With this month’s blog, “Your Guide to Successful Payroll Outsourcing”, we’re focusing on one of the most critical aspects of your business: paying your staff correctly and on time via an outsourced payroll solution. Is now the right time for you to outsource?
Payroll can become disordered as and when your business starts to grow, so right here right now, may be the perfect opportunity to reach out to us to get things going.
The Payroll Goal
Like many jobs you don’t necessarily want to do, or don’t have the right in-house skills for, specialists will take your payroll off your hands with minimum fuss.
Angel Bookkeeping is one of those specialists. Based in Worthing, we work with all types and sizes of SMEs to offer managed, customised payroll services – saving time, hassle, stress, and so much else besides.
Broadly, although our work requires skills and knowledge, our role is straightforward: to ensure that the valuable employees in your business receive the correct remuneration for their work – and on pay day. And, that everything is fully legal and compliant – keeping HMRC happy.
The best payroll providers enable your business to grow and ultimately contribute to a healthy, positive work-life balance for you and the people you employ. In other words, they are a compelling, streamlined value-add.
Here’s our guide to getting what you need and deserve.
What Do Payroll Providers Do?
In brief, whatever suits a client best; a range of fully flexible services, including, of course, the fundamentals:
- Calculating your staff’s pay, including benefits
- Working out and deducting tax and National Insurance contributions
- Deducting any other relevant elements, such as retirement contributions
- Making payments to employees (including digital payslips)
- Keeping payroll records
What Are the Benefits of Outsourcing Your Payroll?
We highly approve of outsourcing in general. Why? Because subcontracting difficult and time-consuming tasks to people who, let’s be fair, do them so much better than you can make a significant difference in how your business operates. Not least, through:
Having more time – lots more time, in fact – to focus on your core business. Working hours are precious, and increased efficiency literally gives you back the space to grow your company.
- Eliminate the need to train your staff to do something that may not be their most vital skill. Equally, you don’t have to invest in an expensive payroll system.
- Minimise to near-zero the chance of getting things wrong in paying your employees or late payroll tax filings.
- Reduce business risk generally. For continuity, you need to minimise risk. Outsourcing payroll delivers powerful solutions for payroll processes and technology. With in-depth expertise comes high levels of visibility, control and compliance. And, data security.
- Empower transparency and speed. Cloud-based payroll lets your employees access their data to view their payslips online. Its currency allows businesses to adapt immediately to changes in legislation, and as all data is centralised on the server, changes can be applied in real time.
- Stay up to speed and fully legal with your tax obligations to HMRC and your PAYE responsibilities.
- Importantly, keep your staff engaged and motivated. Since the pandemic, the jobs market has swung in favour of the job seeker and the employee.
You know that paying people accurately and on time is essential. We’d go further: efficient payroll will keep them happy – literally. Plus, it will go a long way towards reassuring them that they are highly valued members of your team. Which they are, of course.
Next Steps: Things to Consider When Choosing a Payroll Provider
Any guide to successful payroll outsourcing must include a consideration of what we’d call business-critical decisions:
What we mean is, the things to know and understand fully before you make your choice.
The right payroll service provider is likely to be your business partner for the foreseeable future – or at least you would hope them to be so. So, the clearer you are now, the easier adopting and implementing this new business relationship is likely to be, for years to come.
Let’s focus on practicalities:
Getting the right level of service. Don’t pay for what you don’t need, so ensure that your service provider is ultra-clear on what you’re paying for. Sounds obvious, but it’s vital to know this.
Also, ask them about their responsiveness and approach to customer service.
How complex are your payroll requirements? Different companies have distinct payroll needs based on several factors. Simple or complicated, ensure that you’re both on the same page. Likewise, that what’s on offer is flexible, accurate and cost-effective.
Automation to make things easier. Check that payroll software is cloud-based to ensure accuracy and eliminate unnecessary admin tasks.
Data security. Payroll and employee information is incredibly sensitive as the documents are easily identifiable. So, ask your potential provider about how secure and private everything is to ensure that their data safety strategy is as solid as possible.
Experience. You deserve the peace of mind of knowing that the people working for you are the best they can be.
And that will be down to their training, knowledge and experience; not only of the fundamentals of PAYE, but also the bigger picture: an understanding of your company as a whole, your industry sector (for example we’re highly skilled in payroll for the Construction Industry Scheme) and why you engaged an outsourced service in the first place!
Your Guide to Successful Payroll Outsourcing – The Next Steps
Outsourcing your payroll is a smooth process.
In our experience, employees buy into the changes immediately – not least as they can focus on the benefits that more time and less stress can bring. Your staff are your most valuable asset and will no doubt relish new opportunities to shine in your business.
Talk to Angel Bookkeeping about any seasonally busy times you may have, and we’ll accommodate your workload. We’re super-efficient and will make the entire switchover as simple as you need. And now – you can look forward to doing what you do best without worrying about payroll.
Thank Goodness for that.
Get in touch with Angel Bookkeeping for more information.