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I don't know if this will help anyone, but if the payment always has the same format (i.e. payee = employees name, and description says "payroll week ending [dd mm yy]"), when setting up the bank rule, I like to set up the bank rule so the reference is set to come from the description field. This makes it easier to do the payroll reconciliations when I can see the description that was on the bank statement line and also so I can double check that the rule applied correctly as well

Yes, this would be a very useful and time saving change!
I'd like to see it not only on the description but also on the reference too!

This would be a tiny but mighty update!

I would like to do exactly as described, for Payroll, PAYE/NIC, pensions etc.
NB Months before and after a date would be catered for automatically by the placeholder syntax, eg [month-1] means the previous month

Yes, with the ability to use the month from the transaction date, or the month before / after the transaction date, OR the month/months mentioned in the line description imported from the bank statement.