Setting up payroll myself

[claret_n_Blue]

Hi all,

Am tempted to set up payroll myself as there is only me and one other person who will be on it.

I've done a bit of research and used the HMRC guide so I roughly know what it is that I need to do.

I was looking at free payroll software programmes but I'm a bit wary of signing up as I don't want to link my company to HMRC just yet. I was planning on messing around on it for a month or so, just to make sure I'm doing everything correctly, before we both start taking a wage.

What would be the best way to go about doing something like this?

 

[Newchodge]

HMRC Basic Tools are a bit of a nightmare, so I would avoid that if you can.

I believe that Brightpay is free for employers with fewer than 5 (or 3) employees, so it may be worth a look.

Payroll itself is quite straightforward if you uderstand the basics. But it can become a nightmare if something goes wrong. For example calculating holiday pay based on the last 12 weeks' average pay. Also you will have to come to grips with auto-enrolment at some stage.

I am curious as to how you can choose when your employee starts to take a wage. You can choose for yourself, obviously, but it may be awkward for your employee.

Edit: Sorry to answer your actual question, most payroll programmes have sample companies set up that you can play with without them being real.

I take it you are a limited company, as a sole trader does not take a PAYE wage from their company.

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Hi all,

Am tempted to set up payroll myself as there is only me and one other person who will be on it.

I've done a bit of research and used the HMRC guide so I roughly know what it is that I need to do.

I was looking at free payroll software programmes but I'm a bit wary of signing up as I don't want to link my company to HMRC just yet. I was planning on messing around on it for a month or so, just to make sure I'm doing everything correctly, before we both start taking a wage.

What would be the best way to go about doing something like this?

Buying good payroll software if you are going to DIY will save you time and hassle.

Moneysoft is extremely good and I say that as someone who has used it for many years.

 

[Newchodge]

Moneysoft is extremely good and I say that as someone who has used it for many years.

I agree about Moneysoft - I use it as well, but Birghtpay is also pretty good. My only gripe after a 3 month trial was that at the end of the free trial you could not download your data if you wanted to move to a different programme.

 

[UK Contractor Accountant]

https://www.gov.uk/payroll-software/free-software

Says IRIS Payroll software is free - news to me!

 

[KimH]

Bright Pay is fantastic and they have heaps of free webinars and training material available on their site as well. It's also free for up to 3 employees

 

[DontAsk]

HMRC Basic Tools are a bit of a nightmare, so I would avoid that if you can.

In what way? Works fine for me.

 

[Newchodge]

It's clunky, it doesn't produce payslips, which you must, by law, give to your staff, it is not intuitive and there are much better free options available. But if it works for you, then that makes it fine for you.

 

[ffox]

For a payroll of just two my vote goes the IR free software. Simple to install, simple to update, simple to run.
It takes less time to run the payroll every month/week than it does to make the tax/NHI payment to IR through online banking.
The only drawback is that it is a client software install. I always backup the data after every run, and store the backup in the cloud. The one time I had a computer failure I simply downloaded the software and installed on another machine, restored data from the backup and I was back up and running in no time.
If you're going to use free commercial software you should check what support you get before committing. On the two occasions I've had a query with the IR product, I've called the helpdesk and received good support from a live person and not a list of FAQs and figure it out for yourself.

 

[DontAsk]

It's clunky, it doesn't produce payslips, which you must, by law, give to your staff

It does for me. Unless you are saying there is some legal definition of what constitutes a payslip, which it falls short of.

 

[Newchodge]

Unless they have changed it in the last 6 months HMRC Basic Tools does not automaticallt produce something that you can give to the employee that shows their pay and deductions

 

[DontAsk]

You can export the submission to a csv file that shows exactly that information. It's been like that for at least 18 months.

 

[Newchodge]

But it doesn't do it automatically. You have to export to a file and then produce the payslip from the file.