Payroll services – Buying guide

Payday! Employees love it. Payroll administrators dread it. Why? Because processing hours worked, deductions, and vacation or sick leave for your employees – plus ensuring compliance with the latest HMRC reporting rules – is a lot of work. You could operate your own payroll management system, dedicating one or several staff to manually recording wages, calculating taxes and deductions, and hoping they don’t make too many costly mistakes.

If on the other hand you don’t have the resources (or the inclination) to handle your company’s payroll management, you have two options: you can still keep it in-house with the aid of specialised payroll management software, or you can outsource it to a professional accountant or payroll services provider.

In-house with payroll management software

You can process your own payroll quickly and efficiently with experienced staff and any of a variety of available payroll software packages. You just need to hire the staff, buy the software, and supply the appropriate training.

Your in-house payroll pro will need to input wage data and calculate deductions for National Insurance and income tax for each pay period. The software also keeps overall payroll records neatly organised for your obligatory Employer Annual Return with the HMRC.

Remember that failure to stay abreast of the latest payroll reporting requirements can be costly; in fact the HMRC recently began requiring real-time submission of PAYE information – rather than once a year – and failure to comply with the new rules could cost your company up to four percent of your payroll. And of course the recent overhaul of company pension schemes invites a whole new set of variables into the payroll management process for many companies.

Outsource to payroll services provider

If all that sounds like too much hassle, don’t fret; you can hire an external accountant or specialised payroll services provider to manage the payroll process for you. You simply transmit variable employee data and your specialist will calculate your staff’s wages, benefits and deductions, issue payslips, send you summary reports, and ensure that you never run afoul of HMRC payroll reporting requirements.

Outsourcing your payroll management will allow you to focus in-house resources on your core competencies. It will relieve you of the hidden costs of constant staff retraining and software upgrades. And a good payroll services provider will know HMRC payroll reporting legislation forward and backwards.

How much does it cost?

A basic payroll processing software package can cost as little as £100 and partially-outsourced online payroll services can be found for less than £10 per month for very small businesses. Full-service providers generally charge a few pounds per payslip, which may or may not be a good deal depending on the size of your payroll.

Naturally the cost of a software package, an online payroll service, or a full-service outsourced service will depend on several factors such as the size of your staff and the level of service you need. The most reliable way to assess the actual cost of managing your payroll is the seek quotes from providers. You can start with the form at the top of this page; just describe your situation and you will receive no-obligation quotes from up to four payroll service providers within 48 hours. All of those suppliers will have been carefully qualified to match your particular needs.