May 2022

24

Streamline your business' annual leave management

Managing employees’ annual leave can be a stressful process. For you as the employer, having email or even paper requests sent from multiple locations can be frustrating, especially during busy holiday periods. Likewise, employees having their leave rejected because of double bookings or mismanagement can sometimes sour working relationships. An inefficient annual leave system can also make managing and tracking payroll to become more difficult.

Having a system in place that can automate these tedious aspects of annual leave management can improve your working relationships with employees, as well as increasing their job satisfaction levels.

 

Move your employees’ annual leave to a secure online portal

It’s time for your employees to say goodbye to printed letters, excel spreadsheets and long email threads to book annual leave. While these more traditional methods can be still used, they’re becoming less and less reliable, and there are more effective alternatives to take their place.

Moving annual leave management to a secure online portal offers many benefits for your business, including:

  • Saving time chasing annual leave requests
  • Reducing stress with a more automated system in place
  • Eliminating errors that can occur from more traditional methods
  • Increasing employee satisfaction by reducing mismanagement
  • Creates a fair system where all requests are timestamped, so staff can be accepted on a first come, first served basis
  • Reducing admin workload from rectifying mistakes and retrieving lost emails
  • Promoting environmental sustainability by turning annual leave into a completely paperless process

Using BrightPay’s cloud extension, BrightPay Connect, automates the entire annual leave process for you. Our employee self-service app allows staff to request annual leave through an easy-to-use calendar format on their smartphone or tablet device, where you will then receive a notification on your own employer dashboard. From here, you can view the company calendar through the same and choose to either approve or reject employees’ requests. Managing annual leave has never been so easy!

 

Our cloud extension comes with a host of other benefits to increase your service offering, such as:

  • Client payroll approval feature that gives your clients more control over their payroll by allowing them to make any necessary changes and approve the payroll before it is finalised and before payslips are distributed.
  • Automatic cloud backups of your payroll data that ensure your clients’ data is safe and secure at all times. This also aligns with GDPR best practices.
  • Remote working support by notifying you when someone else has worked on an employer’s file from a different computer, and if they are still working on that file.
  • Bureau branding giving clients a more personal touch to your services, enhancing work relationships.

 

Interested learning more about BrightPay Connect? Sign up for a free 15-minute demo. Interested in staying up to date on all the latest payroll trends and legislative changes? Sign up to our newsletter below for weekly emails so you can stay in the loop.

 

Posted byEleanor Mc GuinnessinAnnual Leave


May 2022

23

Start preparing now for this year’s P60 deadline

It’s hard to believe it’s that time of the year again, to start preparing your P60s, where did the time go? With the new tax year well underway and payroll processors settled back into their routines, it can be easy for to forget about upcoming HMRC deadlines. Luckily, we’re here to keep you informed with all the latest up-to-date payroll news and legislative updates. The next upcoming due date is the P60 deadline, on May 31st.

By May 31st, all employees who were working for you on the last day of the tax year (April 5th, 2022) must receive a copy of their P60. Failure to provide employees with their P60s by this deadline can result in costly fines from HMRC, that can build up quite quickly. However, accidents happen and if you can provide proof of a genuine mistake, the likelihood of receiving a fine is lessened. Fines start out at £300 , with an added £60 per day penalty thereafter.

This is why we strongly advise to start preparing now for this year’s P60 deadline, to avoid the possibility of any fines cropping up in the coming weeks.

How do I start preparing for P60s now?

Preparing P60s can seem daunting at first, and depending on what payroll software provider you use, it can be either a tedious process or one that is automated, requiring minimal work. If you’re using BrightPay Payroll Software, we’ve made the process of preparing and sharing P60s as smooth as possible for you. In the payroll software, the P60 option is located within the “Employees” tab. From there, you can generate the P60 of individual employees, or you can generate P60s for multiple employees at once.

Once the P60s have been created, you can email the files to your employees, directly from the payroll software. You also have the option to print or export the documents in PDF format. If you use our cloud extension, BrightPay Connect, once generated, your employees will automatically be able to access their P60s from the online employee portal or through the employee app on their smartphone.

 

Streamline P60 distribution with cloud technology

By using our cloud extension, you don’t have to worry about your employees misplacing their P60s. All employees’ P60s are stored conveniently in one location, on the employee self-service app. From here, your staff can view, print and download their P60s, as well as their payslips and any other important payroll or HR documents.

If you’re still distributing physical documents to employees, there’s a chance that these documents could fall into the wrong hands. Likewise, if you accidentally send these files to the wrong email address, there’s a possibility of unauthorised persons viewing employees’ sensitive personal and financial information.

Having your employees’ documents stored in the cloud, accessible from one central location, improves the safety of your employees’ data. It also reduces your administrative workload and saves your business time.

 

How can I stay up-to-date on future HMRC deadlines?

To make thinks easier for employers, we’ve created a list that summarises all of the key dates for the 2022/23 tax year. For the latest payroll news and legislative updates, sign up to our weekly newsletter to stay in the loop.

Did you know that by the 6th of July 2022, you must report any employee expenses and benefits for the 2021/22 tax year? For further information on this, please read here.

Interested in using BrightPay? We are a fully compliant HMRC payroll software with both the credibility and reputation behind us. Why not take a look at our 5-star ratings on Trustpilot or book a free 15-minute demo of our award-winning payroll software.

 

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Posted byEleanor Mc GuinnessinHMRC


May 2022

20

2022/23 student loan plans and repayment thresholds

There was an increase to the thresholds for student loan repayments for the 2022/23 tax year. When an employee’s annual income is above the repayment threshold, they will have to repay their student loan. An employee’s repayment threshold will depend on when and where they went to university and from which country they received their loan.

The amount an employee can earn before they will need to start paying a percentage of their income towards their student loan will depend on which loan plan they fall under. Loan plans include plans 1, 2, 4 and postgraduate.

 

To work out which plan an employee should be on, please reference our charts below:

English Students

Where the course was attended When the course was started Undergraduate/Postgraduate Loan plan
Anywhere in the UK Before 1st September 2012 Undergraduate 1
Anywhere in the UK On or after 1st September 2012 Undergraduate 2

 

Welsh Students

Where the course was attended When the course was started Undergraduate/Postgraduate Loan plan
Anywhere in the UK Before 1st September 2012 Undergraduate 1
Anywhere in the UK On or after 1st September 2012 Undergraduate 2

 

Scottish Students

Where the course was attended When the course was stared Undergraduate/Postgraduate Loan plan
Anywhere in the UK On or after 1st September 1998 Undergraduate or postgraduate 4

 

Northern Ireland Students

Where the course was attended When the course was stared Undergraduate/Postgraduate Loan plan
Anywhere in the UK On or after 1st September 1998 Undergraduate or postgraduate 1

 

EU Students

Where the course was attended When the course was stared Undergraduate/Postgraduate Loan plan
England or Wales On or after 1st September 1998, but before 1st September 2012 Undergraduate 4
England or Wales On or after 1st September 2012 Undergraduate 2
Scotland On or after 1st September 1998 Undergraduate or postgraduate 4
Northern Ireland On or after 1st September 1998 Undergraduate or postgraduate 1

 

Postgraduate Loan

For English or Welsh students, they are on a Postgraduate Loan repayment plan if they:

  • Took out a Postgraduate Master’s Loan on or after 1st August 2016

Or

  • Took out a Postgraduate Doctoral Loan on or after 1st August 2018.

For EU students, they are on a Postgraduate Loan repayment plan if they started a postgraduate course on or after 1st August 2016.

 

Student loan repayment threshold increases from April 2022

Loan Plan 2021/22 2022/23
Loan plan 1 £19,895 £20,195
Loan plan 2 £27,295 £27,295
Loan plan 4 £25,000 £25,375
Postgraduate loans £21,000 £21,000

 

Figures from Gov.uk.

 

Related articles:

Posted byElaine CarrollinHMRC


May 2022

12

3 ways to boost job satisfaction in your workplace

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, many employees have shifted their outlook in relation to the workplace. The option for remote working has given employees a greater work-life balance and employees have proven that flexibility in the workplace doesn’t need to hamper productivity. In the UK, all employees have the legal right to request flexible working, but they must have worked for the same employer for at least 26 weeks to be eligible. Employers must deal with requests in a reasonable manner by assessing the advantages and disadvantages of the application and discussing the request with the employee. If they refuse the request, employers should offer an appeal process.

3 ways to improve job satisfaction

1. Flexible working days

According to a report by the Office for National Statistics, 46% of remote workers said they spent less money as a result of remote working. In another report by Culture Shift, 54% of employees said that remote working has had a positive impact on their work-life balance, showing that remote working can have a positive effect. Thanks to having a healthier work-life balance, saving money and spending less time commuting, remote working can improve mental health as it gives your employees the option to work when and where suits them.

One difficulty employer’s may face when their employees are working remotely is managing annual leave. When employees are working different hours and from various locations, it can be difficult to implement a process that is fair and accessible to all. BrightPay Payroll Software’s cloud-extension, BrightPay Connect, allows your employees to book annual leave with ease through the employee self-service portal, at any time and from anywhere. Employees can simply book annual leave within a few clicks online or through the employee app on their smartphone, meaning they won't have to wait until they return to the office to request annual leave.

2. Training and Investment

Investing in your employees to boost their career is vital. Training or upskilling in your workplace will not only help boost employee satisfaction, but it also helps you as you will have employees with additional skill sets, who can help to grow your business.

Training staff to use HR software will allow you to delegate responsibilities amongst the team. An example of this could be training staff to use BrightPay Connect, an online payroll and HR platform. A great way to use the online platform is to allow managers from different departments to manage annual leave requests. This means less back and forth as they are the ones who will know the needs of the team best. Delegating this task using BrightPay Connect means annual leave requests can be dealt with quickly, keeping your employees happy. It also means the responsibility of dealing with requests is not all on one person.

3. Easy access to important details

As an employer, it can be a time-consuming task to keep all of your employees' details up-to date. If an employee moves house, changes their mobile number or wants to update their emergency contact, it can take time to update this information in the system. You may also have to deal with employee requests for past payslips when applying for a mortgage for example. Searching for and printing off payslips can be a tedious task that delays you from taking care of other important duties.

BrightPay’s cloud-extension, BrightPay Connect takes away the headache of manually searching for payslips and updating employee information. BrightPay Connect offers a seamless way for your employees to update their details via the BrightPay Connect employee self-service app, through an internet browser or their smartphone. In addition, you can send payslips each pay period from the payroll software, directly to BrightPay Connect.

Implementing these changes in the workplace can improve employee satisfaction and boost morale within your business. In remote environments, it is important to keep on top of employee well-being and offer as much support to them as you can. Why not book a free 20 minute demo on how BrightPay Connect can help support you and your employees today.

Related articles

Posted byRoss GrahaminEmployee Self Service


May 2022

5

Direct payment platforms – taking your bureau to the next level

 Paying employees and making payments to HMRC, each pay period can be a timely task for bureaus. Not only from an admin point of view, but also the time it takes to manually create bank files, rectify any errors that crop up, and ensuring that payments land in employees’ bank accounts on time. It’s a lot to juggle on top of everything else on your to-do list.

Imagine if there was a sophisticated system that integrated with your payroll software. A system that allowed you to pay employees, subcontractors and HMRC easily and smoothly, eliminated manually uploading bank files, and improved the security and time-efficiency of your payments…

Modulr, a direct payments platform, is integrated with BrightPay Payroll Software and can do all of the above for you. Modulr completely streamlines the entire payment process of your payroll workflow, leaving you with more time to attend to other business matters. Here are three key ways that BrightPay’s integration with Modulr can take your bureau to the next level.

 

Pay employees in just 90 seconds

Modulr allows you to pay employees in just 90 seconds from within the payroll software. It’s an all-in-one seamlessly integrated payments system. The integration can save you time by removing the need to double and triple-check that all pay amounts are correct, as this information flows directly from the payroll software.

Modulr allows you to schedule payments in advance and you can make any last-minute changes to clients’ employees’ payments if needs be, on any day of the week. This gives you much greater flexibility when making payments, in comparison to more traditional payment methods.

 

Increases your payments’ security and reduce errors

Modulr provides added layers of protection for payments through a range of security features. Their partnership with the authenticator app, Authy, is an optional feature that provides two-factor authentication when logging in. Two-factor authentication means that there are two forms of identification required when logging in. These can include a code that is sent to your phone number or email address, or can include biometrics such as a fingerprint. This ensures that only authorised users can approve payments within the client’s company. If the client would rather that you authorise the payments for them, this can be done also. Once the payments have been approved, they will be sent straight to employees’ bank accounts within 90 seconds or at the scheduled time. Modulr’s network is also fully encrypted, protecting your payments from any potential cyber-hacks or ransomware.

Having a direct payments system in place eliminates the likelihood of any data input errors and uploading issues to occur, saving you time rectifying any payment submission problems should they arise. This gives you peace of mind, knowing that your clients’ employees will be paid on time, every time.

 

Direct payments to HMRC

BrightPay is a fully HMRC complaint payroll software. This integration with Modulr automates most of the workload involved in submitting HMRC payments. No longer do you have to export and upload files from multiple locations – it can all be done from one centralised location – within your payroll software. Your HMRC payments will also be sent and received by HMRC in just 90 seconds.

 

Want to learn more?

To discover more about BrightPay’s integration with Modulr, please read our webpage on the topic.

Interested in learning more about BrightPay? Sign up for a free 15-minute demo today. We are one of the leading providers of payroll software for accountants in the UK, are a fully HMRC complaint payroll software and have a 5-star rating on Trustpilot.

Posted byEleanor Mc GuinnessinPay/Wage


May 2022

5

Customer Update: May 2022

Welcome to BrightPay's May update. Our most important news this month include:


Broaden your service offering like never before (webinars for bureaus) 

In our webinars, our experts reveal the power of cloud technology in 2022 and how it can broaden your service offering to clients while making a profit.

Join our upcoming webinar on the 17th May at 11.00 am where we will discuss how cloud technology and automation is transforming payroll services for the better. Watch-back our webinar that took place this week on top tips for expanding your client base and what pricing strategies work.

Register for webinar Watch on demand


Streamline your payroll workflow like never before (webinars for employers) 

In our upcoming webinars, our experts will reveal the power of cloud technology in 2022 and how it can streamline your payroll workflow.

  • 12th May: Find out the benefits of integrating your payroll and accounting software while we demonstrate how you can streamline the entire process from start to finish.
  • Join our upcoming webinar on the 17th May at 2.00 pm where we will discuss how cloud technology and automation is transforming payroll for the better.

Register for 12th May webinar Register for 17th May webinar


How client platforms automate annual leave

BrightPay Connect’s online annual leave tools completely eliminate manual people management tasks. Download our free guide to unlock the power of automation including a ready-to-go, easy-to-use HR software solution for you, your clients, and their employees. 

Get your free copy

Meet us at Accountex 11th-12th May 

If you’re attending Accountex this year, visit us at stand 320. We’re looking forward to meeting all of you there and providing you with insights on how to take your bureau to the next level with BrightPay Connect.


The 22/23 tax year: Key dates for employers

31st May P60 deadline: You must give any employees who were on your payroll on the last day of the previous tax year (5th April) a copy of their P60 by the 31st of May.


Impress employees with an employee self-service app 

Improve employee satisfaction and workplace communications with an employee self-service app. The benefits?

  • A payslip hub where employees can access their entire payslip history, at the tap of a button.
  • Employees can update their personal details, automatically syncing with the payroll software.
  • Employees can request annual leave through the in-app company calendar.
Book a BrightPay Connect demo

Considering practice management software? 

Discover 7 webinar takeaways from the UK’s leading onboarding and practice management software. AccountancyManager is used by over 6,000 accountants and bookkeepers daily. Find out what super-users Aaron and Rachel had to say on the webinar!

Posted byHolly McHughinCustomer Update


Apr 2022

26

Take the hassle out of Automatic Enrolment

Whether you have one or 10,000 employees, automatic enrolment is a legal requirement for all UK employers. Automatic enrolment was brought in to make it easier for people to save for their retirement, by bringing pension schemes into the workplace.

Although this is great for employees, it has added to employers’ workloads, as they’re required to handle auto enrolment duties on top of everything else already on their to-do list.

 

Does automatic enrolment affect payroll?

Automatic enrolment does affect payroll, and has become an extension of the payroll process. The Pensions Regulator encourages businesses to use payroll software that can handle auto- enrolment duties. Such duties include:

  • Setting up a pension scheme
  • Enrolling eligible employees into the pension scheme
  • Deducting pension contributions from employees’ pay
  • Auto enrolment letters
  • Declaration of compliance
  • Re-enrolment every 3 years

 

What features do I need in my payroll software?

The payroll software you choose can either make or break the auto-enrolment part of your payroll process. Whichever software you pick, it should at least complete employee assessments for you for each pay period.

BrightPay includes full auto-enrolment functionality at no extra cost in all of our licences. This includes an array of features that simplify the automatic enrolment process, including:

  • Automatic employee eligibility assessment and notifications to let you know when an employee should be enrolled
  • Enrolment functionality (including the ability to enrol multiple employees at once)
  • Personalised automatic enrolment letters are automatically generated
  • Postponement and opt out options
  • Integration with leading pension providers
  • Notifications to let you know when an employee should be re-enrolled

 

How does re-enrolment work?

Re-enrolment is required for certain staff members every three years. It is simply enrolling employees back into an auto-enrolment pension scheme, if they’ve opted out. To apply for re-enrolment, you must complete a re-declaration of compliance with The Pensions Regulator. This is to make sure you’ve completed your mandatory re-enrolment duties.

To do this, you must first choose a re-enrolment date. Next, you must assess your staff to find out which employees need to be re-enrolled. After that, you are then required to put those employees back into a pension scheme within 6 weeks of the re-enrolment date.

Once this is setup, your employees must be sent a letter, letting them know that they are re-enrolled into an auto enrolment pension scheme. You are then required to submit a re-declaration of compliance, which applies even if you don’t have any staff. Further details of re-enrolment requirements and processes can be found here.

BrightPay simplifies the re-enrolment process for you by notifying you of when an employee should be re-enrolled, allowing you to re-enrol them within the software and automatically generating a re-enrolment letter for each employee.

 

Which pension providers is BrightPay integrated with?

BrightPay is integrated with a number of pension providers, allowing you to submit pension data directly within BrightPay. These include:

  • Aviva
  • NEST
  • The People’s Pension
  • Smart Pension

We are also compatible with a number of other pension schemes for upload via CSV files. Click here to view a full list of pension providers.

 

How BrightPay can make auto enrolment easy

As mentioned above, BrightPay provides full auto-enrolment functionality at no extra cost. Once your duties start date has been entered into BrightPay, you will receive notifications on-screen from that point onwards of any auto- enrolment duties you need to take care of.

Once the duties start date is reached and you’ve set up your pension scheme provider, BrightPay assesses all of your employees automatically, and will keep an eye on any changes to their work status for each pay period.

BrightPay also automatically generates and prepares enrolment letters that can be emailed or exported as PDFs and are personalised for each employee. If you need to enrol any new employees, this is easily done in BrightPay too.

We have a range of online resources to support you around auto- enrolment, including video tutorials and support documents, covering a whole range of automatic enrolment topics.

 

"BrightPay is an excellent payroll program. What stands out for me is how it takes care of Auto Enrolment automatically, which is even more of a godsend now re-enrolment dates are coming up. Slick modern interface too makes it a dream to use."

- Craig Thornton , CST Accountancy Services Ltd

 

Take the hassle out of automatic enrolment today – learn how BrightPay can help streamline your entire payroll process, so you can tend to more important matters of your business. Book a free 15-minute demo today.

 

Posted byEleanor Mc GuinnessinAuto Enrolment


Apr 2022

22

When did you last back-up your payroll data?

Backing up your payroll data is a crucial step in the payroll process to ensure the safety and security of your clients’ data and the data of their employees.

Whether you back up your payroll data daily, weekly or monthly – manually backing up your clients’ payroll data can be another dreaded monotonous task on your never-ending to-do-list.

Not only that, but by not backing up your payroll data, it can leave your clients’ in quite a vulnerable position. What happens if you spill coffee all over your keyboard, or get a virus on your laptop? This could result in weeks, months, or maybe even years of payroll data gone before your eyes.

What can be done to prevent this?

That’s where automatic backups come in. Automatic backups do all the work so you don’t have to, by storing your payroll data on the cloud. This not only saves you time, but also gives you peace of mind. See it as insurance for your payroll data, providing a secure safety net should a crisis occur, allowing you time to focus on other tasks at hand.

There are many other perks to automatically backing up your payroll data too, such as GDPR. Having your clients’ and their employees’ data stored in a secure and remote location improves your GDPR compliance.

What do we recommend?

BrightPay Connect is the cloud extension to one of the UK’s leading payroll software providers, BrightPay.

BrightPay Connect automatically backs up your payroll data every 15 minutes securely to Microsoft Azure data stores. This is fully encrypted and tested regularly to ensure its safety, security and resilience. It also stores chronological backups of data, so you can restore your payroll data from anywhere, at any time.

That’s not all, BrightPay Connect provides many other features, such as a bureau dashboard, a client self-service portal, client payroll entry and payroll approval request functionality. This reduces your admin workload, while also improving your client engagement across the board.

You can also personalise your BrightPay Connect account by adding your own company logo, name and contact details, which will be visible to clients while they access the software. Watch this quick two-minute video on how BrightPay Connect can work for your accounting firm.

Check out how this user found peace of mind after signing up to BrightPay Connect:

“After using other payroll packages for several years, I was highly delighted when I discovered BrightPay. It was the easiest, fastest and operator friendly software I had ever used. The reports are very comprehensive and emailing payslips and reports to clients and employees is so easy. The time I save per payroll is great and the affordability of the package and the different scales make this the package to choose.”

- Irene Hopkinson, Westmill Accountancy

It’s time to take your clients’ payroll data security seriously, book a demo with BrightPay Connect today and never worry about losing your payroll data again!

Posted byEleanor Mc GuinnessinBrightPay Connect


Apr 2022

11

The 22/23 tax year: Key dates for employers

The 2022/23 UK tax year begins on 6th of April, 2022. For employers, there are a range of need-to-know dates and important deadlines you must be remember each year to ensure you stay compliant, and avoid any penalties from HMRC.

To make things easy for you, below, we have compiled a list of payroll and self-assessment tax return deadlines for employers and the self-employed. 

Payroll dates and deadlines

6th April

As the new tax year begins, with it brings a number of changes. Follow the links to read about important changes for the 2022/23 tax year such as the new National Insurance Levy and new NLM and NMW rates.

 

19th April

You have until the 19th of April to submit your Employer Payment Summary (EPS) for the previous tax year to inform HMRC that you have completed your final submission for the year.

 

31st May

You must give any employees who were on your payroll on the last day of the previous tax year (5th April) a copy of their P60 by the 31st of May.

 

6th July

For each employee you provided with expenses and benefits for the previous tax year, you must submit your P11D forms online to HMRC and give your employees a copy of the information on your forms, by the 6th of July. By this date you must also submit a P11D(b) form to HMRC to declare the total amount of Class 1A NICs you owe on expenses and benefits provided for the year.

 

19th July

If paying by cheque, any Class 1A National Insurance owed on expenses or benefits for the previous tax year must reach HMRC by the 19th of July.

 

22nd July

If paying electronically, any Class 1A National Insurance owed on expenses or benefits for the previous tax year must reach HMRC by the 22nd of July.

 

19th October

If you have a PAYE Settlement Agreement, you must pay all tax and Class 1B National Insurance owed by the 19th of October, if paying by cheque.

 

22nd October

If you have a PAYE Settlement Agreement, you must pay all tax and Class 1B National Insurance owed by the 19th of October, if paying electronically.

 

5th April 2023

The last day of the tax year is the 5th of April and your final Full Payment Submission (FPS) should be made on or before the final pay day of the tax year.

If you choose to payroll your employees’ benefits for the 2023/24 tax year, you must register online on or before 5‌‌‌th ‌April‌‌‌ ‌2023.

 

Self Assessment tax return deadlines

31st July

Your second payment on account for the current tax year must be paid by the 31st of July.

 

5th October

If you’re self-employed or a sole trader, not self-employed, or registering a partner or partnership you must register for Self Assessment by the 5th of October.

 

31st October

Paper Self-Assessment Tax Returns must be received by HMRC by the 31st of October.

 

30th December

Deadline for Online Self Assessment Tax Return if you are eligible and want it collected through next year’s PAYE tax code.

 

31 January 2023

Online Self-Assessment Tax Returns must be received by HMRC by the 31st of January.

Pay any tax you owe for the previous tax year and your first payment on account towards your bill for the next tax year.

 

To switch to BrightPay before the new tax year, book a free consultation with one of our migration specialists today. Or, to see the software in action, book a free online demo today.

 

Related articles:

 

Posted byElaine CarrollinNews


Apr 2022

6

6 payroll mistakes (and how to avoid them)

Payroll is an essential aspect of any business and one which is important to get right. Whether you are running payroll for the first time as a new business or if you have decided to begin to run your payroll in-house, having previously outsourced to a payroll bureau; here are six mistakes to watch out for when processing payroll.

 

1. Not complying with HMRC

When you run payroll, you need to report payroll information to HMRC. You may be charged penalties if you do not report the correct information to HMRC or if you do not submit the information on time. It is necessary that you use a HMRC recognised software that can report PAYE information online and in real time, known as RTI. Using a HMRC recognised software is needed for:

  • Recording your employees’ details.
  • Working out your employees’ pay and deductions.
  • Working out any statutory pay your employees’ may be entitled to.
  • Working out how much you owe to HMRC.

 

2. Not complying with GDPR

When processing payroll, you are dealing with a lot of personal information. Using a GDPR compliant payroll software means you and your employees can rest assured that all personal data is stored and managed in a safe and secure manner.

 

3. Not complying with automatic enrolment

It is a legal requirement for employers to enrol eligible employees into a workplace pension scheme which both the employer and the employee will contribute to. There are certain auto enrolment duties that employers must carry out in order to be fully compliant. Some of these duties are once off actions and others are ongoing duties which involves monitoring changes in your employees age and earnings. Every three years, employers must carry out the re-enrolment of any staff who may have left the scheme.

 

4. Not backing up payroll data

When running payroll, it is highly recommended that you always keep a backup of all payroll data. It is also advised that this back up is saved somewhere other than on the hard drive of the computer you use to process payroll. Using a cloud platform or an external device to back up data is the safest option to ensure you never lose valuable information, should something happen to your computer.

 

5. Having inexperienced or untrained staff run payroll

While using the right software has made processing payroll easier than ever before, it is still not something that should be assumed is easy and straightforward to do. When staff running payroll are inexperienced or untrained, you are leaving your business open to problems like employees being paid the wrong amounts, penalties for non-compliance, time wasted correcting errors and overall damaging your reputation as a business. It is also important staff keep up to date and informed with any changing HMRC legislation or employee entitlements.

 

6. Inefficiency and human error

Your efficiency when running payroll will depend greatly on the level of automation used. Automation cuts down on the repetition of uncomplicated tasks. Automation not only saves your business time and money by allowing you to process payroll quicker, it also does so by reducing the possibility of human error. A payroll software must be used to automate payroll processes.

 

Solution:

You have two options when it comes to ensuring none of these mistakes are made by your business when processing payroll.

Option One: Outsource your payroll to a professional.

Option Two: Choose a payroll software that ensures all these mistakes are easily avoided.

 

While outsourcing your payroll duties to a professional might seem like the simplest option, it may not be the most cost effective one. You can save money while having the same peace of mind that your payroll is correct by running your payroll in-house with the right payroll software.

BrightPay is a multi-award-winning payroll software that automates payroll processing. The software is constantly performing tasks in the background, which helps streamline your payroll workflows. BrightPay’s integration with HMRC, accounting packages and pension providers automates payroll tasks while also ensuring that you can easily stay compliant.

BrightPay will automatically assess new employees for auto enrolment each pay period and inform you of which employees need to be enrolled. Our software will then continue to monitor staff and inform you of any changes in eligibility, giving you peace of mind that all your auto enrolment duties are taken care of. BrightPay even automatically prepares customised letters which employees must receive, informing them of their auto enrolment rights.

When it comes to the General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR), BrightPay Connect, our cloud extension, helps you stay compliant by offering a secure online portal for employers to share payslips with their employees as well as other HR documents. Our newest feature, two-factor authentication, adds a second layer of security for employers logging into BrightPay Connect. A security code will be sent to the user via email or text which needs to be entered to log in to the employer dashboard, lowering the risk of data breaches.

While there will be a learning curve with any new software, BrightPay’s user friendly interface and intuitive design makes that learning curve a lot less steep. BrightPay’s website has a comprehensive library of support documentation that takes you step by step through payroll processes. If you cannot find the answer you are looking for, BrightPay’s support team can be reached by phone or email; offering BrightPay customers free help and guidance when they need it.

Other useful resources that can be found on our website are our guides and ebooks, video tutorials, blogs and webinars. Previous webinars can be watched on demand from our website. We also host weekly live webinars which anyone can join for free.

Why not book a free demo today and discover how BrightPay can help you avoid payroll mistakes and make processing payroll a breeze.

Posted byElaine CarrollinPayrollPayroll Software