Payroll Year-End Checklist for UK Businesses (as of Jan 2026)

Year-end payroll isn’t the nightmare it used to be. Modern systems have automated much of the heavy lifting that once required teams working weekends and surviving on terrible coffee. But that doesn’t mean you can ignore it entirely – there’s still plenty that needs human attention and oversight.

The challenge now isn’t so much the technical complexity as it is the capacity issue. Your Payroll Manager knows exactly what needs doing, but they’re also handling regular monthly processing, employee queries, and the hundred other things that don’t pause just because it’s year-end season.

Understanding Your Year-End Obligations 

HMRC expects specific submissions by specific deadlines, and automation hasn’t changed their expectations one bit. Your final Full Payment Submission (FPS) for the tax year needs to go in on or before your last payday. The Employer Payment Summary (EPS) follows if you’ve made statutory payments or claimed relief.

P60s must reach every employee who worked for you on 5th April by 31st May. Most payroll software generates these automatically now, which is brilliant until you discover that automation only works when your underlying data is clean.

Pre-Year-End Preparation

Start your checks at least six weeks early. Run test submissions to verify that your data will pass HMRC’s validation. Check employee records for accuracy – incorrect National Insurance numbers or outdated addresses cause rejections that create unnecessary stress.

The automation handles the calculations, but you still need to verify that everything feeding into those calculations is correct. Systems process what you tell them to process. If the inputs are wrong, the outputs will be beautifully formatted nonsense.

Processing Final Submissions

Your software will guide you through final submissions, flagging what needs attention. The FPS captures all payments up to 5th April, marked clearly as your year-end submission. The EPS reports any statutory payment recoveries or Employment Allowance claims.

Where you need human judgement is verifying the figures before submission. Does the total look right compared to what you expected? Do individual employee figures make sense given what you know about their circumstances? These sanity checks catch errors that automated validation might miss.

Managing Capacity During Year-End

Here’s where the modern year-end creates a different problem. Because systems have simplified the technical process, organisations often assume year-end requires no extra resource. But your payroll manager still needs focused time to verify data, process submissions, and handle the inevitable queries.

Meanwhile, regular payroll continues. Employees still need paying. Queries still need answering. New starters and leavers still need processing. Something has to give, and it’s usually either thoroughness or sanity.

Temporary support during year-end periods can make the difference between a smooth process and a stressful scramble. This might mean bringing in someone to handle routine processing while your permanent team focuses on year-end complexities, or vice versa – getting specialist interim support for the year-end tasks themselves.

Employee Communications

P60s need distributing by 31st May, and employees get anxious about tax documents even when everything’s fine. Clear communication about what they’ll receive – and when, too – reduces unnecessary queries.

If you’ve got leavers who departed before 5th April, they don’t get P60s – they already received P45s. This confuses people every year, so preemptive communication helps. A brief email explaining who gets what and when saves your team from answering the same question repeatedly.

Post-Year-End Review

Once submissions are complete, review what worked and what didn’t. Were there any data quality issues that made the process harder than necessary? Did specific employee types or payment categories cause recurring problems?

This review informs next year’s preparation and highlights whether your permanent team has the capacity to handle year-end alongside business-as-usual operations. If they’re consistently stretched thin during these periods, that’s worth addressing before next year arrives.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Assuming automation means no preparation is the modern version of year-end procrastination. Yes, systems handle calculations and formatting, but they still need clean data and human oversight.

Underestimating the capacity required is another common mistake. Year-end might be less technically complex than it was, but it still demands focused attention that’s hard to provide when you’re also processing regular payroll.

Strategic Resource Planning

If your team struggles during year-end periods – or during any period of increased workload – that’s a resource planning question rather than a process problem. Understanding the importance of year-end in payroll helps you assess whether you need additional support during peak periods.

Temporary payroll specialists can provide targeted assistance exactly when you need it. This might be someone handling day-to-day processing while your permanent team focuses on year-end, or bringing in year-end expertise to manage those specific tasks while your team maintains regular operations.

The key is planning ahead. Good temporary payroll professionals get booked early for year-end periods because other organisations have figured out this capacity equation. Working with a trusted recruitment agency for payroll roles ensures you get access to pre-vetted specialists who understand year-end requirements, rather than waiting until you’re overwhelmed and settling for whoever’s available.

Why Choose Us

At Portfolio Payroll, we’ve spent 38 years understanding payroll capacity challenges and know exactly what type of support works for different situations. Whether you need interim assistance for year-end specifically or regular temporary support during peak periods, we’ve got the networks to find professionals who’ll slot in seamlessly.

Our #1 Trustpilot rating reflects our ability to match the right expertise to specific situations. We don’t just send warm bodies – we identify people who understand year-end requirements and can work effectively within your existing systems and processes.

With deep regulatory knowledge and strategic workforce planning capabilities, we help organisations think beyond immediate firefighting to sustainable resource models. Our sector-specific insights mean we understand which skills matter most for different types of year-end support.

Our established presence across the UK and multi-market expertise means we can find specialists with the right system knowledge, regulatory understanding, and practical experience to strengthen your operations exactly when you need it most.