There are lots of businesses out there that provide a service that some people do themselves, for example there’s some DIY jobs that some would attempt that others would get a tradesmen in for. Likewise, there are elements of the accounting process that people will do themselves, for example we just check the VAT within the books for some customers doing their own bookkeeping whereas we perform all bookkeeping requirements for others. However, the area we’re going to look at today is payroll. And it’s not just a sales pitch for our payroll offering!
Payroll doesn’t have to be confusing. Modern software can do all the calculations for you, perform the submissions, produce payslips and more. But things often don’t run to the book when it comes to payroll, with everyones individual circumstances influencing calculations along with over 70 different legislations. If your payroll software produces a net pay that is lower than your employee is expecting then they’ll definitely question it, but can you explain it?
One of the most helpful things I learnt during my payroll technician course was how to perform the calculations manually, not only does this mean I can calculate wages if there was ever a problem with our software, it also means that when queries come in, I can easily check how the software has got to the figures that it has, check they are correct (as even software does make mistakes!) and then be able to explain.
There is often manual changes to make too, COVID-19 provided lots of these as software manufacturers didn’t have time to make bespoke changes to be able to deal with the furlough payments, SSP being paid from day 1, etc, with payroll processors needing to use workarounds instead.
With so many statutory payments to consider, SMP, SSP, etc, (not to mention remembering what each acronym stands for!), attachment orders, student loans and more, there is a huge amount of underlying things to consider when processing the payroll – why have the stress?
So I know I said this wasn’t a sales pitch, but if you’re running your own payroll or considering it, why not get in touch to see how little it will cost to get rid of that stress!
