Payroll is unforgiving. It runs on a fixed date whether or not you have time, your staff notice immediately if it is wrong, and HMRC expects a submission every single time you pay someone.
We run it for you, on time, with the submissions and the paperwork handled.
What’s included
- Monthly or weekly payroll processing
- Real Time Information (RTI) submissions to HMRC on or before each pay date
- Payslips for your employees
- Calculation of PAYE, National Insurance and statutory payments
- Pension auto-enrolment assessment and submissions to your provider
- Starters, leavers, P45s and year-end P60s
- Notice of what to pay HMRC and when
Director-only payrolls
If you are the only person on the payroll, it is still worth running properly. The salary level you take interacts with National Insurance thresholds, your entitlement to state benefits, and the balance between salary and dividends — which is a tax planning question rather than an administrative one.
It also has to be processed through payroll to count as salary at all. Money taken out without being processed does not become salary retrospectively; it usually ends up on your Director’s Loan Account.
Auto-enrolment
If you employ anyone, pension auto-enrolment duties apply. Assessment happens every pay period, not once, because an employee’s status can change as their earnings change.
We handle the assessment and the submissions, and tell you when something needs a decision from you.
The cash flow part people forget
PAYE and National Insurance are collected from your staff and from the company, then paid over to HMRC on a set date. Like VAT, it is money passing through your account rather than money you have earned.
Staff costs are also usually the largest fixed cost in a small business, which is why a hiring decision should be tested against the sales it needs to generate — see break-even point.
Who this suits
Companies with anything from one director to a small team, who want payroll to simply happen correctly each month without becoming their problem.
Common questions
When do I have to report to HMRC?
On or before each pay date, every time you pay someone, through a Real Time Information submission. It is not a monthly summary after the fact, which is why payroll run late creates a compliance problem as well as an unhappy team.
Do I need to auto-enrol a single director?
Often not, if there is no employment contract and no other staff — but it depends on the circumstances, and The Pensions Regulator still expects a response to its correspondence. Ignoring the letters is what causes trouble, not the pension itself.
When is PAYE due?
Normally by the 22nd of the following month if you pay electronically, or the 19th by post. Smaller employers may be able to pay quarterly. We confirm the amount and the date each period.
Can you handle a mid-year switch?
Yes. Moving payroll providers partway through a tax year is common and manageable — we need your year-to-date figures and employee details, and we check the opening position carefully, because errors carried in are the usual cause of problems later.
Book a consultation to talk through what your payroll involves.