Payroll Onboarding & Handover Checklist

Prepare the data pack

• Employee master: identifiers, employment dates, status, bank details and employing entity.
• Pay structure: salary, allowances, deductions, benefits and approved policy versions.
• Opening balances: year-to-date earnings, deductions and contributions, with supporting reports.
• Employee movements: pending joiners, leavers, transfers and salary revisions.
• Operations: calendar, contacts, approvers, file formats and required reports.

Validate before importing

Check duplicate IDs, missing fields and incompatible date or number formats. Match employee counts to the current payroll and explain exclusions. Use agreed secure channels and confirm that access is restricted to the people who need the records.

Document pay-code mappings and any assumptions. A field named “allowance” is insufficient without its definition and applicable treatment. Keep source files and transformation notes so differences can be investigated.

Agree the trial and sign-off

Choose representative test cases, including a joiner, leaver, variable pay, unpaid leave and an adjustment. Compare gross pay, deductions, contributions and net pay with the agreed baseline. Investigate differences rather than forcing totals to match.

Confirm the bank output, payslip format, reporting pack and statutory responsibilities. Record who approves live operation and what happens if a critical issue remains. The number of trial runs and the transition date should reflect the risk and data readiness, not an arbitrary promise.

After the first live run

Review rejected payments, employee queries and unresolved differences. Assign owners and document corrections. Agree access removal, record retention and data return arrangements with the previous provider.