All businesses whatever their size have to have a system for paying their staff. For small businesses it’s tempting to attempt to keep payroll in house, issuing payment on an ad-hoc basis by writing cheques, or issuing bank transfers for salaries at the end of the each week or month. However, this risks breaking HMRC regulations at the end of the financial year.
Small business owners already have a lot to contend with in terms of the day-to-day responsibilities of keeping their company running. Thankfully a solution is at hand – by hiring a dedicated payroll service all of the details can be managed by an expert leaving you with more time to invest in your company.
Outsourcing payroll for small businesses
One of the easiest ways of saving time and money for your company is by outsourcing your payroll. This means handing over the whole process to an external person or company who can take care of all the details.
There are different ways of organising payroll for small business and it’s possible to have as much involvement as you want in the process. The main advantage of choosing to outsource your payroll process to an expert is that the responsibility is on the company handling the tasks.
This should be a big relief to any small business owner who may not be trained in accounting. Any payroll queries can be directed straight to a trained expert and handled swiftly.
Part-managed small business payroll
A popular cost effective solution to managing your payroll is to bring in a part-managed payroll solution. Costing less than completely outsourcing all payroll duties whilst still offering expertise from professionals, a part-managed payroll service involves dividing up the tasks between staff in-house and an external supplier.
This can be a good half-way house for many small businesses which already have some trained financial professionals among their staff. It can also be a good solution for a small businesses which want to manage their own data entry.
It can also work well for any companies which need to add overtime or holiday in lieu to their calculations, as they can take these into account before passing the information over to an outsourced supplier to handle the necessary amendments before a BACS run.
Though this approach is a useful way of getting an expert accountant to work with your staff, a part-managed payroll service will only work effectively if your staff have the time and experience to dedicate to these duties.
Pay-as-you-go small business payroll
Another cost-saving solution to enlisting a payroll service for a small business is hiring a pay-as-you-go payroll service. This can be a valuable resource for any small business which needs support on a flexible basis for example to cover staff leave or when a new influx of employees arrive.
Having a pay-as-you-go payroll service gives you all the advantages of a fully managed service but without the need to commit to an expensive long term contract.
Involving a temporary pay-as-you-go payroll service when you need it, will ensure you avoid any potential payroll errors and can guarantee that employees are paid on time and that all paperwork is filed correctly with HMRC.
The flexibility of the relationship also allows you to terminate the contract whenever it’s convenient for you. It is worth noting however that the cost of this can be slightly higher than hiring a permanent service to compensate for the lack of guaranteed income for the provider.
If you’re looking for an efficient and reliable payroll service BNA Consulting has the experts that you need to help your small business run smoothly. As one of the leading payroll processing consultants in the UK we offer both office-based and remote services tailored to your individual needs.
Our highly trained staff can take care of the entire payroll service from start to finish. Whatever your payroll needs BNA Consulting is at your disposal and can provide support in both English and Russian.