OverviewAccount and sign upYour public profileBooking managementBooking requestsAvailability calendarCancellation protectionLocum directoryOrganisation managementInvoicingExpenses and mileageNHS Pension formsTax planningEarnings overviewAdvanced reportingPocketSmith integrationXero integrationIR35 for locumsAgency and PAYE trackingBecome a locum GPBecome a locum pharmacistBecome an agency nurseBecome a locum paramedicBecome a locum physiotherapistLocum tax calculatorHMRC mileage calculatorFree invoice templateLocum GP rates UKLocum pharmacist rates UKAgency nurse rates UKLocum paramedic rates UKLocum physio rates UKBilling and subscriptionsReferralsDocument storeCalendar syncNotification preferencesSupport ticketsREST APIData export and privacy
Help centre

Agency and PAYE shift tracking

How Sessional handles every way you get paid: self-invoiced, agency-managed, and PAYE at source.

Note

This guide covers how to log agency and PAYE shifts correctly. For the tax-status regime that applies when you run a limited company into an NHS or large private client, see the IR35 guide.

The three billing modes

Every shift in Sessional carries one of three billing modes. The mode decides whether the shift gets invoiced, how it contributes to your tax reserve, and what appears on your earnings dashboard.

  • Self-invoiced. You bill the organisation directly. Sessional generates the PDF invoice, tracks delivery and payment, and reserves income tax and NI against the full invoice value. This is the default for GP practices, private clinics, and most direct engagements.
  • Agency-managed. The agency invoices the end client and pays you net of commission. Sessional does not generate an invoice; the shift goes directly from Delivered to Paid once the agency settles. Tax is reserved on what you actually receive, not on the headline gross rate.
  • PAYE at source. An umbrella company or an NHS trust bank payroll deducts income tax and Class 1 NI before paying you. Sessional records the shift for the complete picture of what you earned, but reserves zero further tax because it has already come off at source.

Which mode applies to my work

A rough guide by work type. Override per shift if your arrangement differs.

  • GP practice locum sessions, booked direct. Self-invoiced.
  • OOH and NHS 111 sessions, booked direct. Usually self-invoiced. Some providers run payroll; check the contract.
  • NHS trust bank shifts (doctors, nurses, paramedics, allied health). PAYE at source.
  • Agency placements through Medacs, ID Medical, NHS Professionals, and similar. If you are on an umbrella contract, PAYE at source. If the agency pays your limited company, agency-managed. If you invoice the agency as a sole trader, self-invoiced.
  • Community pharmacy locum shifts. Usually self-invoiced. Some large chains pay through an agency or PAYE arrangement.
  • Private clinic bookings. Usually self-invoiced.
  • Prison healthcare, forensic, occupational health. Depends on the provider. Ask before accepting; the SDS (status determination statement) from the end client will make the position explicit for limited company contractors.

Setting up organisations correctly

The fastest way to get billing mode right is to set the organisation type when you add it to Sessional. The shift form resolves the default from there, so you do not have to choose per shift.

  • Agency organisations. Pick Agency as the type and record the commission percentage you have agreed. Every new shift at that agency defaults to Agency-managed and pre-fills the commission calculation.
  • Umbrella company organisations. Pick Umbrella company as the type. New shifts default to PAYE at source.
  • Trust bank shifts. Add the NHS trust with type NHS Trust and override the default billing mode to PAYE at source on the organisation record. If the same trust also gives you direct self-invoiced work, create a second organisation with type NHS Trust and leave the billing mode as self-invoiced. Keep them separate.

How tax reserve works across modes

Sessional splits your paid income into two buckets for tax planning:

  • Reservable. Self-invoiced shifts at their gross rate, plus agency-managed shifts at net pay (after commission). This bucket drives the self-employed reserve calculation on your earnings dashboard and the tax planner. Expenses, pension contributions, and employment type (sole trader or limited company) all apply as normal.
  • PAYE. Shown on the dashboard as total earned but contributes nothing further to the reserve. Tax and NI have already been deducted at source; reserving a further percentage would double-count.

If you are a limited-company locum with mixed work, the reservable bucket still runs through the LTD calculation (corporation tax plus optimal salary and dividend split). PAYE income is outside the company and outside the reserve.

What to record on each shift

  • Self-invoiced. Agreed rate, session date and times, organisation. Sessional handles the rest through the invoice flow.
  • Agency-managed. Agreed gross rate (what the agency is charging the end client, if you know it; otherwise the rate you see quoted), plus your net pay when the agency settles. The commission field on the organisation helps you reconcile if the agency changes rates.
  • PAYE at source. Agreed gross rate, net pay on the payslip, plus the income tax and NI withheld at source. This lets you cross-check your payslip against the expected take-home and gives your accountant a complete record for self-assessment if you submit one.

Mixed employment structures

Some locums run certain shifts through a limited company and others as a sole trader in the same tax year. A common example: GP OOH sessions invoiced as sole trader, hospital agency shifts paid to a Ltd company. Each shift can carry its own employment structure via the Advanced section on the session form.

When your shifts mix structures, Sessional runs the reserve calculation once per structure so each slice hits the right tax model. The headline reserve on the dashboard is the sum; the tax planner shows each bucket separately with its own reserve rate and session count. PAYE shifts still sit outside both structures because the tax has already come off at source.

The profile-level Employment type is still there as your default. A blank override on a shift means "use my profile default"; set the override when a specific shift is different.

Cross-role work: nurses doing HCA, paramedics doing ECA

Healthcare isn't always worked at your registered scope. Nurses pick up healthcare-assistant shifts when nursing work is thin. Paramedics pick up Emergency Care Assistant shifts. Allied-health professionals sometimes work as therapy assistants. These roles are unregulated and sit below the user's primary regulated scope.

Sessional lets you record the role worked per shift from the Advanced section of the session form. The shift appears on your dashboard with a chip showing the actual role (Healthcare assistant, ECA, Support worker, Therapy assistant, Student bank shift, and more). This matters for:

  • Rate tracking. HCA rates run £12–£15/hr; nursing agency runs £22–£30/hr. Mixing them into a single "nursing income" figure hides the reality.
  • Indemnity visibility. Most professional indemnity does not cover work below scope. The chip on each shift is a reminder that the role you worked needs its own indemnity arrangement (usually employer liability via the trust or agency).
  • Pension implications. NHS bank shifts in unregulated roles still earn NHS Pension if you are on the trust payroll (PAYE). Agency HCA work does not. Sessional shows the billing mode and role side by side so the pension picture is readable.

Dual-registered professionals (midwife + RN) can use the same mechanism to record which registration applied to each shift. Advanced-practice versions of a profession (ANP, paramedic practitioner, advanced physio) can record the extended-scope role so your rate reporting reflects which band you worked at.

The role context does not change your profile profession, your regulator, or your public directory listing. Your NMC PIN stays on your profile; it just does not imply that the HCA shift was worked under NMC scope.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to invoice every shift I log in Sessional?
No. Each shift is tagged with a billing mode. Self-invoiced shifts generate a Sessional invoice; agency-managed shifts assume the agency invoices the client and pays you net; PAYE-at-source shifts assume an umbrella company or NHS bank has deducted tax and NI before paying you. Only self-invoiced shifts trigger the invoice flow.
How do I mark a shift as agency or PAYE?
The mode is resolved automatically at shift creation. If the organisation is set to type Agency, new shifts default to Agency-managed. Umbrella company organisations default to PAYE at source. For other organisation types, Sessional uses the default billing mode on your profile (set during onboarding, changeable from your profile page).
Why does my tax reserve exclude PAYE shifts?
PAYE income has already had income tax and Class 1 NI deducted before it reaches you. Reserving a further percentage would double-count. Sessional still shows PAYE income on your earnings dashboard so you see a complete picture of what you earned, but the reserve calculation only runs on self-employed income (self-invoiced and agency-managed shifts).
My agency pays me net of a 15% commission. What do I record?
Set the organisation type to Agency and enter the commission percentage (for example, 15.00) on the organisation record. On each shift, record the agreed gross rate (what the agency charges the client) and the net pay (what actually lands in your account). Sessional reserves tax against net pay because commission is already gone by the time you see the money.
I work bank shifts at an NHS trust. Is that Agency or PAYE?
NHS bank shifts are typically PAYE at source. The trust payroll deducts income tax and NI before paying you. Set the trust or the NHS bank entity as an Umbrella company organisation type so new shifts default to PAYE at source. If you also pick up agency work at the same trust through a third-party agency, create a separate Agency organisation for the agency and route those shifts there.
Can I switch a shift from one billing mode to another?
Before the shift is marked Delivered, yes. After Delivered, the mode is locked because the downstream tax and earnings calculations depend on it. If you need to change a delivered shift, contact support and we can correct it for you with an audit trail.
What about mileage and expenses for agency and PAYE work?
Mileage and expenses are tracked the same way across all billing modes, but the tax treatment differs. For self-employed shifts (self-invoiced or agency-managed), expenses reduce your taxable profit. For PAYE shifts, most expenses are not deductible against the employed income unless you have a valid S336 claim. Sessional logs the expense either way so you have the record; check with an accountant on what you can claim.
Does this affect my NHS Pension contributions?
Yes. NHS Pension only applies to NHS-employed work (trust bank shifts where you are on the payroll), not to agency or self-employed work. If you log a PAYE bank shift at an NHS trust, pension deductions would happen on the payslip and are not modelled by Sessional. Agency and self-invoiced shifts are outside NHS Pension by design; consider a private pension contribution instead.
What fields are different between the three modes?
Self-invoiced shifts capture the agreed rate only. Agency-managed shifts add commission percent (on the organisation) and net pay (on the shift). PAYE-at-source shifts add net pay plus the PAYE tax and NI withheld at source, so you have the full picture for your self-assessment if you need to submit one.
Can the same locum do a mix of self-invoiced, agency, and PAYE work?
Yes, and most multi-profession locums do. Sessional partitions automatically on the earnings dashboard and tax planner: total income is the sum of all three, the tax reserve is only applied to the self-employed slice, and PAYE is shown separately so you see the reconciliation at a glance.
I work sole-trader on some shifts and via a limited company on others. Will the reserve be right?
Yes. Each shift can carry its own employment structure via the Advanced section on the session form. When your shifts mix sole-trader and limited-company work in the same period, Sessional runs the reserve calculation once per structure, prices each slice against its own tax model (income tax + Class 4 NI for sole trader, corporation tax + salary/dividend split for Ltd), and sums the two for the headline reserve. The tax planner shows the breakdown so you can see each structure separately.
I am a nurse but I sometimes pick up healthcare-assistant shifts. How do I log those?
Open the Advanced section on the session form and pick a role from the Role worked selector (Healthcare assistant, Support worker, Emergency care assistant, and so on). The shift appears on your dashboard with a role chip so the HCA rate, scope, and indemnity position are visible at a glance. Your NMC PIN still sits on your profile but does not imply it covered the HCA work; HCA roles are unregulated and outside NMC scope, so check your indemnity and the trust/agency cover before taking the shift. The same applies for paramedics picking up ECA shifts and allied-health professionals picking up therapy-assistant work.
What if my role is something the dropdown does not list?
The role context field accepts custom strings up to 40 characters. If you need something specific (for example, "Band 5 bank shift" or "Prison healthcare locum"), pick the closest match from the list or supply your own label. The dashboard chip will show whatever you enter.

Related

IR35 for locumsTax planningInvoicingAllowable expensesNHS Pension