PAYROLL –Your Flexible Friend!

With 2018 now a few months past the half way point for the year, now is the time to look and see what the next 6 – 12 months will look like.  With ever changing payroll rules and regulations being introduced by HMRC and other statutory bodies, payroll professionals need to be aware of these fast changing rules and ensure that they are proactive to any changes that are coming ahead.

A New Reality

It is estimated that nearly half of the UK’s working population will be freelancing by 2020.  The tail end of 2017 saw an ever-increasing trend in the gig economy which presented many businesses with multiple challenges to process their payroll.

Ensuring that you have the right candidates to carry out the jobs is key, but also ensuring that your payroll is able to cope with the freedom and flexibility that gig workers expect and guarantee that your payroll system is able to cope with a constantly changing landscape where worker status and the payroll rules affecting them can and will change time and time again.

Payroll 24/7

Your payroll department should support your organisation and the way that people work.  This means being able to access systems for viewing payslips or by logging hours and expenses for data capture.  The system should be secure, robust and accessible at any time, any where, allowing people to be more productive, which every organisation wants.

Security and business continuity

More and more business are now storing their payroll data in the cloud, as more of the workforce being more mobile and use more devices to log information.  While this maybe advantageous it should always be approached with caution.

Ensure that Disaster Recovery Plans are robust enough and contingency plans are in place for payroll breaches, hacks or power outage.  If the cloud goes down could you still process the payroll and pay your workers?

Continually Evolving

Like any other part of your organisation, payroll is no different and  you should always be refining, improving and being more efficient in handling payroll.  It is vital that this process is never ending to ensure that your payroll does not face the issues highlighted above.

By looking at ways to improve the payroll cycle, including outsourcing the payroll, this allows resources to be freed up, while cutting costs within business, improving payroll processing accuracy  but still retaining the knowledge and expertise at your fingertips.

A simple review of your payroll can present new opportunities that can help streamline the process and also look at any threats that can be extinguished.

If you require any assistance with outsourcing payroll, a PAYE / payroll review or would like advice on the above, please contact Brian Robb (brian.robb@aab.uk) or your usual AAB contact.