What Is Payroll Outsourcing?
Put simply, Payroll outsourcing is the act of transferring, subcontracting or outsourcing your payroll processing to another company or accountant. Payroll outsourcing is for businesses that don’t have the time or resources to take on the daunting responsibility and hairy hassle of processing payroll in-house.
Outsourcing of payroll gives businesses an opportunity to not only save the company valuable time and money but also to ensure the risk of payroll issues are significantly reduced. By outsourcing payroll to a skilled professional, you can guarantee a secure, and compliant payroll function for your business.
As most business owners know, running a business means juggling a variety of administrative responsibilities. From admin to recruitment, it takes more than just doing the job to ensure smooth sailing. Outsourcing payroll could make your job easier and speed up the payroll admin process, leaving you to focus on areas of your business that actually need your attention.
Like most jobs you don’t have the time or the resources to do, there are specialists who will take payroll off your hands. Payroll providers can do everything from calculating pay and deductions to transferring money into your employee’s account and filing associated taxes. A fully managed payroll service offers end to end processing of a company’s payroll, including the setup, administration and support with auto-enrolment, payroll reporting and provision of ePayslips and eP60s.
A payroll accountant or service provider company are usually specialists in payroll and have a team of qualified payroll experts that have a deep understanding of the regulations imposed by HMRC and The Pensions Regulator.
“32% of SMEs outsourced their payroll because it’s cheaper than keeping it in house.” – Employee Benefits
How Do You Choose a Payroll Provider
Payroll is a critical part of your business. You’ll want to get it right and opt for a provider that meets your needs. From accountants and bookkeepers to specialist payroll companies, each offers its own individual services and benefits. When researching payroll service providers, there are usually two broad categories, full-service providers and DIY payroll providers.
A full-service payroll provider manages your payroll from start to finish. As long as you supply them with your business and employee data. They look after everything else. This is usually the more expensive option but is significantly easier for busy businesses. DIY payroll providers tend to take care of the “tougher” aspects of payroll while leaving basic admin to you.
Choosing the right payroll accountant is key to a smooth payroll process. It is worth considering:
- Which level of service is right for you: Make sure your provider delivers the right level of service as you don’t want to be paying for what you don’t need.
- Their price list: Crucially, outsourcing payroll should be cost-effective. Payroll involves a wide variety of hidden or unexpected regulatory obstacles that may not be covered by your purchased package.
- Keep employee details updated regularly: Ask what processes they have for checking and updating employee information. A change in an employee’s details may affect deductions and legal requirements.
- Their reputation: Contact prospective service providers and accountants with questions about the level of security they offer, the software they use, and review references from the providers’ previous clients.
- Levels of expertise: Choose a payroll provider with experience and expertise appropriate to your business. Think about your tax obligations, the size of your company, and whether you require regional expertise.
- The level of data security: Learn about how your provider handles the privacy and security of your business and employee data. Ask them what safeguards are in place to ensure your data is secure.
We Help SMEs & Start-Ups Grow With Our Payroll Services
To maintain a certain standard of service, roles and responsibilities must be passed to the right people in the business. The very last thing you need to be worrying about as a growing business is your payroll and employees’ wage slips. This is where Stonehouse Accountants in Peterborough can assist you. One of the most popular and obvious outsourcing options is payroll. Labour intensive, time-consuming, and attached to a raft of compliance obligations, payroll can quickly become a burden for even the most experienced administrator.
At Stonehouse Accountants, we deal with all HM Revenue and Customs routine PAYE payroll enquiries, inspections and PAYE audits on behalf of our clients, removing the unnecessary stress and strain from yourself as you can rest assured knowing everything is in the hands of payroll service experts. By providing such services for SMEs and start-up businesses, it allows us to remove the stress from your shoulders so you can focus more on establishing your business.
For more information, contact our accounting experts here or call us on 01733 265888.