November payroll: the Christmas pay-date, RTI and auto-enrolment checks to run now
November is the month when payroll stops being routine and starts being a calendar puzzle. Christmas falls in the middle of the pay cycle for many employers, banks close, staff take leave, and the January payroll year-end work starts to loom. The employers who sail through December are the ones who settle the dates and the data in November, while there is still time to fix a mistake. This checklist covers the checks worth running now, whether you process payroll in house or hand it to a provider. It is written for UK employers on a monthly cycle, but the same logic applies to weekly and fortnightly payrolls, with the dates moved to fit. Agree the December pay date first The single most common December payroll problem is not a calculation error, it is a date nobody agreed. If your normal pay date falls on a bank holiday, or on a day when your payroll team is on leave, decide the replacement date now and tell staff in writing. Employees plan Christmas spending around pay day, so a surp...