Terminate and delete an employee

Once an employee's employment has ended, terminate them in UK Payroll to ensure correct final payments and proper reporting to HMRC.

How to terminate an employee

(Optional) Step 1: Revoke employee access

If you need to prevent access before the termination date (e.g., for security reasons), you can revoke access without changing the employee’s lifecycle status. To learn more, see How to revoke employee access.

Revoking access will not mark them as terminated, but it will restrict their ability to log in, view the org chart, or access company documents.

Step 2: Terminate the employee in Bob

To learn more, see How to terminate an employee.

Step 3: Review the termination in UK Payroll

Once the termination is actioned in Bob, the details of the termination and the leavers holiday entitlement will sync to UK Payroll. 

Note: Outstanding holiday entitlement is based on an annual salary, using a daily rate. We currently do not support base rates or average holiday pay calculations. If you pay an enhanced rate based on average holiday pay, the system will not calculate this automatically.

1. In UK Payroll, navigate to Employees.
2. Select the relevant employee.
3. Click Actions > Edit termination.
4. Review the termination details, including outstanding holiday entitlement.

Step 4: Enter the final payment in Bob

To ensure all one-off payments, bonuses, or final adjustments are included in the last payroll run, add them to the employee’s record in Bob so they sync with UK Payroll.

Tip: To learn how to process termination pay, see Process termination pay and PILON.

1. In Bob, navigate to Org > People > relevant employee.
2. In the Payroll section, click the pencil icon.
3. Select Actual Payments. 
4. Click Add row. 
5. Enter the Payment Date (must align with the final payroll period), Payment type, and Amount, then click Add. You can also add a Reason. 
6. Click Done. 

Note: The name of Actual Payments in Bob must match with the One-off pay item in UK Payroll for the sync to process correctly. Ensure all syncing pay items are set up in UK Payroll. 

How to delete an employee in UK Payroll

If you've added an employee to the payroll by mistake or if you need to remove an employee from payroll for any other reason, you can delete them as long as they haven't been a part of a Submitted payroll.

If they've been part of a Submitted payroll, they've already been reported to HMRC on the Full Payment Submission and should be terminated by following the steps above.

Note: Deleting an employee is a permanent action and can't be undone.

1. From the left side bar, select Employees.
2. Select the relevant employee.
3. Click on Actions > Delete employee.
4. Type the first name of the employee in the text field and click Yes, delete employee.

How to terminate an employee in UK Payroll, but not in Bob

If your employee is moving to a different country but is still employed by your company, or is moving to a separate entity within the same umbrella company, or changing to a contractor role, you may need to terminate them in UK Payroll but keep them active in Bob.

1. From the left side bar, select Employees.
2. Select the relevant employee.
3. Note their Employee ID.
4. From the left side bar, select Settings > Integrations > Bob.
5. Toggle on Exclude employees and click Add filter.
6. Add a filter for Payroll ID is, and enter the Employee ID.
7. Click Save. The employee will no longer sync to Payroll UK.
8. From the left side bar, select Employees.
9. Select the relevant employee.
10. Click Actions > Terminate employment in the top right corner.
11. Enter the Termination date and Post-termination email (optional).
12. If the employee has died during their employment, mark the box next to Death in service.
13. Select how to calculate Holiday entitlement (Days or Hours).

14. If you know the employee's outstanding holiday balance, enter the amount in the Outstanding balance field. If you want UK Payroll to calculate it for you, toggle on Entitlement calculation and enter the Entitled yearly holidays and the Hereby used holidays.

    Note: UK Payroll calculates holiday pay based on your Holiday pay scheme. To learn more, see Set up holiday pay.

15. Mark Include holidays in pension calculations to make holiday pay pensionable.

16. Review the pro-rata adjusted salary and click Yes, terminate employment.

    Note: UK Payroll pro-rates the salary to the leave date based on your company's day rate method. To learn more, see Set salaries and pay rates.

17. To view a draft P45 of the terminating employee, click Actions > Download P45 (draft). The P45 will include a draft watermark.

FAQs

I accidentally terminated an employee! What do I do?
Contact Support to remove the termination.

What if the termination date was in the previous pay period?
See Terminate a late leaver.

Will UK Payroll pro-rate the salary of an employee with alternative working patterns?
No. Adjust the basic pay using gross additions or deductions in the payroll draft.

Can I use an alternate method to calculate outstanding holiday pay?
Yes. To do this, leave Entitled yearly holidays and Hereby used blank, and add a gross addition or deduction to the payroll draft.

How do I download an employee's P45?
Navigate to Employees > relevant employee > Actions > Download P45. For more detailed instructions, see Access and download payroll documents.