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Getting started checklist

To help guide you through the set up process in Sage 50 Payroll, we've prepared this checklist to ensure you find creating your company and employees as easy as possible.

Tip: Why not print this information so you can mark off the tasks as you complete them?

Step	Description
1	To ensure all of your reports show the correct information, we recommend that you enter your company details, for example your company address, tax district reference and accounts office reference as soon as possible after installing the software.
How? Company > Settings. Need more help? See Maintaining information about your company.
2	When you pay an employee, their salary may include more than one component. For example, their basic salary and overtime or commission. We call these pay elements. Set up your basic pay elements to ensure your employees' pay is calculated correctly.
How? Company > Pay Elements. Need more help? See Working with pay elements.
3	Enter the details of any pension schemes operated by your company. Your software uses this information to calculate your employees' pension contributions.
How? Company > Pension Schemes. Need more help? See Managing pension schemes.
4	Record the details of any holiday schemes operated by your company.
How? Company > Settings > Absence and set up your current holiday year. Next, click OK > Company > Holidays and set up your holiday schemes.
Need more help? We have produced a PDF guide to help you deal with your employees' holidays. From the Help menu in your software > Information Centre > Guides.
5	Before you can process payments for your employees, you must create employee records. An employee record holds information specific to that employee. For example, their address, absence record, payment details and year to date figures.
How? You can enter this information using: The Employee Wizard to record details of a new starter. Employee > Employee Wizard. Find out more. The quick entry method for several employees at the same time. Employee > Quick Employee. Need more help? See Quick entry of new employees' details. The Data Import Wizard to import employee information from an external source. For example, a CSV file. File > Data Import > Import Sage Payroll Data.
Need more help? We've produced a PDF guide to help you import from a CSV file or a Microsoft Excel (*.xls) file. From the Help menu in your software > Information Centre > Guides.
6	If you're starting to use Sage 50 Payroll part-way through the tax year, and are transferring information from a different system, you must enter the year-to-date values for the periods that have already been processed. You can get the YTD values from your P11 Deduction Cards.
How? Select the relevant employees from the employee list > Employee > YTD Values. Need more help? See Quick entry of employee year to date values.
7	If an employee joins your company and they've had paid employment during the current tax year, you must enter their P45 information.
How? If this wasn't entered when creating the employee record, select the relevant employee from the employee list > Employee > Employee Record > Starter Form.

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