Available for the following HR plans: Premium, Platinum
Available for the following plans: Employment Lite, Employment Plus, Employment Unlimited
Available for the following User Access levels: Admin
When you bring a new team member into your UK-based organisation, you must ensure they have the correct tax and National Insurance (NI) classifications for payroll accuracy and HMRC compliance. As an employer, you are responsible for assigning the correct NI category based on the employee's specific circumstances, such as their age or apprenticeship status.
Explore the National Insurance onboarding requirements
The onboarding process ensures that sensitive tax information is managed securely by administrators, while employees provide their essential identification numbers. Use these primary fields to maintain compliance:
- NI Category: A mandatory selection determined by the employer to ensure correct statutory deductions.
- National Insurance Number: A unique identifier provided by the employee to complete their employment record.
- HMRC Guidance: Direct access to official classification definitions via a clickable link to assist in accurate category assignment.
- Company Director Status: An employer-managed field used to define specific NI requirements for directors.
Manage National Insurance details
As an HR administrator, you must determine and set the National Insurance category for new employees during the admin-led portion of the onboarding flow. This ensures the correct deductions apply from their first pay run.
- Start the employee onboarding process as an administrator.
- Navigate to the Pay Details section (page three of the admin onboarding flow).
- Locate the NI Category field positioned near the pay category selection.
- Select the appropriate category from the dropdown menu. This is a mandatory field for all UK employees.
- Review the provided HMRC guidance link directly under the field if you need to verify eligibility rules for specific category letters.
- Enter the National Insurance Number if you already have this information. If you do not have it yet, tick the NIN unknown (NINO) checkbox to disable the field and proceed.
- Complete the remaining pay details and save the record to invite the employee to complete their self-onboarding.
To help speed up the onboarding process, the system uses the employee's data to suggest the most likely National Insurance category. You can always override these suggestions if you have documentation that supports a different classification.
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Age-based suggestions: The system automatically calculates age based on the Date of Birth entered on the Basic Information page.
- Employees aged 21 to 66 default to Category A.
- Employees under 21 default to Category M.
- Employees under 16 default to Category X.
- Employees over the State Pension age (currently 66) default to Category C.
- Apprenticeship status: If you mark an employee as an apprentice on the Employment Details page and they are under 25, the system will suggest Category H when you reach the pay details section.
During your self-onboarding, you will provide or verify your National Insurance (NI) number. You do not need to worry about selecting a tax category or company director status, as your employer now manages those classifications to ensure your payroll is compliant with HMRC regulations.
- Open your onboarding invitation and navigate to the personal information section.
- Locate the National insurance number (NINO) field.
- If your administrator has already pre-filled this number, review it for accuracy. You can edit the field if the pre-filled information is incorrect.
- If the field is empty or you checked "NIN unknown" previously, enter your 9-character NI number.
- Submit your details to complete your portion of the onboarding.
Explore related content
- Manage an employee's tax and national insurance (NI): Learn how to view and manage an employee's existing tax and NI details within their employee file.
- Onboarding a new user onto our platform: This guide provides a comprehensive overview of the administrator's side of the onboarding process, including basic information and pay details.
- Complete my Employee Self Setup (ESS) process as an employee: Step-by-step instructions for employees to complete their side of the onboarding, including tax and NI number entry.