How Semi-Automated No Payment EPS Submissions Work

If you do not pay any employees in a tax month, HMRC may still need an Employer Payment Summary (EPS) to confirm that no payments were made. FreePayroll helps with this through a semi-automated process.

What “semi-automated” means

FreePayroll identifies when a No Payment EPS may be needed and creates the request for you automatically, but you still decide whether it should be sent to HMRC.

How the process works

1. On the 16th of the month, FreePayroll checks whether a payroll with employees has already been submitted for that tax month.
2. If no submitted payroll is found, FreePayroll creates a pending No Payment EPS approval request for that tax month.
3. The request appears in your dashboard/task area as a No Payment EPS waiting for approval.
4. You review the request and choose whether to approve or reject it.
5. If you approve it, FreePayroll immediately queues the No Payment EPS for submission to HMRC.
6. If you reject it, nothing is sent and the request is marked as rejected.

When you should approve it

Approve the request if:

• you did not pay any employees in that tax month
• you do not expect to submit a payroll with employees for that same month

When you should reject it

Reject the request if:

• you have already submitted a payroll with employees for that tax month
• you plan to submit one shortly
• you no longer need a No Payment EPS for that month

If a payroll with employees has already been submitted, FreePayroll will prevent approval and ask you to reject the No Payment EPS instead.

Important timing

• On the 16th, FreePayroll creates the approval request if one is needed.
• The standard EPS submission date in the system is the 18th.
• The HMRC due date is the 19th.
• If a No Payment EPS approval is still waiting after the due date, it expires and is automatically cancelled.

Approved No Payment EPS requests are queued as soon as you approve them, so you do not need to wait for the 18th.

Other useful things to know

• FreePayroll will not create duplicate No Payment EPS requests for the same tax month if an EPS submission already exists.
• If you submit a No Payment EPS manually, the pending approval is no longer needed.
• If you submit another manual EPS for that same tax month, the pending No Payment EPS request is cancelled.
• FreePayroll keeps an audit trail of who approved or rejected the request, when it was resolved, and any rejection reason.
• This semi-automated No Payment EPS process applies to tax months 1 to 11. Tax month 12 is handled separately as part of year-end processing.

Updated on: 10/04/2026