I was at the hairdressers a week before lockdown in March 2020, and discussions in the background lead me to believe that schools were adding 2 additional weeks onto the approaching Easter Holiday, in a bid to slow down the spread of covid-19. It was a little hard to believe and no one could have imagined that the 2 week shut down turned into full closure for several months!
I have been running payrolls since 2017. Some clients have a standalone payroll, and some combine it with a bookkeeping package. I started off using the Quickbooks payroll, then purchased Moneysoft as things grew. Over the course of time, I have been a payroll sub contractor for another bureau, and think I have just about covered every scenario possible - leavers, starters, sick pay, maternity pay, auto enrolment, student loan, Directors' payrolls, deductions from wages, expenses, P11D, end of year P60s, and the latest......furloughing! (and the furlough claims).
There is a lot of work behind the scenes - I calculate the holiday pay for irregular hours (the laws have changed leave is now 5.6 weeks, based on the average of the last 52 weeks) and keep track of what each employee has taken, and when an employee is auto enrolled onto a pension plan, there is quite a lot of admin to do. Every 3 years you have to re enrol your employees onto a pension, or make a declaration if there are no employees to re-enrol.
When I engage with clients, after the initial information gathering and setting up, the payroll is automatically run and submitted to HMRC like clockwork. If your employees work weekly variable hours, I request these come in on the morning that I run it, or if it is a monthly payroll - the 25th of the month.
When you outsource your payroll, you are gaining not only a professional service, but someone is always there to answer your questions, and come rain or shine, the payroll is delivered to your email inbox on payday.
If you would like further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Thanks,
Lorna
