BACS submission day is where small errors become expensive ones. A mistyped sort code, a missed starter, a client approval captured in the wrong place, and suddenly you're recalling a file, apologising to a client, or worse.
Most bureaus know what a good approval process looks like. The challenge is keeping it consistent across every payroll, every week, in every payroller's hands.
Here is the daily BACS approval checklist we see hold up best under pressure, and the workflow change that makes it actually stick.
The daily BACS approval checklist
Run this before any submission file leaves your sponsor bank's reach.
1. Client sign-off captured
Named approval from the agreed client contact, against the correct pay period, stored somewhere you can find it again in twelve months.
2. Starters and leavers reconciled
Every new starter has a bank account, NI category, and tax code. Every leaver has a final pay date and a P45 actioned.
3. Variance check complete
Gross pay, net pay, and headcount compared against last period. Any variance over your threshold investigated and signed off, not waved through.
4. New bank details verified
Sort code modulus checked. Account number validated. Any change of employee bank details confirmed through a secure channel, not an email reply.
5. Statutory and pension values cross-checked
HMRC liability matches the FPS. Pension contributions match the scheme report. Attachment of earnings orders reflected.
6. BACS file reconciled to the net pay register
Total value, total count, and each individual line matched. Not a spot check. A full tie-out.
7. Two-person approval recorded
Prepared by one payroller, reviewed and approved by another, with both sign-offs captured against the specific payroll run.
8. Submitted within your sponsor bank cut-off
Late submission is its own category of risk. Build in a buffer, not a race.
9. Acknowledgement filed
Sponsor bank receipt captured against the payroll, along with any rejection or warning messages actioned.
10. Exceptions logged
Anything unusual this period, whether a manual adjustment, a rushed approval, or a workaround, recorded so next month's prep starts smarter.
Why the checklist stops working
Most bureaus already have some version of this list. It lives in a shared spreadsheet, on a whiteboard, in a senior payroller's head, or taped to the wall behind someone's monitor.
That is exactly why it fails on the days it matters most.
When a payroller is under pressure, say a client sending last-minute changes at 3pm on submission day, the checklist gets shortcut. When someone is on annual leave, the nuance goes with them. When client volumes grow, the list is still run by memory. When an error does happen, reconstructing who approved what, and when, becomes a forensic exercise across emails, spreadsheets, and Teams messages.
Your BACS approval discipline is only as strong as the weakest moment in your month.
The workflow fix
The checklist only holds when it stops being a document and starts being the way work moves through your team.
That means:
- Every payroll run carries its own instance of the approval sequence, so nothing is skipped or reused from memory.
- Each step is assigned, timestamped, and signed off by name. Two-person approval is enforced, not hoped for.
- Variance thresholds, sign-off requirements, and sponsor bank cut-offs are built into the process itself, not sitting in a guidance document no one rereads.
- Client approvals are captured through a secure portal against the correct pay period, not pulled out of an email thread.
- The audit trail builds itself as work happens, so reviews, errors, and auditor questions are answered from the record rather than from memory.
This is where Changepen fits. It sits alongside your payroll software and manages the operation around it: the instructions, approvals, workflow, and oversight that decide whether your BACS run is calm or chaotic.
Your calculations are already right. The work is making sure nothing gets to that calculation without being checked, signed off, and recorded in a way your team, your clients, and your auditors can trust.
Make your BACS approval process consistent
If any of the ten steps above currently relies on one person remembering to do it, that is the first thing worth fixing.
Book a Changepen demo and see how your daily BACS checklist stops living in someone's head and starts living in your workflow.
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