This article outlines the PAYE service that Sonovate provides, including what you can expect from us, and what you need to provide
If you started your Sonovate account BEFORE 01/06/2025 please refer to the help centre guide on this page.
Contents:
- Types of PAYE and getting set up
- Key timelines
- Pensions
- Setting up workers and assignments
- Leavers
- Holiday pay and statutory payments
- Billing and payments
- Reports
- HMRC
- Queries
- FAQs
- Useful links
Types of PAYE
There are two types of PAYE arrangement that Sonovate can support:
- Where we pay the gross worker payments to you, for you to do the deductions yourself
- Where we calculate the deductions on your behalf, pay the net pay to workers, and pass the deductions on to you
This article is primarily concerned with the latter, where Sonovate is managing your payroll for you.
If you started your Sonovate account BEFORE 01/06/2025 please refer to the help centre guide on this page.
Getting set up
If you are already running PAYE, and want Sonovate to take this on, then please raise a ticket with us via the portal, or contact our Sales team.
If you are new to PAYE, then you will need to:
- Register with HMRC as an employer
- This will include registering Sonovate as an agent who can process HMRC returns on your behalf
- Choose a pension provider (more on this later)
Key timelines / SLAs
The following are important timings for payroll:
- Timesheets:
- Manual/third party timesheets: For payment in the same week, manual timesheets must be submitted by Tuesday 12pm (to allow time for Sonovate approval)
- Online timesheets: For payment in the same week, timesheets must be fully approved by Wednesday 1pm
- Holiday pay / sick pay - For payment in the same week, any non-rate payments (such as holiday pay and sick pay) need to be requested by you via email, to payroll@sonovate.com no later than 12pm on Tuesday
- Billing takes place at 2pm on a Wednesday
- Payments
- To you - margin will normally be paid on Thursday. Payroll reports will also be sent on Thursday. Payroll deductions from your workers (e.g. tax, NIC, pensions) will be paid to you on Friday
- To your workers - payslips will be sent on Thursday; payments to workers will normally be made on a Friday, by close of play
Pensions
- You will need a pension provider before we can start processing your payroll
- If you already have a pension provider, then let us know on your onboarding form. You will need to share some details with us so that we can upload pension contribution data on your behalf, after each payrun
- If you do not have a pension provider, then you will need to choose one and get it set up before we can process your first payrun
- What we'll do on your behalf: as part of processing your payroll, we will calculate pension contributions for each qualifying employee. These will be deducted from their gross pay. We will then send you these deductions (for you to pay onto your pension provider) and upload the pension contribution report to your pension provider's portal on your behalf
- What you will still need to do: you will need to pay what is owed to the pension provider, on the basis of the pension contribution report that we send you. It's often possible to do this by direct debit, so that you don't need to remember every payrun
Setting up worker and assignments
To process PAYE on your behalf, we need some extra data about the workers. Broadly this is:
- Personal details such as NI number and date of birth
- Payroll details such as payroll frequency
- Personal bank details
You can either provide these details via the assignment when you've got a job to process, or you can get your workers set up in advance - whatever is easier for you.
You won't be able to send out timesheets for a PAYE assignment until we have all the relevant details.
Once the timesheet checklist above is all ticked, you can issue the timesheets to the worker.
Leavers
- If the worker has a live assignment, you will need to end the assignment early on or before their last day
- You will then need to send an email to payroll@sonovate.com so that we can process them as a leaver, including outstanding holiday pay and a P45
Holiday pay and statutory payments
How is holiday pay calculated?
For each of your workers, you need to tell us how much holiday they are entitled to (assuming they were full time). The legal minimum is 28 days (including bank holidays), but you can pay more. This number will then be used to calculate the rate at which holiday pay is accrued on top of the pay rate, e.g. 28 days equates to a holiday pay rate of 12.07%. So for each £100 that a workers earns (gross) they will accrue on £12.07 on top.
NB:
- All rates on an assignment will accrue holiday pay, but expenses won't
- Holiday pay is always calculated on top of the pay rate, so when you're entering the pay rate, ensure that it excludes holiday pay
- This will affect your margin, so please factor this in when negotiating the client charge rate
How is holiday pay paid out?
When you're onboarded, your company will be set up as either:
- Calculate and retain: holiday pay will be calculated on top of the pay rate, and held in a pot, ready for when your worker wants to claim it. The amount of holiday pay they have accrued will be shown on their payslip.
- Calculate and pay: holiday pay will be calculated on top of the pay rate, and paid out automatically with every payslip. Therefore the worker will not need to claim holiday pay, and will not be paid any extra when they take time off
(This setting can be overridden at worker level, if you have a different arrangement with one of your workers)
NB: in both these scenarios, it is your responsibility as the employer to ensure that workers are taking adequate time off in line with government guidance.
How is holiday pay claimed?
If your workers are "calculate and retain" then they will need to claim their holiday pay when they want to be paid it. You can do this for them by sending an email to payroll@sonovate.com no later than Tuesday at 12pm. The holiday pay (if they have accrued it) will be included on their next payslip.
Note, if they are "calculate and pay", then they do not claim holiday pay, as it is automatically included on every payslip.
Processing statutory payments
Other statutory payments (such as sick pay and parental leave) should be processed in a similar way, by sending an email requesting the payment to payroll@sonovate.com no later than Tuesday at 12pm. The payment will then be included on their next payslip.
Billing and payments
Once timesheets have been submitted and approved, they will be billed. Please note, PAYE timesheets can only be billed via an automated billing run at 2pm on Wednesdays. Other timesheets (e.g. for Ltd company contractors) can be billed at any time.
Once billed, the timesheets are awaiting deductions. We will reserve the gross worker payment off your availability, allowing you to be paid your margin the same day. This will appear as an adjustment on your account.
Once the PAYE deductions have been calculated, we will put the gross pay back onto your account, and remove the net pay, leaving you with the deductions, that will be paid out at the end of that day.
Payments to you and your workers will show on the Payments Out screen.
The normal timeframe for payment will be:
- Thursdays - margin payments to you
- Fridays - net payments to workers and deduction payments to you
Reports
A range of reports will be produced following each payrun:
- For HMRC
- RTI returns - these will be uploaded directly to HMRC, showing how the total and breakdown of your liability (this will also be shown in your P32 report)
- For your pension provider
- Pension contributions - a report showing all pension contributions deducted from your employee's payslips. This will be uploaded to your pension provider on your behalf, and lets them know how much money you owe them
- For you
- Gross-to-net report - a detailed breakdown of each employee's earnings and deductions
- P32 - a summary of what you owe to HMRC for a given period
- Holiday pay - a report of any holiday pay accrued by your employees
- Pension contributions - a report showing all pension contributions deducted from your employee's payslips
- Payroll journal - a report detailing all pay, deductions and liabilities, for use with your accounting software
- For your workers
- Payslips - these will be sent out on or before payday to the email address that you provide for each employee. These will be password-protected, using their NI number as the password
HMRC
Who is responsible for reporting tax and NI to HMRC?
We will report your HMRC liabilities after every pay run. We will also notify you what these liabilities are, but you do not need to report to HMRC yourself.
Who is responsible for making payments to HMRC?
You are still responsible for making payments, from the deductions that we send you after every pay run.
What's the deadline for making payments and how do I do it?
You can check this on the government website.
Queries
All queries should be raised as a service request via the portal, in the first instance, where one of our customer experience experts will be able to help you.
FAQs
- How do I follow up when something isn't right? In the first instance, please raise a support request ticket via the portal.
- Do I need to fill in any additional forms when I have a new starter? No. everything is completed via the Sonovate Platform. See above for setting up workers and assignments.
- How do I process a bonus? To process a bonus or any other one-off transaction, please refer to our help article on this topic.
- Whose responsibility is it to comply with employment legislation and guidance? We will ensure that payroll is processed in a compliant manner. But as the employer, you are still responsible for ensuring that government guidelines and legislation around employment are complied with.