Setting up a company Payroll in Ireland for the first time?
First of all, CONGRATULATIONS! It’s a huge accomplishment to reach the point where you can offer payment to others, and it’s worth celebrating.
For those new to payroll, it can feel overwhelming, so we’ve put together some simple steps to help guide you through the process.
Setting up a company payroll in Ireland
As an employer, you are obliged to inform Revenue of the details of any payruns “on or before” the day you make the payment to the employees. Finally reached the exciting milestone where you can afford to pay your employees—and maybe even yourself? Not sure where to begin?
- Register your company with the Companies Registration office (CRO)
- Apply for your Tax reference number online with Revenue.
- Register for ROS – Revenue online Service and apply for your ROS Access Number (RAN) .This will take 5 working days to arrive.
- Once you have your RAN you can apply online for a ROS digital certificate.
- Download and save your ROS digital certificate to your device.
- Familiarize yourself with Irish Employment Law via Citizens Information Employment Rights and Conditions . In particular the below topics
- Minimum Wage
- Working Hours
- Annual Leave
- Public holidays
- Maternity/ Paternity
- Choose a pay roll software – preferably one which directly interfaces with ROS.
- Set up the company on the payroll software using the CRO number and a ROS digital Certificate.
- Decide on pay roll frequencies and set up the appropriate calendar – weekly, fortnightly, monthly etc. The less frequently you pay the less time and money you will spend on running your pay roll. Also paying in arrears will always cut down on errors eg pay on Tuesday for the week before.
- Encourage your staff to register their job/ tax credits with you on Revenue’s myAccount portal by giving them your Tax Reference number – the TRN appears on all Revenue correspondence.
- Import your employee’s profiles from the Revenue data (RPN) and set up any new employees. For new employees you will need
- Employees PPS number
- Date of birth for minors or seniors or those with a pension.
- Employee contract outlining their hours of work and the rate of pay
Running your First Payroll
- Run your first pay run
- Submit the information to Revenue – with a direct link software such as Parolla this is a click of a button.
- Pay your employees via banking online or Sepa file
- Email payslips to your employees.
And that’s it! You’ve successfully completed your first payroll, paid your employees, and fulfilled your Revenue reporting obligations. Hopefully, you managed to pay yourself too!