Understanding payslips in AccBooks AI

Payslip sections explained

AccBooks generates a compliant payslip for every employee on every payroll run. Here’s what each section means.

Employee details

• Name and employee number — legal name and AccBooks internal reference.
• NI number — National Insurance number (partially masked on digital payslips).
• Tax code — HMRC’s code used to calculate income tax.
• Pay frequency and pay date — how often paid and the date of this payment.

Earnings

Item	Description
Basic pay	Contracted salary or hourly rate × hours worked
Overtime	Additional hours at normal or enhanced rate
Bonus	One-off payments agreed outside basic salary
Commission	Performance-related pay
SSP	Statutory Sick Pay (if applicable — see SSP guide)
SMP/SPP	Statutory maternity or paternity pay
Gross pay	Total of all earnings before deductions

Deductions

Deduction	Notes
Income tax (PAYE)	Tax calculated on cumulative pay using the PAYE tax code
Employee NI	National Insurance on earnings above the primary threshold
Student loan	Deducted if employee has a student loan plan
Postgraduate loan	Separate from student loan
Pension (employee)	Employee’s auto-enrolment or personal pension contribution
Salary sacrifice	Voluntary deductions (cycle-to-work, childcare vouchers, etc.) — reduce gross pay before tax
Other deductions	Any agreed voluntary deductions

Net pay

Net pay = Gross pay − all deductions

This is the amount transferred to the employee’s bank account.

Employer’s summary (not deducted from employee)

Some payslips show employer contributions separately for transparency:

• Employer NI — employer’s National Insurance contribution (not taken from employee pay, but a cost to the business).
• Employer pension — employer’s auto-enrolment contribution.

Year-to-date (YTD) figures

The YTD columns show cumulative totals from 6 April (the start of the tax year) to the current pay date. These are important for:

• Checking that the right total tax has been paid across the year.
• Completing P60s at year-end.
• Verifying against HMRC’s records if there’s a discrepancy.

Tax codes explained

Your tax code determines how much tax-free pay you receive each period:

Code	Meaning
1257L	Standard personal allowance (£12,570/year)
BR	Basic rate 20% on all income (no personal allowance)
D0	Higher rate 40% on all income
D1	Additional rate 45% on all income
NT	No tax deducted
0T	No personal allowance, tax deducted at basic/higher/additional rates
W1 or M1	Non-cumulative (emergency) — tax calculated each period independently

Downloading payslips

Employees can download their own payslips from the AccBooks employee self-service portal at my.accbooks.co.uk. Employers can download payslips from Payroll → Employees → [employee] → Payslips.

Payslips are stored for 6 years as required by HMRC. They’re available in PDF and JSON (API) format.