Agency and PAYE shift tracking

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.
• 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.
• 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.

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.
• NHS trust bank shifts. PAYE at source.
• Agency placements. 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.
• Private clinic bookings. Usually self-invoiced.

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.
• 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.

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.
• PAYE. Shown on the dashboard as total earned but contributes nothing further to the reserve.

If you are a limited-company locum with mixed work, the reservable bucket still runs through the LTD calculation. PAYE income is outside the company and outside the reserve.

• Self-invoiced. Agreed rate, session date and times, organisation.
• Agency-managed. Agreed gross rate and your net pay when the agency settles.
• PAYE at source. Agreed gross rate, net pay on the payslip, plus the income tax and NI withheld at source.

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.

Healthcare is not 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.

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. The role context does not change your profile profession, your regulator, or your public directory listing.