Payroll Case Histories
Choosing the right payroll services provider for your business is crucial. Don't be swayed by payroll service companies providing very cheap monthly rates. Often very low rates does not include access to secure website, leaver P45s, vital payroll reconciliations or submission of the annual returns and you risk getting an inferior service. You need to be cautious as Annual returns can be very costly particularly if you have a high staff turnover.Case Study 1 - Price
A previous enquirer started his new business in February
2005 and was quoted £30.00 per month for his payroll. He consequently
used his Accountants who quoted £12.00 per month so he thought it would only
cost £24.00 for that tax year. The enquirer contacted us again 2 months later in April after he ended up
paying £120+vat for his annual returns alone on top of his artificially low
monthly payroll fee. He ended up paying £144 plus vat for 2 months worth of
payroll services.
As a newly formed business, he was inexperienced in knowing from the outset, the right questions to ask. For all we know, this rate is probably being subsidised by his annual Accounts fee. We will never compete on price alone. Based on our online client survey, all our clients are with us based on service, reliability and are willing to pay a fair price for a quality service.
The majority of our clients have stayed with us for years due to our fair price policy. We recommend that you also read what our clients say about us.
------------
Case Study 2 - Continuity Of Service
One of our clients hired a new practice manager who brought the payroll back in house. It made perfect sense since she has always done the payrolls in the other practices she previously worked.
3 years later, the practice manager resigned and we were contacted by the senior GP Partner as they had no one to do their payroll. We sent them a list of requirements which he was able to easily print from their current system. We reconciled the year to-date balances, provided a full audit of their current payroll and notified them of the errors found. We even took over their current system of faxing the BACS summaries to their bank so that everyone got paid.
He did some costings of his own and found it was more cost effective to outsource to CompuPaye to the extent that they are currently using every single additional service we offer. They are even paying the additional postage so that the staff payslips goes directly to their home addresses as it worked out cheaper than distributing them to each employee onsite.
This has proved to be a good business decision as the current practice manager is off on maternity leave with nil effect to the payroll function.
------------
Another NHS client came to us through recommendation because the payroll administrator suddenly became seriously ill. The setup was seamless as we were able to use their current payroll backup data. The setup was done in an extremely tight time frame to ensure everyone got paid. We were able to talk through the process with the practice manager who was never involved with the payroll.
The monthly payrolls continued to run smoothly and both HMRC and pension annual returns were submitted at the end of the year. This was supposed to be a short term measure until the payroll administrator got better. Unfortunately, this did no happen so we are continuing with the payroll administration. This has proved so cost effective that they are never going to take it back in-house.
------------
We currently administer payroll for one of our a foreign clients. They used to do the payroll in-house but as they are not familiar with UK payroll legislation it has proved to be a good business decision to outsource the function to us many years ago. They have changed their accounts personnel 6 times since we have been processing their payroll. Luckily for them, the payroll function was unaffected as it had already been outsourced to us.We currently liaise with their administration department in 2 countries who see electronic versions of their payslips, reconciliations and reports in advance before the payroll is finalised.
Case Study 3 - Complexity
One of our current prestigious clients merged with a larger company back in April 2001 taking the payroll with them to their previous Accountants who provided the payroll services for the larger company before the merger. It made perfect sense at the time as the payroll supplier is a leading well known reputable Accountancy firm.
After a year, we met with the client to discuss their requirements. This client requires several excel spreadsheet with multiple reconciliations which they interface into their own HR system. As a small company with our own internal systems, we were able to tailor our systems to work in harmony with the clients HR systems. They returned to us in April 2002 because of the numerous payroll and excel errors.
When they changed their file interface employment ID records in April 2007, we were able to amend our system according without any additional cost to the client. We are still doing their payroll with 99.99% accuracy.
It follows that you should choose a company who's only business activity is providing payrolls services and nothing else.
------------
A new NHS client came to us as their payroll administrator left the practice. It is standard procedure for all new clients to be provided a full audit of their current payroll and pension. We do not charge any additional fees for this audit. Despite this client having excellent payroll records with all returns submitted on time, it transpired that a few employees were paying the wrong pension for years and one employee paid the wrong national insurance.
Naturally, we corrected these errors, refunded the employees overpaid pension and liaised with the relevant Pension and HMRC authorities to modify their systems so that these errors are picked up at the outset.
------------
One of our clients were underfunded by their PCT. There was a discrepancy between our Health Authority returns and what they physically got back.
We liaised with the PCT and was able to prove that they had based their funding on historical figures rather than actual up to-date figures. We eventually secured a refund running into thousands to pounds which has paid for our fees for the next 16 years.
Case Study 4 - Off Shoring
A recent new client came from a recommendation. Previously, if he had a payroll query, it now goes to Maritus. They were also being charged £120+vat for their annual returns so he took it upon himself to manually submit these online using the HMRC free software.
He has already seen some improvements since moving to us:
-
His monthly reports are now laser printed on A4 making it easier for him to read and file.
-
He has full use of the support area of our website 24/7 for any payroll query and he can pick up the phone to call us as we are based in the UK.
-
He can now rest assured that he is now free to concentrate on running his business leaving the payroll legislation to us.
-
He no longer has to use his valuable management time providing the payroll journal. He used to have to do wade through sheets of line listings each month.
-
He does not need to worry about submitting his annual returns to HMRC either.
------------
Case Study 5 - NHS Pension Legislation
Back in 2004, one of our current NHS clients changed their Accountants who said that they can also administer their payroll. It made perfect sense to have all the financial function processed by one company. Unfortunately, their new Accountants were not familiar with the complexity of the NHS Pension Scheme and they did not fancy the idea of preparing monthly and annual pension returns.
48 hrs later, the client (after speaking to their new Accountants) changed their mind and stayed with us.------------
A new NHS client were paying one of their doctors pension through the PCT without deducting it from the doctors salary. In addition, the employers NIC was paid to another doctor. They often wondered why they were always over budget! The practice manager said "....this is the best business decision I have made in 20 years.... " We have saved them thousands and recovered the deductions through the payroll.
------------
Another NHS client used a service provider who failed to submit any of their pension annual returns. The onus was left to the client which we undertook on their behalf.
------------
We have submitted NHS Pension returns from 1998 to-date for a new client who thought that cyclic updates were only for pension retirements or leavers. This was 9 years worth of returns involving extensive discussions with the Pension Agency.
------------
Whilst auditing another new NHS client, we found that hardly any of their staff were on the NHS Pension Agency's masterfile system despite monthly and annual returns being submitted. It transpired that alpha and numerical characters on the EA code were mixed up by their previous service provider leaving most of the pension joiners in a suspense account.
We submit the returns annually then arrange with the client to provide us with the file so that we can check that none are in suspense.
------------
For confidentially reasons and to comply with the Data Protection Act, we have omitted the client's names from these real life situations. We recommend that you also see what our clients say about us and look at our frequently asked questions.
Contact us for a more detailed quotation. Our price is tailored specifically on your requirements and the service level agreements.
This page was last updated 23/04/2009
