Payroll Business Services – A Guide to Outsourcing Your Payroll

Bond Payroll Services offers a full range of payroll business services including payroll bureau and managed payroll, for SME's, large corporate organisations, recruitment companies and charities. In this guide we aim to show you how payroll outsourcing works in 5 simple steps.

Payroll Business Services - Payroll Outsourcing Guide

Payroll Business Services – for more information on how Bond's payroll services can benefit your organisation, please contact us for a review of your payroll.

Step 1: Choose Between Bureau Service or Managed Payroll

The first step is to decide how much of your payroll function you want to outsource. This will depend on how much staff and expertise you currently have in-house and how much you want to keep. It will also depend on how much direct control and visibility you want to maintain.

A managed payroll service involves outsourcing every aspect of your payroll to a third party, including data entry and running reports. This means that apart from collecting payroll data internally and passing it to your payroll business services provider, you have nothing else to do. This solution is especially suitable for a company that cannot or does not wish to employ staff to administer its payroll or maintain in-house expertise regarding pay, taxation and related issues. A fully managed solution will tend to cost more than a bureau solution – but this is usually offset by savings in personnel and other software costs.

By contrast, a payroll bureau service involves outsourcing the processing part of the payroll function, while keeping data entry and reporting in-house. This means that your staff will enter payroll data directly into the payroll business services provider software and run reports themselves as needed. The provider then arranges for the data to be processed and payslips produced. This solution is suitable for a company that is happy to keep the data entry function in-house but who want to benefit from the specialist software and processing facilities provided by the payroll bureau. A bureau solution will tend to cost less than a fully managed solution, although the client continues to bear the cost of data entry.

At Bond Payroll Services we understand that outsourcing your payroll, whether fully managed or bureau, is a large step to take and requires proper consideration of your company’s overall circumstances. We will be happy to talk with you to help you decide which service would be most appropriate for you. Contact us now for a review of your payroll.

Step 2: Choose a Payroll Business Services Company

Once you are clear that outsourcing your payroll will be beneficial to you, your next step is to choose a payroll business services company who can deliver the service you need. Here’s our list of what to look for when making your choice:

Track record and proven expertise – You want a provider who is already successfully managing the payrolls of a large number of companies of all sizes. This gives you the assurance that the company has the resources to accommodate your needs and the practical expertise to deliver. Bond is payroll provider to many corporations, SME’s and non-profit organisations and has a large team of payroll professionals on its permanent staff, the majority of whom hold IPP diplomas.

Latest technology – Look for a provider whose technology can easily cater for all the quirks and exceptions within your current payroll and which is up to date with current pay and tax legislation. Bond Payroll Services perform a requirements capture at the set up stage and then build a database tailored to your company’s needs. We use Payrite software which is feature-rich and is continually updated with all new pay and tax changes.

Compliance – Your provider needs to be BACS approved and HMRC accredited. Since they are going to be moving large amounts of money around on your behalf, as well as submitting figures to the revenue which your company will be liable for, you need to be absolutely sure that they have the necessary processes and procedures in place to ensure security and accuracy. Bond Payroll Services are BACS and HMRC approved.

Training and support – You want a provider who can give you specialist training (if using a bureau service) and offer constant support as standard. Bond delivers its own training to your staff using our own payroll consultants, and then provides you with a dedicated Payroll Manager who is available at any time to discuss queries or deal with problems. Our aim is to work with clients as partners, working continuously to adapt to the changing needs of your business – we can only do this by staying closely in touch with our clients.

Step 3: Define Your Payroll Requirements

As part of the set up stage, Bond Payroll Services will work with you to define all the elements which need to be included in your payroll.

Taking time to ensure this stage is performed thoroughly means not only that you have a payroll system which works correctly – it also means that we understand your business and are in a better position to work with you as partners.

Step 4: Build and Test Your Payroll System

We then build your payroll system based on the requirements captured above, using our Payrite software, and then populate it with employee data.

The system is tested by running it in parallel with your existing system to ensure that all calculations are being carried out correctly. Only when we are satisfied that it is working do we switch you over to using the new system.

Step 5: Provide Data – and Relax!

Now all you have to do is enter weekly or monthly data into the payroll system (bureau service) or send us the data to enter for you (managed service). We do all the processing, payslip production and distribution and create any reports which you have specified.

At the end of the financial year we produce end of year figures for you and submit them to HMRC automatically on your behalf.

If any issues or questions do arise, simply call your dedicated Payroll Manager and we’ll sort things out.

For more information on both of our payroll services and assistance in choosing the right payroll solution for your organisation, please contact us now for a review of your payroll.