Shape Payroll supports the import of employee details by uploading a CSV.
When importing the file the system will look up the employee by Pay ID, if an existing employee is found with that ID they are updated, if no record is found a new employee is created.
Example Files
Column Definitions
Column Heading | Format Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Pay ID | RTI payroll ID, this is the unique identifier for the employee that will be shared with HMRC | All employees MUST have a unique ID when importing the file. |
Title | "Mr", "Mrs", "Ms", "Miss", "Dr" | Can be left blank |
First Name | ||
Middle Name | Can be left blank | |
Last Name | ||
NI Number | National insurance number Example AA123456A | Important: Leave blank if unknown |
Employee Code | Optional additional employee reference | Can be left blank |
Department Code | Optional code to group employees in reports | Can be left blank |
Pay Frequency | Must match a pay run schedule configured for the company. "W1", "W2", "W4" or "M1" | Weekly =W1, Fortnightly = W2, 4 weekly =W4, Monthly =M1 |
Gender | "female" or "male" | Required For HMRC |
Can be left blank | ||
Start Date | Date the employee first started work DD/MM/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD | |
Date Of Birth | DD/MM/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD | Required |
NI Category | Must be a valid NI category: A, B, C, H, J, M, X, Z, V, F, I, S, L | Can be left blank |
Tax Code | Must be a valid tax code | |
W1M1 | "True", "Yes", "1", "T", "Y", "X" If the employee has a week 1 / month 1 tax code | Can be left blank |
Student Loan | Plan number set to 1, 2 or 4 | Leave blank if none |
Postgraduate Loan | "True", "Yes", "1", "T", "Y", "X" If the employee has a postgraduate loan | Leave blank if none |
Is Veteran | "True", "Yes", "1", "T", "Y", "X" If the employee is a veteran eligible for NI Category V | Leave blank if none |
First Civilian Employment Date | Required if Is Veteran set DD/MM/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD | Leave blank if none |
Previous Employment Leaving Date | P45 leaving date DD/MM/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD | Leave blank if none |
Previous Employment Gross | P45 gross pay | Leave blank if none |
Previous Employment Tax | P45 tax paid | Leave blank if none |
Starter Declaration | "A", "B" or "C", are required if paying this employee for the first time. | If migrating leave blank. |
Is Director | "True", "Yes", "1", "T", "Y", "X" | Leave blank if not a director |
Date Became Director | Required if Is Director DD/MM/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD | Leave blank if none |
Director NI Type | annual or alternative, required if Is Director | Leave blank if none |
Off Payroll Worker | "True", "Yes", "1", "T", "Y", "X" To send the off-payroll worker flag to HMRC | Leave blank if none |
Regular Hours | Hours worked on average each week. If under 15.99 hours "less_than_16" Between 16 and 23.99 "less_than_24" Between 24 and 29.99 "less_than_30" 30 hours or more "over_30" If your employee does not have a regular pattern of employment, or if the payment relates to an occupational pension or annuity type "other" | Can be left blank - Employee automatically allocated as other if not set. |
Irregular Payments | "True", "Yes", "1", "T", "Y", "X" If the employee is not paid on a regular schedule | |
Phone | Can be left blank | |
Mobile | Can be left blank | |
Address Line 1 | At least 2 address lines are required. | Either Line 1 and 2 must be complete, or Line 1 and City. |
Address Line 2 | ||
Address Line 3 | ||
Address City | ||
Address Postcode | Required | |
Address Country | Required if postcode is not supplied | |
Bank Sort Code | Bank fields, used if creating payment files | Can be left blank |
Bank Account Number | Can be left blank | |
Bank Account Name | Can be left blank | |
Bank Name | Can be left blank |
Extra Notes on Formats
Date formats
The preferred date format is ISO 8601 - YYYY-MM-DD for example 2023-02-14
We also support the common British format DD/MM/YYYY e.g. 12/02/2023.
Some very old systems still export a 2 year date format, DD/MM/YY 12/02/23, where is format is used we assume that dates are in the last 100 years, so an input of 11/06/75 will translate to 11th June 1975, whereas 11/05/20 will translate to 11th June 2020.
Do not use American format dates (MM/DD/YYYY) as these will cause import errors and incorrect data.
Boolean (Yes/No) formats
Any of the following non-case sensitive values will resolve to true:
True, Yes, 1, T, Y, X
Anything else will resolve to false.