INTERVIEW PayrollBee

Q&A

Evangeline Hassall Managing Director PayrollBee

We had the opportunity to catch-up with PayrollBee, a new fully-managed outsourced payroll provider who have recently launched their service in the UK. It is specifically aimed towards Accountants and Bookkeepers wishing to expand their payroll offering without the need to expand their internal payroll team. Evangeline Hassall who heads-up PayrollBee shares with XU Magazine why an outsourced service is especially beneficial during these unprecedented times, especially now that the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer has introduced and further extended the furlough scheme in 2020...

XU: Why should accountants and bookkeepers outsource their Payroll?

EH: Running payroll as part of your service offering is something that most clients expect and want. However the reality is that it can quite often become laborious, time consuming and not as profitable as other services. As payroll is all that we focus on here at PayrollBee, it means that we can run it efficiently and effectively. Accounting and bookkeeping firms can control their costs by taking advantage of our fixed fee pricing for running all of their clients’ payroll and they can put their desired markup on. This gives peace of mind that their clients’ payroll is being professionally administered but also ensuring that the practice benefits from an essential valueadded service which is profitable from day one.

XU: So does this mean that practices can save on their staffing costs?

EH: Absolutely, there is no need to take on the burden of having additional staff within their practice. As well as the financial cost saving it means that practices do not have to deal with the headaches that can come when trying to cover holiday, sickness and other absences. Here at PayrollBee, we have ensured that we have enough resources so that there is always somebody on-hand to cover the routine payroll runs and also ensure that we can respond quickly to any queries. Payroll can often be quite a sensitive and time critical subject and our team here at PayrollBee have many years of expertise in handling queries on a different. We do this by being set up direct one-to-one basis. This further on their email domain so that when ensures the level of confidentiality communicating with clients via that you would expect. email it’s all coming from a known and trusted company domain. We XU: How can practices ensure that the also set up a dedicated phone line on our system for the practice that customer service being we’re partnering offered by PayrollBee is with. This means to the same standard Accounting and that the telephone as their firm is bookkeeping firms number can be currently offering? can control their given to clients as costs by taking the contact number EH: When we start advantage of our for the payroll team. When the the working with any new fixed fee pricing... call is received here practice we spend a lot at PayrollBee, our team of time finding out about instantly sees which of our them. One of the main aspects is partners the call is intended for. We how they communicate with their then answer the call appropriately clients and understanding their with a customised greeting and client base. We want to ensure that as a team member of the practice. the end client feels like we are just This is really important as it means part of the practice. Their clients that we can liaise directly with their should not know the difference clients to answer any questions that between speaking with their may and will arise. This can be both internal staff and the team here from the clients of the practices at PayrollBee! We usually spend we’re working with or indeed their a lot of time working closely with own staff. the practice so it’s important that we’re all on the same page and we’re operating in a way that they’re XU: How quickly can you turn a pay run around? familiar with. XU: I understand that this is a white-label EH: We do say that we require a 24 hour turnaround time to ensure service, can you give us some more the deadline can be met. We details on how that works? understand however that last minute jobs/changes can come EH: I would say that the majority of practices in and will also look to jump on and accommodate these wherever we work with want to use us on a possible. white-label basis. There are a few that specifically want the clients to know we’re separate, as they don’t XU: Can you help to manage things like want to be seen as offering payroll, the furlough and the Job Retention and this is fine too. With the white- Scheme? label service however, the objective is for us to be seen as the payroll department for their practice and EH: With the recent announcements of a for the clients to not know any furlough extension until March

2020 this means that this type of the scheme we would advise that government support is starting to sometimes we may need to involve become a normal part of the pay the specialist knowledge of a run process. At PayrollBee we can pension advisor or IFA. help to calculate what the figures are for furlough claims, especially for those workers with flexible XU: Do you post wage journals or can you hours. We can then ensure that link in with accounting softwares? these are submitted to HMRC as quickly as possible to avoid any delay in furlough related payments EH: The payroll system that we operate has a to clients. direct API link in with Accounts IQ, FreeAgent, Kashflow, Quickbooks, We have now started to see the Sage One, Twinfield and Xero. first phase of furlough scheme This means that we can work with investigations being carried practices to set up out by HMRC. We take We have now this link so that on the responsibility of dealing directly started to see wage journals can be posted through with HMRC to the first phase of seamlessly into review the matters furlough scheme the accounting of concern and investigations package. This saves ensure that these being carried out the processing time are resolved in a by HMRC... of entering journals speedy manner. Whilst manually but also this is still a very unknown mitigates against human area, at PayrollBee we are doing our error with manual data entry. best to understand all information as soon as it’s released to be able to offer the best possible support XU: There are some really fast growing practices to practices that we work with and out there, are you able to keep up their clients. with their new client demand?

As well as processing the claims that need to be made, we are also able to assist with scenario planning. When the current 80% furlough scheme is reduced again, we know that lots of businesses need to think through the various options available to them and quite often this means running various forecasts on staffing and the government support available at that time. This is something that we have found ourselves to be involved in quite heavily over the previous weeks prior to the current 80% furlough scheme level being reintroduced. EH: We always ensure that we operate at a capacity level which gives us enough room to quickly bring on new clients that practices are onboarding. As part of the relationship with a new practice we really look to understand their growth plans as this helps us to understand whether we need to increase our capacity too.

XU: As well as the processing of payroll can you also help with other tasks, such as PAYE & pension reconciliations and general payroll related questions?

XU: As well as processing the monthly auto enrolment pension information can you also help to set these schemes up too?

EH: The management of auto enrolment from the setting up of the schemes to processing the monthly reports is something that we take care of. Depending on the complexity of or any other matter in-hand. We understand that practices times. Our process at PayrollBee switch would be and, if it’s mid tax used, some changes can be easier

EH: We often find that we work very closely with members of the team in practices to assist them with some of the items they may be working on, such as reconciliations. Also, for example, if there are ever discrepancies with the figures that we hold compared with what HMRC may have, we usually manage these situations to ensure that all the information is have all of this information at our fingertips it is usually the quickest for us to dive into that information and assist with the reconciliation Regarding general questions, yes and this is something that we find we do a lot of - which we love! can often have questions and scenarios that they want to verify for themselves to better their own understanding. We also have lots of communication with their clients and their employees as payroll can be complicated. We want to ensure that they really understand some of the deductions that may be happening around their tax code etc.

XU: Is there an ideal time to start working with an accounting or bookkeeping practice?

EH: Usually the best time to switch any payroll provider is at the end of the tax year to be ready for the April pay run. However this doesn’t mean that it can’t be carried out at other is to discover the current payroll situation and understand how and where all information is being processed. We would also look at the urgency of the switch i.e. a practice may have staff members leaving and will not have anyone to process payroll next month. We can then give an honest assessment on when the best time to make a year, how smooth that transition will be. We will always work to ensure that it is as smooth as possible for any practice moving over to PayrollBee, but depending on what current systems are being sitting correctly at both ends. As we

than others.

FIND OUT MORE...

For more information, visit: > payrollbee.co.uk