What payroll month end looks like when an agent prepares the pack

Everyone thinks payroll ends when the payslips go out. Anyone who has done it knows there is a second half. The run has to become a journal. Somebody has to work out what is owed to HMRC and the pension provider and when. The bank file has to match. And around the 5th of the following month your accountant emails to ask for all of it again.

This post walks through that second half with an agent doing the preparation.

The five things that follow every run

1. The journal

Gross pay, employer National Insurance, employer pension, deductions and net pay, split by department or site and posted to the right codes. Done by hand, it is a spreadsheet with a formula nobody dares touch. The agent builds it from the approved run against your chart of accounts and shows it to you before it posts.

2. What you owe, and by when

PAYE and National Insurance to HMRC. Contributions to the pension provider. Any attachment of earnings orders. Each has its own date. The agent lists them with the amounts and the deadlines, and they match the run because they come from it.

3. The bank payment file

Net pay for each person, checked line by line against the approved run. A person releases it. The agent never moves money.

4. The cost report

What people cost this month by team, with overtime and agency cover shown separately, against last month and the same month last year. This is the report an owner actually reads, and it usually arrives too late to change anything.

5. The accrual

The value of holiday earned and not yet taken, for the period end.

Why accountants like this

An accountant’s year has become busier. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax became mandatory in April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000, with lower thresholds to follow in 2027 and 2028, and each of those clients now needs quarterly updates. Practices have less time to chase a client for a payroll summary.

An agent does not replace the accountant. It hands them a complete, consistent pack on the same day every month, in the format they import. They spend their time on treatment and advice, which is what you pay them for.

What stays with people

• Approving the journal before it posts.
• Releasing the bank file.
• Deciding how something unusual is treated. That is your accountant’s call.
• Tax advice, and the accounts themselves.

Set it up once

Map your pay elements to your nominal codes, tell the agent how you split costs and who the pack goes to. After that, month end is a pack to read rather than a pack to build. Meet the accounting agent, or the payroll agent it works with.