Payroll variations form with acknowledgement for bureaus

Clients email starters, leavers, hours and overtime in no set format, and you re-key them and chase before cut-off. If 20 clients send 2 variation emails a month (40) and each takes 8 minutes to read, query and log, that's 320 minutes, about 5.3 hours a month.

Give each client a Google Form for payroll variations, with fields for the employee code, the change, the effective date and the pay period, and the cut-off date stated at the top. Responses land in a Google Sheet. A two-step Zapier automation starts on each new response and emails the client an acknowledgement that the variation has been received. No payroll is run or changed by the automation: a person enters the variation in the payroll software and checks the run, and pay and RTI dates are recorded in the payroll system and diary first.

A payroll bureau in Lincoln runs payroll for 20 small employers, each sending about 2 variation emails a month, 40 in all. Each client gets its own form. A staff member reads each response from the sheet, enters it in the payroll software and checks it before the run.

About 2.7 hours a month saved (4 minutes x 40 = 160 minutes), worth around £80 if staff time is worth £30 an hour. Zapier's Free plan allows two-step Zaps and 100 tasks a month, so 40 a month fits. This assumes the free Google accounts you already have, which is fine for employee codes only; if you put names or other identifiers in, use Google Workspace (Business Starter was €6.80, about £6, a user a month excluding tax on Google's pricing page, checked 17 October 2026).

1. 1Record each client's pay dates and RTI submission dates in your payroll system and diary first.
2. 2Build a Google Form per client using employee codes, not names or National Insurance numbers, with the cut-off date at the top.
3. 3Check that responses go to a Google Sheet your team can see.
4. 4In Zapier, start a Zap on each new form response and add one action: email the client an acknowledgement that the variation has been received.
5. 5Test with a dummy response and read the email as the client would.
6. 6Each pay period, enter every variation in the payroll software yourself and check the run before it is submitted.

• Zapier can fail silently. Compare form responses with acknowledgements sent every week.
• The acknowledgement confirms receipt only, not that the change has been made. Tell clients that, and still enter and check each variation.
• Personal data in Google Forms and Zapier needs UK GDPR checks, and your clients' agreement. A free Google account has no business data processing agreement, so use employee codes only in the form and sheet, or use Google Workspace if you need more detail.
• Zapier's Free plan allows only two-step Zaps and 100 tasks a month; more steps need Pro at $19.99 (about £15) a month on annual billing.