Sage Payroll Advice

[NEF]

Hello

I'm a small business with myself the director and my wife as a secretary. Is Sage payroll the best solution for paying my wife a wage ? Is it straight forward to use and does it automatically take payment from a business account ? Is the cloud solution a good option , there is no one else involved in the business.

A lot of questions sorry... any advice is appreciated..

 

[Scalloway]

I used Sage payroll a few years ago and didn't like it. After that I used Moneysoft Payroll Manager which had a much more transparent interface.

https://moneysoft.co.uk/payroll-manager-overview/

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Hello

I'm a small business with myself the director and my wife as a secretary. Is Sage payroll the best solution for paying my wife a wage ? Is it straight forward to use and does it automatically take payment from a business account ? Is the cloud solution a good option , there is no one else involved in the business.

A lot of questions sorry... any advice is appreciated..

I'm not a fan of Sage and as an accountant looking after small businesses I have very few clients who use Sage. You have lots of other options.

I personally use MoneySoft for payroll and that is very good. Highly recommended.

Another recommendation if you use FreeAgent (which is free if you bank with RBS, Natwest or Mettle) you get a very good simple payroll option included. I have a few clients using that who find it very good.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

If you use an accountant you may also find payroll is a service your accountant offers, that'll save you the hassle and cost of dealing with payroll.

 

[Newchodge]

I also use Moneysoft for my clients. I do not like Sage, it is over-complicated.

 

[johndon68]

I use SageOne Payroll (the cloud version) to pay one employee (me), I've just done mine for this month and it is literally 4 clicks of the mouse every month (assuming that the amounts haven't changed), it is a world away from their Sage's desktop Payroll software.

It doesn't automatically take payment from the bank account but I'm not aware of any payroll software that does...

John

 

[Newchodge]

I use SageOne Payroll (the cloud version) to pay one employee (me), I've just done mine for this month and it is literally 4 clicks of the mouse every month (assuming that the amounts haven't changed), it is a world away from their Sage's desktop Payroll software.

It doesn't automatically take payment from the bank account but I'm not aware of any payroll software that does...

John

Hi John

Is that all you use SageOne for, and if so, how much does it cost?

 

[johndon68]

Yes, I don't use their cloud accounts software, just payroll. Off the top of my head, I think it's £6 a month.

I appreciate that there are probably free alternatives out there as well but I've been using it for about 4 years now and it has worked, unlike a lot of Sage's stuff, flawlessly. The only issue I've ever had is that, initially, they didn't have an option to flag an employee as a director but that was added.

John

 

[NEF]

Yes, I don't use their cloud accounts software, just payroll. Off the top of my head, I think it's £6 a month.

I appreciate that there are probably free alternatives out there as well but I've been using it for about 4 years now and it has worked, unlike a lot of Sage's stuff, flawlessly. The only issue I've ever had is that, initially, they didn't have an option to flag an employee as a director but that was added.

John

I was looking at the Sage cloud option John , currently 6 month free then £7 ex vat a month for under 5 employees.... So you found it very easy ? How does it deal with the pension side of things and national insurance ? It would of been handy to automatically pay the employee from the software/bank but its no big deal if not..

 

[SJCM Accountancy]

Hello

I'm a small business with myself the director and my wife as a secretary. Is Sage payroll the best solution for paying my wife a wage ? Is it straight forward to use and does it automatically take payment from a business account ? Is the cloud solution a good option , there is no one else involved in the business.

A lot of questions sorry... any advice is appreciated..

Afternoon,
I use Sage online payroll to process on behalf of my clients and also have clients using it to process their own payroll. I've always been really happy with it, I have a lot of experience with using different payroll software's so have the backup knowledge to find my way around most solutions but Sage is by far one of the simplest to use hence me being happy to leave clients to it when they want to process their own, they find it simple to use, the price is reasonable but more importantly the support is fantastic if you do ever need it from Sage
Sam

 

[johndon68]

I was looking at the Sage cloud option John , currently 6 month free then £7 ex vat a month for under 5 employees.... So you found it very easy ? How does it deal with the pension side of things and national insurance ? It would of been handy to automatically pay the employee from the software/bank but its no big deal if not..

NI is handled with no problem, I'm flagged as a director and it handles the different calculation. It certainly handles pensions although I don't use that feature. I find it extremely easy to use, as I said 4 or 5 clicks a month (and that would be the same with 5 employees as long as the pay hasn't changed since the previous month) and the year end process took but a couple of minutes as well.

I'd recommend it but it is the only Payroll software I've ever used in anger.

Just for full transparency, I am a Sage Developer/Consultant and I did work for Sage for 9 years but all my Sage expertise is on the accounts side of things. I only know enough of the desktop version of Sage Payroll to say that the cloud version is a world away in terms of ease of use.

John

 

[NEF]

Thanks guys... so if I pay my wife who also has another job, it is awkward setting up the pension side of things, is a pension mandatory for everyone when setting up payroll or by law ?

 

[Scalloway]

It is mandatory to offer a pension but the employee has the option to opt out.

https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/about-pensions/pensions-basics/automatic-enrolment

 

[Newchodge]

Thanks guys... so if I pay my wife who also has another job, it is awkward setting up the pension side of things, is a pension mandatory for everyone when setting up payroll or by law ?

You must auto enrol her in a pension if she earns (or is projected to earn £10,000 pa. Once she has been enrolled she can opt out at every time. It is not enough to state that she opted out before enrolment.