debit | Net Pay Payable | £2,476.84 |
| Credit | Bank Account | £2,476.84 |
After this, only the HMRC and pension liabilities remain on the balance sheet.
Stage 3 — Paying HMRC and the Pension Provider (Monthly)
At month-end (or per HMRC's schedule), you settle the deductions and contributions with the relevant authorities. These are settlements of liabilities, not new expenses — the expense was already recognised in Stage 1.
Record each payment as a Manual Journal (Accounting → Journals → New Manual Journal).
HMRC payment — £1,153.28:
| Account | Amount | |
|---|---|---|
| Debit | PAYE Payable | £429.00 |
| Debit | Employee NI Payable | £182.83 |
| Debit | Employer NI Payable | £437.45 |
| Debit | Student Loan Payable | £104.00 |
| Credit | Bank Account | £1,153.28 |
Pension provider payment — £225.07:
| Account | Amount | |
|---|---|---|
| Debit | Employee Pension Payable | £140.67 |
| Debit | Employer Pension Payable | £84.40 |
| Credit | Bank Account | £225.07 |
Don't record these as expenses. The cost was already recognised when the payslip was saved. Recording the HMRC or pension payment as an expense would double-count it in your P&L.
Why a Manual Journal? Standard Expense entries in Beeswax only allow posting to expense-account categories. Clearing a Payable means debiting a liability account, which only the Manual Journal form supports.
Sanity Check
Once Stage 3 is complete for the period, every Payable account for that pay period should return to zero. If a Payable carries a balance forward, either:
- A payment hasn't been recorded yet (the bank transaction may still be sitting unallocated), or
- A payment was recorded against the wrong account (e.g. allocated as a normal expense instead of cleared via Manual Journal).
Review Payable balances on the General Ledger (Accounting → General Ledger), filtered to the relevant pay period.
Permissions
| Action | Owner | Super Admin | Manager | Accountant | Basic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View all payslips | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Search/filter payslips | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Create payslips | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Run pay run | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Send payslips | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Delete payslips | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Tips
- Run payroll on a consistent schedule. Whether weekly, fortnightly, or monthly, keeping to a regular cycle makes reconciliation easier and keeps your team's expectations clear.
- Review before you finalise. Always check the summary totals on the pay run confirmation page before moving on.
- Use the search to reconcile. Filter by date range to match payslips against your bank transactions for the same period. <!-- region:AU -->
- Check STP status. After each pay run, verify that the ATO has accepted the lodgement. Rejected submissions need to be investigated and re-submitted. <!-- /region --> <!-- region:GB -->
- Match HMRC's tax year boundaries. UK tax weeks and months don't always align with calendar weeks/months. Beeswax uses the same week/month numbers HMRC uses for FPS reporting — so your pay periods can stay calendar-aligned, but PAYE is calculated against HMRC's tax-year clock.
- Refresh tax codes at year-end. From 6 April each year, carry forward the previous year's tax code unless HMRC has issued a P9X update or a new P6/P9 notice. Don't carry over Week 1 / Month 1 markers.
- Verify pension method with the scheme. NEST and most auto-enrolment schemes use Relief at Source — but Beeswax defaults to Net Pay arrangement. The wrong setting changes the figures reported to HMRC, so confirm with the provider. <!-- /region -->