Freedom makes two recommendations during setup: a start date, and who adds your team and pay history. Both depend on how much payroll data there is to move. You can choose a different date or a different option.
How Freedom picks your recommended start date
On the "Choose your start date with Freedom" step of Add business details and accept the terms, the calendar marks one date as "Recommended". Freedom picks it in three steps:
Setup time. Freedom counts two weeks from today, plus one week for every full 10 workers on your team, up to four weeks in total.
Payday. Freedom moves the date forward to the next payday that fits your pay frequency.
Quarter end. If that payday is in the last two weeks of a tax quarter, Freedom moves it to the first payday of the next quarter.
The panel next to the calendar shows the reasons, such as "Enough setup time" or "Starts with a new quarter". If you choose a different date, the panel can show "May not be enough setup time" or "Close to quarter end". Click "Use [date] instead" to go back to the recommended date.
For what the start date means, see Understand your start date and your first payday.
Why Freedom moves a start date to after a quarter end
Payroll taxes are filed by quarter: January to March, April to June, July to September, and October to December. If you start on the first payday of a new quarter, your previous provider files the quarter that just ended. Freedom files from the new quarter on.
Starting on the first payday of a quarter is simpler than starting just before a quarter ends. Your previous provider ran every payroll in the quarter that just ended, so it files that quarter from records it already has. You don't have to move and check a quarter of pay history just before a filing is due. And each tax return comes from one set of payroll records, so there's less chance of errors.
You can start on any payday, including one near the end of a quarter. Freedom then files the full quarter that contains your first Freedom payday. The calendar shows "Close to quarter end" on dates in the last two weeks of a quarter.
What makes a data transfer easier or harder
Team size changes both recommendations. Pay history and where your records are change only who Freedom recommends to add your data.
Number of workers. Each employee and contractor has pay, tax, and bank details to move. A larger team takes longer to transfer and to check.
Pay history this year. If you didn't run payroll this year, there is no pay history to move. This is the easiest transfer. If you ran many payrolls this year, there is more to move and more to check.
Where your records are. If you use a payroll provider, the records are in one account. If you paid your team by hand or through an accountant, the records take longer to collect.
How Freedom recommends who adds your data
On Choose who will transfer your data, one option has a "Recommended" badge. This step is optional. If you skip it, you add your data yourself. Workers are your employees plus your contractors.
Freedom recommends "Freedom will add it for me" for a team of 6 or more workers. It also recommends this option for a team of 3 to 5 workers that ran payroll this year with a payroll provider.
Freedom recommends "I will add it myself" for all other teams of 5 or fewer workers. For example, you didn't run payroll this year, or you paid your team by hand or through an accountant.
The recommendation uses the team size and payroll history answers you gave in your business details. You can choose either option. For what Freedom does and what you do, see What Freedom does when it adds your team and pay history for you.
Ask Freedom to transfer your data later
If you start to add your data yourself, you can ask Freedom to transfer it for you at any time during setup.
Go to the Onboarding page.
Next to "Who adds your data", click "Change". It is in the summary next to the task list, or above it on a small screen.
Click "Freedom will add it for me".
Your choice saves when you click it. The data you already added stays in Freedom.