Just starting Payroll... advice needed

[videoproductions]

Hi all,

I run a limited company and have jsut aquired the finance I need. I want to start my payroll - and have got the inland Revenue's New Employers Pack.

Anyway, I have been working from December so I want to backpay myself for December and January. Also, I will have a second employee from February.

Any one got any good advice for a Payroll virgin ?

Thanks,

Steve

[autolycus]

Steve,

There are a few options open to you:

1. Work out the net pay, tax due, NI, etc manually using the tax tables available from the Revenue.

2. See if whatever (if any) accounting software you are using has a payroll module that will generate payslips for you automatically.

3. Pay your accountant a bit extra to manage the payroll for you.

4. Outsource the job to a third party payroll service (try typing 'payroll service' into Google and you'll get stacks of these).

Assuming you are a new business, it would be sensible to take advice from an accountant on what level of salary to take, because you will probably want to take your income from the company as a mixture of salary and dividends. If you are talking to an accountant anyway, my advice would be to get them to do the payroll to begin with. You could always take it on yourself once you have a better understanding of how it works.

If you don't already have an accountant, try Alpha (UKBF member).

Dave.

[bwglaw]

Recommend you get a Book-keeper on board to assist with this. We pay £10/month per employee

[dcaccounting]

I have a online accounts and payroll system if you wanted to acquire any of my services :)

My advice would be to draw a monthly salary which is just above the personal allowance which is currently £4,745 but as of 6 April this will be £4,895 so I would recommend drawing a salary of around £425.00 pcm and draw any additional monies you need outside the PAYE scheme and let the accountant adjust this for dividends at year end.

Regards

Dean

[videoproductions]

I'll have to have a think about that.

What I'm worried about is back paying myself for December. Is that going to be a problem ?

[dcaccounting]

No it wont be a problem as long as what ever Tax, ees NI & ers NI is paid across to HMRC and is then later put on your P35.

Im assuming your are registered for PAYE???

Regards

Dean

[weddingcrafter]

Best advice I ever received from this forum was to get someone else to do my payroll.

I have 2 part-timers whose hours vary from week-to week, plus varying tax codes due to tax credits etc. Its a big relief to just fax off the hours and receive correct payslips 2 days later. :lol: And I know if (when) someone goes sick I can concentrate on covering their work and not working out SSP etc.......

[winton50]

Interesting to hear people's thoughts on outsourcing.

how much do you pay?

how does it work?

[ridders]

Interested to know how many people are outsourcing their payroll and also how much they are paying?

[KM-Tiger]

Any one got any good advice for a Payroll virgin ?
As others have said, don't try and do it yourself. It's too easy to make mistakes that are hard to rectify later.

That said, there is an advantage to doing it yourself, as I did for a few months in the very early days of my firm. Struggling through doing it yourself manually will teach you exactly how it works, and put you in a better position to understand what you are paying for if you outsource.

Good software makes a big difference, particularly when it comes to annual returns. I would highly recommend TASPayroll, like TASBooks it is *very* user-friendly.

[ridders]

Payroll Excel is now live if you want to have a look at www.payrollexcel.co.uk

Videoproductions - if you want to have a chat about your situation, please get in touch.

[KM-Tiger]

Payroll Excel is now live if you want to have a look at www.payrollexcel.co.uk
Looks interesting. A couple of comments:-

I'm not sure everyone will like the sounds produced by the navigation menu.

The employee search by surname requires an exact match to work and won't accept wildcards. Could be a problem if you have a lot of employees and can't remember the exact spelling.

There is a typo in the error message when no employees are found by the search.

HTH

[ridders]

Thanks for the comments.

Will look into it

[Pebble Communications]

Ooh yes I hate websites that blip and bleep at you. It makes you sound as though you are sitting at your desk playing Space Invaders!

[franbookkeeping&pay]

May I introduce my business, for payroll outsourcing?

We provide payroll services to businesses large and small - many of our clients have just one employee.

Our fees vary, depending on the no. of employees and pay frequency. The most anyone would pay is £2.00 + VAT per payslip. This would be for a 1 employee business, monthly paid.

Discounts are applicable for more employees and for weekly/2 weekly payrolls.

Please e-mail me for more information - fjaccountancyservices2002@yahoo.co.uk.

Fran, F & J Accountancy Services

[BMS]

Hi Steve

i did email you on you company email address but no reply.

I'd be happy to give you a quote.

PM me if you are interested

[videoproductions]

Sorry about that, my email hasnt been up to much for the past few weeks as we have just moved offices. Could you email me again ?

Thanks !