Hi Trevor Depends what you consider a reasonable part time income and how much time you would want to devote to it.
I have a couple of clients who use their Accountants to produce the wages and the charges vary eg £12+VAT for one wage per month - its a Director and never changes so thats easy money for 2 minutes work. They also charge extra for the final RTI report/P60 production - seem to recall that was a £75!
Another Accountant charges £90 + Vat per quarter for 4 staff per month - again the amounts never change, except once a year, so that doesnt take long and is a no brainer. They dont charge extra fees at year end.
Just remember though if you take on weekly its tying due to RTI, which is why Ive dropped all but two of mine - one will be going soon though!
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
I agree with Jo, avoid weekly payrolls if you are not available at the drop of a hat! My biggest monthly payroll pays me £465 per month. If it goes through smoothly I can do it in under a day but in reality takes around a day and half or more with all the adjustments and chasing etc. I have another payroll that is fortnightly, takes me about 30 to 45 minutes per pay run and I charge £200 per month. However most of my small monthlies are bundled in with accounts/bookkeeping services or are charged at around £30 per month for up to about 6 employees. So yes payroll can be a good earner but you are often expected to know more than just the basics. I am CIPP qualified so that is useful but certainly not essential.
I look after about 20 "small" payrolls. I earn £4k a year from them (£200pa average), but I include P11'd & transaction posting, so its not just about submissions and producing payslips.
Before RTI they were very profitable as I could do everthing in one day each month. But since RTI it takes 3 times longer (!) and although I initially charged more, I found I had to reduce my fees for other work, so in the end I just had to charge the same as I did before RTI. I also have to remind clients more than ever before to do anything, especially make payments to HMRC. About 1/3 require reminders each month and I have moved the weekly paid to monthly paid.
Also since RTI I have NOT been able to have a holiday during the last week of every month. My last holiday was at the end of Sept 2013 and all my client receive letters telling them that the submissions were late and on this occassion HMRC was not going to charge a penalty! I have finally found time to go away in the middle of next month and the same in the middle of Februay 2015!
Hi Trevor Depends what you consider a reasonable part time income and how much time you would want to devote to it.
I have a couple of clients who use their Accountants to produce the wages and the charges vary eg £12+VAT for one wage per month - its a Director and never changes so thats easy money for 2 minutes work. They also charge extra for the final RTI report/P60 production - seem to recall that was a £75!
Eeeek!! Its less than 15 minutes work for one employee, far easier than it used to be under the old system. I must try that with my clients
Another Accountant charges £90 + Vat per quarter for 4 staff per month - again the amounts never change, except once a year, so that doesn't take long and is a no brainer. They dont charge extra fees at year end.
Just remember though if you take on weekly its tying due to RTI, which is why Ive dropped all but two of mine - one will be going soon though!
I've seen you mention this before, and it surprises me. I do 3 weekly payrolls, RTI takes me a couple of minutes.
Haha. John, this particular one seem to charge for someone breathing!!! They charge for the year end accounts then charge a separate fee for submitting the corp tax computation, but my customer seems happy with them!
The only thing that bugs me about payroll is the weekly stuff - the fact that you are tied. It takes me a couple of minutes for 4 staff as they never change but I have to find someone else to do it if I want to go away. It's such a pain isn't it Frauke.
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Well, if we can't do payroll with mobile apps in future due to the 'on or before' rule, either the govingment will have to relax the filing requirements or, like Shaun says, dedicated payroll firms will take this sector.
am I sad that I take my net book on holiday with me to run payrolls if it happens to fall whilst I am away? I take at least 6 holidays a year so it is inevitable that one of the holidays falls on pay day-the weekly ones are fairly static so I can run them in advance anyway if needs be but I do have good clients that accept running payroll early as well if I ask them to
I'm similar, Sharon. I have a few clients in Doncaster and travel down there once a month and make it a 2 day break, as I have a few friends down there. If I'm down there and I need to do anything on payroll I log in to my office computer using teamviewer and everything can be done as if I'm there. Did the same thing when I had a holiday earlier in the year.
Trying to access my comp on a 3.5 inch mobile phone once wasn't so easy!!
Have you thought of using teamviewer or logmein Jo? It might be worth looking into.
Hi John
Used to use logmein with one client, until they started charging! Not heard of Teamviewer before, but will have a look at this, although not convinced I want the hassle - introduced a client to cut off dates and pay dates to give me a week's chance of sorting and despite many chasers from me he actually phoned me half way through the day the staff shouldve been paid and said where are the wages. He got a short - its a good job you caught me in as Im not normally here on a Wednesday and I will do it later when IF I have time and one or two other such!! Very rarely do I get my hair off with customers but this was one who told me my last bill was a bit steep (I wont tell you my response to that one on here as Im trying to be a lady!) Oh and LONG gone are my days of working on my hols - does Teamviewer work from a beach in the Caribbean? Probably not such a good idea after all those cocktails,lol.
Mind you I might be able to afford more hols if I do more wages!
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
reminds me of sitting on a beach in Thailand happily reading the Audit Practice Board standards and guidance (now there two and a half thousand fun filled pages of the smallest possible font that the human eye can read!).
Also, if you did more wages you would need more hols! Since the advent of RTI its just too formulaeic with the assumption that everyone works in a 1950's factory and gets paid every month (or week) rather than the more dynamic way that people take salary in the 21st century which the old system worked perfectly with but didn't fit with universal credits.
Personally I don't offer payroll at all anymore and I've found clients unwilling to take on permanent employee's because its all just become way too much hassle, too risky and too expensive.
As noted by Tim above, its my belief that we are slowly going over to the American system where Payroll and Bookkeeping are done seperately and to be honest, the way its all gone I'm quite happy with that.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
1) Too many bookkeepers, not enough clients for the number of bookkeepers
2) Ease of entry into market for yet more bookkeepers
3) Small clients expect you to be an accountant but want to pay you less than the cleaner
4) Pays much less than corporate
Payroll :
1) Government playing silly buggers with Payroll
2) Government playing silly buggers with pensions and linking it to payroll
3) Clients
4) Pays much less than corporate
Corporate
1) Soul destroying feeling of being a small cog in a big machine.
2) Meetings
3) Feeling that you are making no real difference to the business
4) Office politics (and you're not even allowed to kill those who oppose you... Spoilsports).
And on a different note, what reading could possibly be better than tha ASB S&G? (lol... We all know that its the PWC UKGAAP manual).
Sorry to hear that your having a bad month. If its all getting on top of you just take five and go write your Christmas list... It will make you feel better.
I've asked Santa for Semtex as I'm thinking of stopping the creation of new bookkeepers at source... Yo Ho Ho :)
(Dave, Brian and James assuming that Santa comes up with the goods I'll tell you which day in January to call in a sicky).
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
1) Soul destroying feeling of being a small cog in a big machine. Never got that impression - market leaders/creating propositions and changing systems and bending the rules to get that nice piece of business - - - nicking LOADS of business from the competition helps loads
2) Meetings Yeah ok - there is that, but my clients were all lovely, apart from one for a while but I even persuaded him to be nice eventually! And it did mean the odd jolly away from work - had some meetings in some strange places! Football grounds, well known manufacturing plants etc
3) Feeling that you are making no real difference to the business See (1) although dealing with inter departmental muppets who kept saying ' we cant do that' and me having to keep saying 'yes we bloody can' can be a royal pain.
4) Office politics (and you're not even allowed to kill those who oppose you... Spoilsports). Oh Ive killed many a one in my time. Shared the office record with my bessie mate for taking no prisoners!
Positive - pays way more than bookkeeping
Sounds like Im talking myself back into it again
I've asked Santa for Semtex as I'm thinking of stopping the creation of new bookkeepers at source... Yo Ho Ho :) If you had only got some a while ago you wouldve stopped one of them at least!
-- Edited by Cheshire on Thursday 30th of October 2014 07:05:31 PM
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Sorry to hear that your having a bad month. Thanks. If its all getting on top of you just take five and go write your Christmas list... It will make you feel better. Im just going to book my flight!
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Hi John Used to use logmein with one client, until they started charging! Not heard of Teamviewer before, but will have a look at this, although not convinced I want the hassle - introduced a client to cut off dates and pay dates to give me a week's chance of sorting and despite many chasers from me he actually phoned me half way through the day the staff shouldve been paid and said where are the wages. He got a short - its a good job you caught me in as Im not normally here on a Wednesday and I will do it later when IF I have time and one or two other such!! Very rarely do I get my hair off with customers but this was one who told me my last bill was a bit steep (I wont tell you my response to that one on here as Im trying to be a lady!) Oh and LONG gone are my days of working on my hols - does Teamviewer work from a beach in the Caribbean? Probably not such a good idea after all those cocktails,lol.
Mind you I might be able to afford more hols if I do more wages!
Teamviewer will work wherever there is an internet connection lol. Sorry to hear you're having a bad month, it happens to us all at some point.
-- Edited by 111 Bookkeeping and Payroll on Thursday 30th of October 2014 11:18:37 PM
