Starting Payroll Questions

Hi, I have a small business and for the first time have started employing someone, so I need to set up payroll. I can only apologise, but I have been very unorganised and should have set up payroll a few weeks ago - I have paid the employee for 4 weeks already, and for for various reasons have been meaning to get round to it but haven't yet. I appreciate this is very late to be doing this. The employee has sent me the 'Starter Checklist' as he does not have a P45 to give to me, so I have the information needed to start. From the gov.uk website, I believe I can use the 'HMRC's Basic PAYE Tools' software to do all the payroll calculations for tax and NI etc. When I look at the web page describing this software, it says before I start I need to be registered as an employer, and have a login for PAYE Online. So I have gone to my self assessment account, and clicked on the link which says 'get access to a tax, duty, or scheme'. When I click on this, there is an option to add 'PAYE for employers', which I click on. Then it asks if I have an employer PAYE reference, I click no. It then asks only two options: if my business has directors or partners. It has neither, I am a sole trader. So I'm not sure where to go from here as I feel these options don't apply to me. I appreciate I might be doing this wrong. Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

Hi,

You first need to register with HMRC as an employer. 

Register as an employer

Once we have processed your details we will issue your references, which you can then use to add PAYE to your online account and also use within HMRC Basic PAYE Tools. Please note we are currently experiencing problems registering new employers and it may take us longer to set up your record and issue your PAYE references.  

You can continue to pay your employees and keep payroll records, submitting your returns once we have set up your record. When submitting the payroll submissions you can declare a reasonable excuse as to why your submission is late.

Thank you.