5 Benefits of Outsourcing Payroll 

If you’re a business owner and you have employees, then you’ll need payroll. When you have a small team, managing payroll is fairly easy, but as your company scales and you hire more talent, staying on top of payroll becomes admin heavy and increasingly difficult.

If your team is consistently making payroll mistakes, it might be time to look at outsourcing your payroll. Here are five advantages of using a payroll service provider.

Remaining compliant with HMRC 

When it comes to getting payroll right, there are a lot of HMRC rules and regulations to follow. There are also specific qualifying conditions that must be met, which gets further complicated when you consider areas such as zero hour contracts and hourly pay.

Failure to remain compliant can lead to a fine. If a late payment or first offence is resolved within 30 days, you may not be fined. However, fines for late submission of FPS documents start from £100 and can go up to £400. Businesses that make mistakes for more than three months in a tax year will face a penalty for a further 5% of tax owed. 

These areas include: 

• Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) and Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP)

• Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)

• Share Schemes

• Pensionable Earnings and Student Loans 

• Redundancy Payments 

However, when you choose to outsource your payroll to a payroll company that’s authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) such as Payescape, risk of being non-compliant is minimised, as you’ll work with CIPP qualified professionals who are all up to date with the latest regulations.

Reduced time spent on admin 

The bigger your team gets, the more time you need to spend on admin heavy tasks, all of which becomes unmanageable. However, when you outsource your payroll and/or HR software, time spent on administrative tasks is reduced significantly. Inconsistencies with timesheets, hours worked and pay is minimised, and all software is integrated, ensuring a seamless cycle of communication. 

You can also create custom reports within the software to view your payroll in real-time. With integrated HR admin, you can provide your team with appraisals, self-service portals to view and change personal details, and allocate time and expenses.

Save time and cost

Time is money, and when your valued team members are spending hours processing payroll in-house, it's costing your business money. When you outsource your payroll to a payroll service provider, everything from working out SSP to tax codes is taken care of, which means your company saves money in the long run.  

Better data security 

HR and payroll is a goldmine full of highly sensitive information, so it’s important to ensure that data is protected. If you’re managing payroll in house, there’s increased risk of identity theft and other issues. However, when you outsource payroll to a reputable provider, they’ll store all information on highly secure cloud-based servers and have robust security processes in place. They will also keep record of every change and payment made, giving you a complete digital audit. 

Integration with other softwares 

As technology evolves, companies end up working from several different types of software, which means processes and data is siloed. However, if you choose a payroll management system that can directly integrate with your HR and time keeping software, 

you can decrease manual data entry, ensuring data accuracy. Compliance risk is reduced drastically, with auditable reporting and real-time visibility. 
Request a demo today and find out how to revolutionise your HR, time and attendance and payroll processes.