When migrating onto Ciphr Payroll Cloud, you may import your employee year-to-date (YTD) figures with a spreadsheet or by importing the FPS files. This guide is to support the process of importing FPS files to ensure it's done correctly. 

Contents

• What is an FPS file?
• Importing the FPS
• Checks
• Additional Information

What is an FPS file?

An FPS file is an copy of the information that is sent to HMRC at the end of your payroll run as part of the required RTI submissions.  The file includes data such as names, NI numbers, tax codes, earnings and deductions (tax, NI contributions etc). The purpose is to report on employees each month, including reporting starters and leavers, to help HMRC maintain accurate real-time records of peoples' pay and tax compliance. For more information, please refer to the Gov website. 

FPS files should be provided as an XML file type which imports straight into our Cloud system. The file can be read in a Notepad application or on some internet browsers such as Google Chrome (by using the 'drag and drop' method to a new tab). A good test for an FPS file being valid is if it will open in a browser. 

FPS files have different information and formats within the XML file, but should always begin with an open arrow < and end with a closing arrow >, if the file ends with any other character, it is likely to be incomplete and need re-downloading. 

A valid FPS file should open with a document tree, in a long page format starting with information, for example: 

There is an example FPS notepad file attached to this document. 

Importing the FPS file

When the Cloud system is in Migration mode, there is an Import FPS option under Company Setup. This is where you need to import your FPS files (and this option will be removed when your company is out of migration mode). Select this option, then either drag and drop or browse files to select the FPS. 

When importing your FPS files, it's important to import each period within the current financial year. This ensures all starters and leavers within that timeframe are captured. Without this, the employee YTD totals will unlikely match the company totals from the employer summary/P32. As an example, if you are going to parallel run from August, you will need to import April, May, June, and July. 

You can import your employees from the FPS file - if you wish to do this, select "Create new employee records" for unknown employees. 

Checks

There are multiple checks you can complete to ensure the file has imported correctly, and your employee/company totals are matching. 

Company totals

Export the files for the elements you will be checking. We would advise that tax and NI should be done as a minimum, you can also check the pensions and statutory payments. Export these documents, add a total row at the bottom and compare the totals to your employer summary/P32 file for the relevant period.

Employee data

Typically this is only required if you have discrepancies in your company totals, or for completeness/a very thorough check. You may have similar YTD reports from your other payroll provider, so you can compare the figures on an individual basis. 

If you do have discrepancies with your totals, you can check that all employees have been imported/are on your other reports by downloading the Employee report and checking numbers or doing a check (e.g. a vlookup formula) to ensure all employees are on each list (we recommend checking against NI numbers as a unique identifier). 

Additional Information

Please note that the FPS does not import pay elements (e.g. overtime) so only the total earnings and deductions can be checked and compared. 

For any new starters within this financial year, their previous earnings from a P45 or HMRC notice will need inputting manually. This won't impact the company totals as this is based on current employment, but it will impact the individual's year to date figures and their tax calculation. You can add this by going onto the employee's record and navigating to Previous Employment within the Details page.

If you cannot access or use your FPS files, you can alternatively import employee data using our employee YTD template.