PAYROLL
Payroll problems?
The Alliance’s Nicola Hooper shares the benefits of outsourcing to a payroll service and how we can help you solve common pay problems
Nicola is a payslip officer for the Alliance's payslip service, responsible for the day-to-day running for the service.
Many of us neglect to think much about payroll and payslips until payday itself arrives, but, as the primary way of compensating employees for their work, it’s an incredibly important aspect of any business. After all, we all have lives to live and bills to pay!
Payroll is complex. Different elements of employees’ circumstances can impact their pay, and the payroll department is responsible for ensuring that these are correctly recorded and implemented for everyone. The more employees you have, therefore, the more complex the process can be.
One way that businesses overcome such concerns is to outsource payroll to specialised services.
Benefits
There are many advantages to outsourcing your payroll:
- Peace of mind that you are compliant with latest legislation, including minimum wage remits.
- Cost-effective and time-saving.
- Consistency when staff or volunteers move on.
- Professional-looking payslips and reports that allow clear record-keeping.
- Compliance with minimum wage.
The Alliance’s payslip service has identified common areas that settings struggle with when it comes to payroll. These are mainly:
- holiday pay
- sickness
- leavers
- apprenticeships
- term-time-only working
- minimum wage
Solving common problems: how we can help
- Settings can choose from various options when paying holiday pay: at the end of each term; rolled up; annualised; and more. We can help you to identify what the legislation for different circumstances says and support with the calculations. We’ll also always prompt you if we feel anything is incorrect and give advice for holiday pay during sickness and maternity leave.
- Sickness can come in all forms, from long-term sick and one-off periods to phased returns. The service will calculate any statutory sick pay that is due, help you with any company sick pay within contracts, and guide you on relevant legislation. For example, the service will always ensure that protected earnings have been paid before taking off unpaid sick hours.
- When an employee leaves your employment, accrued holiday pay has to be taken into consideration to ensure a balanced final wage payment. If you use annualised pay, this calculation can be complex. The Alliance’s payslip service can help to calculate leavers’ pay for you to ensure correct payment before issuing a P45.
- Apprenticeships attract different rules for both minimum wage and National Insurance. The Alliance’s payslip service can help here by ensuring that you know and apply the rules correctly.
- Minimum wage regulations vary depending on age, so our service will flag to you when an employee requires a pay increase and can help in advance with annual salaries for budget purposes. The service will also advise you if a deduction may cause a minimum wage breach, such as salary sacrifice.
While there’s guidance on the government website for these common issues, the explanations are often open to interpretation. As payroll specialists, we take the time to ask questions on your behalf so we can guide you through calculations and ensure accurate payments for all staff at your setting.
Budget Toolkit
The Early Years Alliance's Budget Toolkit – developed to help you take a proactive approach to budgeting – was updated in 2024 to allow you to forecast the potential impact of the new funded offers on your early years business.
With the new tax year starting in April, now is the time to start preparing for the financial year ahead. Find out more or purchase the Toolkit here: bit.ly/Budget-Toolkit-Feb25.
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