Payroll - Can this task be handled in house?

[Ecommerce&MailOrderGuy]

We've outsourced our payroll to an external accountant since we set up twenty years ago (ecommerce).
We have 25 employees.
Think we're a pretty 'standard' business apart from two sales-team members who get a sales commission on top of their salaries.
We have the usual variables - overtime, sickness pay, holidays.

I don't mind outsourcing - it's not a massive cost.
It's just I see information passing to and fro and frustrations happening at both ends.
It's also time critical as obviously salaries must be paid correctly - on-time, every time.

Sometimes I think it might be more straightforward if we handled this in-house with one staff member primarily responsible.
We already have two Accounts Bookeepers, one handles the daily admin and one helps with larger stuff such as VAT and financial year end.
When I have suggested bringing payroll in house the have recoiled and seem apprehensive.

I am the MD/Owner and this is my weakest field of expertise.
We run our accounts as part of our ERP package (nothing like Sage or anything in the building).

Should we change?
What kind of skills/training/software would we need if we were to handle this ourselves?

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Newchodge]

We've outsourced our payroll to an external accountant since we set up twenty years ago (ecommerce).
We have 25 employees.
Think we're a pretty 'standard' business apart from two sales-team members who get a sales commission on top of their salaries.
We have the usual variables - overtime, sickness pay, holidays.

I don't mind outsourcing - it's not a massive cost.
It's just I see information passing to and fro and frustrations happening at both ends.
It's also time critical as obviously salaries must be paid correctly - on-time, every time.

Sometimes I think it might be more straightforward if we handled this in-house with one staff member primarily responsible.
We already have two Accounts Bookeepers, one handles the daily admin and one helps with larger stuff such as VAT and financial year end.
When I have suggested bringing payroll in house the have recoiled and seem apprehensive.

I am the MD/Owner and this is my weakest field of expertise.
We run our accounts as part of our ERP package (nothing like Sage or anything in the building).

Should we change?
What kind of skills/training/software would we need if we were to handle this ourselves?

Thanks for any suggestions.

I need to declare an interest!

Payroll is simple, until it isn't. One of the problems can be that you are not aware that you have a problem until it is difficult to resolve. Many employers expect book-keeping staff to be able to 'just do payroll' as well.

You would need a software package. Moneysoft and Brightpay are both good and easy to run.
You need at least 2 members of staff (holidays, sickness etc) well enough trained to know what they are doing. I would suggest that you should also have at least basic training for management purposes and as a backstop in case of problems.

This is a reasonable course https://www.cipp.org.uk/course/payroll-technician-certificate.html
The cost is high Price: £1695.00 + VAT per person and it takes 25 weeks, obviously your staff will be unavailable to do their own jobs during that time. It is online so it is not 25 weeks of continuous study.

What issue do you actually have with your current provider? The system I use includes an online portal for the employer and employees to input variables so there is less chance of communication problems.

 

[The Byre]

I do not have a dog in this race, but one advantage of having payroll done by a professional HR person is that you can (in theory at least) ask daft questions about such issues as payroll taxes and contributions and the thorny issue of pension savings schemes.

And on that last one - having someone on tap that can answer pension questions will be growing in importance in the coming months as the thresholds for tax have been changed and more and more employees are asking to have any pay rises not as PAYE, but as additional pension contributions so as to avoid falling into a higher tax bracket.

Also, a pro HR person should be flagging up possible legal issues related to HR.

Yet another advantage of having it done by a pro is that the HR specialist will have a broader horizon as they will be dealing with all sorts of different types of companies and employees. An in-house person will only ever experience one set of circumstances.

 

[Newchodge]

I do not have a dog in this race, but one advantage of having payroll done by a professional HR person is that you can (in theory at least) ask daft questions about such issues as payroll taxes and contributions and the thorny issue of pension savings schemes.

And on that last one - having someone on tap that can answer pension questions will be growing in importance in the coming months as the thresholds for tax have been changed and more and more employees are asking to have any pay rises not as PAYE, but as additional pension contributions so as to avoid falling into a higher tax bracket.

Also, a pro HR person should be flagging up possible legal issues related to HR.

Yet another advantage of having it done by a pro is that the HR specialist will have a broader horizon as they will be dealing with all sorts of different types of companies and employees. An in-house person will only ever experience one set of circumstances.

I don't disagree, but not many HR people do payroll and not many payroll people know much about HR. There are some exceptions.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

We've outsourced our payroll to an external accountant since we set up twenty years ago (ecommerce).
We have 25 employees.
Think we're a pretty 'standard' business apart from two sales-team members who get a sales commission on top of their salaries.
We have the usual variables - overtime, sickness pay, holidays.

I don't mind outsourcing - it's not a massive cost.
It's just I see information passing to and fro and frustrations happening at both ends.
It's also time critical as obviously salaries must be paid correctly - on-time, every time.

Sometimes I think it might be more straightforward if we handled this in-house with one staff member primarily responsible.
We already have two Accounts Bookeepers, one handles the daily admin and one helps with larger stuff such as VAT and financial year end.
When I have suggested bringing payroll in house the have recoiled and seem apprehensive.

I am the MD/Owner and this is my weakest field of expertise.
We run our accounts as part of our ERP package (nothing like Sage or anything in the building).

Should we change?
What kind of skills/training/software would we need if we were to handle this ourselves?

Thanks for any suggestions.

I really wouldn't rely on having one dedicated staff member running your payroll - in my opinion you need atleast 2 people in your company who are competant and able to run the payroll.

Payroll isn't actually that straightforward.

I remember years ago being appointed Financial Controller of a large country estate only to be told on day one the lady running the payroll for over 100 staff was away on holiday for 2 weeks and as payroll was ''simple'' they thought I'd be fine to do it! Needless to say it didn't go well.