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Getting Started

How Moonworkers works, account setup, and first steps for new users.

By Nicolas Croix •

9 articles

What is Moonworkers?

Moonworkers is a UK payroll platform for growing businesses and developers. It is listed as HMRC-recognised software, which means it meets HMRC's technical requirements for submitting payroll data and is approved to send Real Time Information (RTI) submissions directly to HMRC on your behalf. Moonworkers offers two main products: Payroll Software — a web application at payroll.moonworkers.co.uk for employers who want to run payroll themselves. It handles PAYE calculations, National Insurance, pensions, statutory pay, and RTI submissions with no manual steps required. Payroll API — a REST API at payroll-api.moonworkers.co.uk for software developers and payroll bureaus who want to embed UK payroll calculations into their own applications. The API covers the full payroll calculation engine including PAYE, NI, CIS, directors' NI, zero-hours contracts, and all statutory payment types. There is also Instant Payslip, a one-off payslip generator at online-payslips.moonworkers.co.uk/generator that requires no account or subscription. Moonworkers is a UK-based company. Support is available in English.

Last updated on May 26, 2026

Understanding Your Dashboard

Tasks panel When you log in and select an employer, the dashboard gives you an immediate view of what needs your attention. The Tasks panel lists items grouped by priority: - Urgent: time-sensitive actions such as an FPS due for submission to HMRC - Reminder: items that need attention soon, such as employees awaiting auto-enrolment assessment or incomplete onboarding records Click the action button on any task to go directly to the relevant section. Financial Overview The Financial Overview chart shows payroll costs over time, broken into three lines: - Gross: total gross pay across all employees - Cost to Employer: gross pay plus employer NI and pension contributions - Pension: total pension contributions (employer and employee) Click "View more statistics" for a detailed breakdown across multiple payroll periods. Employer settings Click "Employer settings" in the top right corner to manage your company details, HMRC credentials, and pay schedule configuration.

Last updated on May 26, 2026

Managing Multiple Payroll Schemes

Moonworkers supports accountants and payroll bureaus managing payroll for multiple clients, as well as employers running more than one PAYE scheme. Each employer account is fully independent. Switching between employer accounts Once you have access to more than one employer, an employer switcher appears at the top of the sidebar. Click it to see the full list of employers you manage. Select any employer to switch — the entire interface updates to show only that employer's data. Independent payruns and schedules Each employer has entirely separate pay schedules and payruns. Running payroll for one client has no effect on any other. HMRC credentials per employer Every employer account stores its own PAYE reference and Accounts Office reference. FPS submissions are made automatically under the correct employer's credentials when you finalise a payrun. To update an employer's HMRC credentials, go to Settings within that employer account and edit the HMRC details section. Adding a new employer account Go to Settings > Employers and click Add employer. Enter the employer's registered name, PAYE reference, and Accounts Office reference. The new employer appears in your switcher immediately. Accountant access All clients are accessible from a single login. Each client's data (staff lists, payslips, submissions) is visible only within their employer account. You can also invite team members to access specific employer accounts to delegate payroll processing within your practice. Billing Moonworkers charges per active employee per month, per employer. Each employer account is billed independently. Volume discounts are available on the accountant plan for practices managing multiple clients.

Last updated on May 26, 2026

Creating your Moonworkers account

Setting up Moonworkers starts with creating your account. From the welcome screen, click Create an account to begin. Sign up with email or social login You have two ways to register. You can use your own email address and choose a password, or sign up in one click with a social login: Google, Facebook or Microsoft. Both options give you the same account, so use whichever is most convenient for you. Confirm your email address If you sign up with an email address, we send you a confirmation email to check that the address is valid. Open the email and click the confirmation link to activate your account. Log in Once your email is confirmed, return to Moonworkers and log in. You are taken straight into onboarding, where you set up your organisation. The next step is choosing your account type. Get started Ready to get started? Visit https://payroll.moonworkers.co.uk/auth/register to create your account. Already have one? Sign in at https://payroll.moonworkers.co.uk/auth/login instead.

Last updated on Jun 20, 2026

Choosing your account type: employer or accountant

When you first log in, Moonworkers asks what kind of user you are. This sets up the right workspace for you. Employer Choose Employer if you run payroll for your own business. You create a single company profile and manage your own staff, pay schedules and HMRC submissions. Accountant or payroll bureau Choose Accountant or payroll bureau if you process payroll on behalf of clients. You can manage several independent employer accounts from one login and switch between them at any time. Get started You make this choice right after you log in, at the start of onboarding. Continue at https://payroll.moonworkers.co.uk/onboarding once you have signed in.

Last updated on Jun 20, 2026

Adding your company and HMRC details

After choosing the employer account type, you create your company profile and enter the HMRC references that let Moonworkers file payroll on your behalf. Your company profile Enter your business details so that payslips, reports and submissions show the correct organisation. When you register as an employer, this is your own company. Your HMRC references Moonworkers asks for the references that HMRC issues when you register as a PAYE employer. Your Employer PAYE reference is made up of your Tax Office Number, a three digit number, followed by a slash and your Tax Office Reference, for example 123/AB45678. Your Accounts Office reference is a 13 character reference, for example 123PX00123456. How do I enter my Employer PAYE reference? Moonworkers holds the two parts in separate fields, so split the reference at the slash. For 126/U148, enter 126 in Tax Office Number and U148 in Tax Office Reference. Do not type the full reference, slash included, into the Tax Office Reference field. HMRC then rejects your FPS because the reference does not match your record, even though your credentials are accepted. This is one of the most common causes of a failed first submission. Where to find them You receive both references in the letter HMRC sends after you register as an employer. They also appear in your HMRC online account and on correspondence from HMRC's Accounts Office. Why Moonworkers needs them Each time you finalise a payrun, Moonworkers submits a Full Payment Submission (FPS) to HMRC in real time. HMRC matches that submission to your business using your Tax Office Number, Tax Office Reference and Accounts Office reference, so enter these details exactly as shown on your HMRC paperwork. You can update them later in Settings if anything changes. Get started You add these details during onboarding. Continue at https://payroll.moonworkers.co.uk/onboarding to set up your company and HMRC references.

Last updated on Sep 19, 2026

Setting your leave year policy

During onboarding you set your leave policy. This tells Moonworkers when each employee's holiday allowance resets. What the leave year is The leave year is the 12 month period over which holiday entitlement is calculated. Under the Working Time Regulations, most workers are entitled to a statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, which is capped at 28 days for someone working five or more days a week. The leave year is the window in which that entitlement builds up and is used. Choosing your start date You decide the date your leave year begins, and holiday balances reset on that date each year. Many employers choose 1 January, so the leave year follows the calendar year, or 6 April, so it aligns with the UK tax year. If your employment contracts already state a leave year, use the same date here so Moonworkers matches your contracts. How holiday builds up Once the leave year is set, Moonworkers tracks each employee's entitlement and remaining balance against it, and resets the balance at the start of the next leave year. Get started You set your leave policy during onboarding, and you can change it any time in your settings. Continue at https://payroll.moonworkers.co.uk/onboarding to set it up.

Last updated on Jun 20, 2026

Inviting colleagues and finishing onboarding

The final onboarding step lets you bring in colleagues and shows you what to do next. Invite colleagues You can invite team members to your account so they can help run payroll. Send an invitation by email, and they join your organisation once they accept. Giving the Moonworkers team access If you need help with your account, we can look at it with you rather than answering blind. Ask in the chat and we will give you an address to invite as a team member, using the same invitation as for a colleague. Remove the access once the issue is solved. Your onboarding checklist When onboarding is complete, Moonworkers takes you to your dashboard. Select your company to see your checklist: the remaining tasks to get fully set up, such as adding employees and creating your first pay schedule. What next? Work through the checklist at your own pace. From here you can add your staff, set up pay schedules and run your first payroll. See the related Getting Started articles for each of these steps. Get started You invite colleagues at the end of onboarding. Finish setting up at https://payroll.moonworkers.co.uk/onboarding when you are ready.

Last updated on Sep 19, 2026

Moving your payroll to Moonworkers part way through the tax year

Most businesses join Moonworkers part way through a tax year, from another provider or from a spreadsheet. The switch is simple if you take the steps in the right order. This checklist follows that order, and each step links to the article that covers it in detail. Is my employer on the right tax year? Check this first, before you enter anything else. Go to Settings, open your employer settings and look at the Payroll tab. The tax year shown there is the one your opening values, pay schedules and payroll runs will belong to. If you picked the wrong year when you created the company, change it on the same Payroll tab. You can only change the tax year while no payroll run exists for the employer. If you have already started a run, delete it first from Payroll > Payroll Run, then change the year. That is why this step comes first: entering opening values and then changing the year means entering them again. Are my HMRC references entered correctly? Your Employer PAYE reference looks like 126/U148. Moonworkers stores it in two separate fields: the Tax Office Number is the three digits before the slash (126) and the Tax Office Reference is everything after it (U148). Do not type the full reference, slash included, into the Tax Office Reference field: HMRC will reject your FPS because the reference no longer matches your record. Your Accounts Office reference is the 13 character reference, for example 123PA00045678. See "Adding your company and HMRC details". How do I bring in each employee's year-to-date figures? Open the employee profile, go to the Pay and compensation tab and open Opening values. There are two sub-tabs, one for tax and one for National Insurance, and each can be switched between a normal and an advanced mode. Enter the figures for this tax year from your previous payroll: gross pay, tax paid, National Insurance by category letter, and any student or postgraduate loan deductions. Take them from your last payslip run or the employee's P45. See "Editing pay and compensation". How do I set up my pay schedule when I start mid-year? Create the schedule in Settings > Payroll and set its index to the tax period of your first Moonworkers payroll run, not to 1. Then assign your employees to it: on the schedule's line, click the user icon and add them. An employee who is not assigned to a schedule does not appear in the payroll run. See "Creating and managing pay schedules". Are my RTI settings ready for a live submission? In Settings > HMRC / RTI, enter the Government Gateway user ID and password you use for PAYE Online for employers, typed rather than pasted. Then check the Test mode switch. With Test mode on, submissions go to HMRC's test service and are not recorded against your PAYE scheme, so a live FPS will not go through. Switch it off before your first real payroll run. See "Configuring your HMRC and RTI settings". What should I check in my first payroll run? Run it as normal from Payroll > Payroll Run, then open each employee and download a payslip preview. Check that the year-to-date figures on the preview continue from your previous provider's last payslip. This is the step that catches a wrong opening value while it is still easy to fix. You can run the payroll early, for example before a holiday, as long as you keep HMRC's order: run the payroll, submit the FPS, then pay your employees. Do I need to send an EPS? Usually, yes. If you are claiming Employment Allowance and your previous provider had not already claimed it this tax year, send an EPS after your first FPS so HMRC applies the claim. If Employment Allowance was already partly used with your previous provider, set the remaining amount rather than the full annual allowance, so only the balance is claimed. See "Employment Allowance and Small Employers' Relief". Can the Moonworkers team look at my account with me? Yes. Ask in the chat and we will give you an address to invite as a team member. We then see exactly what you see rather than answering blind. You can remove the access once the issue is solved. See "Inviting colleagues and finishing onboarding". Get started Sign in at https://payroll.moonworkers.co.uk/auth/login and start with your employer settings, Payroll tab.

Last updated on Sep 19, 2026