Does anyone have any fortnightly payrolls? Are they a pain? Only I've had an enquiry about doing a fortnightly payroll. Mine are all monthly at the moment but I could see it could create a problem if you wanted to go away etc...How do you get around this, apart from taking your laptop on holiday!
Fortnightly pay is fine, you can process in advance of going on holiday for a standard period and process any adjustments such as overtime in the next pay period, which of course is only two weeks away. When a client subcontracts payroll to a small business rather than having an in house payroll person, they have to accept that you will not be working 52 weeks a year.
I don't have any fortnightly payrolls, but do have some weekly. I just ask my clients to estimate the number of hours to be worked and complete the payroll in advance when going on holiday. I then make amendments in the following payroll run, if their estimate was not correct. No one seems to mind this. They accept that you have a life outside of work
Usually in my admittedly small experience of fortnightly pay it is owing to some connection to an American business or American manager as it is a common pay frequency there, even for office based jobs.
For overtime and commission etc it is best to pay it over a pay period in arrears and you will know how much you need to pay. The problems really arise when the employer is trying to pay overtime etc for a period ending one day before you have to do the pay run
Really? ...Don't think I want to be doing that,what if you can't get wi fi ? And I'd be worrying about my laptop. Those deposit boxes in the room are only just big enough put an iPad in!
When I went away two years ago there was no wifi unless you paid through the nose for it, so I used my phone as a wifi hotspot. I've done payroll on my phone before, logging into my work comp using teamviewer. Not very easy but it got the job done!
I'd be taking my laptop on holiday anyway, and it wouldn't be the work comp. Only danger I haven't consider is if I lose internet connection at work whilst I'm away. Yep it may be prudent to do it before I go away this year then.
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John
Any advice given is for general guidance and professional advice should be sought applicable to your circumstances.
What if the workforce are unhappy to change from weekly / fortnightly to monthly? New contracts I assume, union involvement in some cases - just thoughts. It's always easy for the powers that be to decide to implement xyz. What about agency workers?
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Johnny - Owner of an overly-active keyboard.
A man who can read, yet doesn't, is in no way wiser than a man who can't.
I was going to post something about exactly that Johnny, before my PC dropped off the edge, so to speak!
You cannot just change payroll T&Cs without full agreement from staff, otherwise clients can end up in the middle of an expensive tribunal case. So, if anyone is thinking of going down that path, I always suggest they speak to ACAS - they do a lot of advice giving for free.
Sure a few of you will have seen me bang on about changes to contracts on here a few times!!!!!
If I was a member of staff who did not get paid for their overtime/extras just because the payroll function was on holiday I would be pretty peeved, but thats just one example of where a sole practitioner business has issues. The joys hey!
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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
For sure. Nothing worse than expecting X in your payslip, to actually get Y on a Friday. You moan to your manager, they tell you to blame payroll. I've got a question, if someone doesn't receive their pay, which is due, on the due date - that person then in turn receives a bank charge for being overdrawn, is there any liability towards workplace / payroll?
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Johnny - Owner of an overly-active keyboard.
A man who can read, yet doesn't, is in no way wiser than a man who can't.
Yes, the liability would fall to the employers and most decent employers would cough up too, although the are always some who won't and don't care about staff!
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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
Thanks. As you say, comes down to decency. I know some employers will supply out of petty cash, or equivalent...bit of a minefield payroll - contracts, workers rights etc. Not just about the numbers...
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Johnny - Owner of an overly-active keyboard.
A man who can read, yet doesn't, is in no way wiser than a man who can't.
I have one who has monthly as well as weekly payroll, with most paid direct to their Bank account, one is paid a cheque (old school and prefers that!!) and three he pays in cash). In part why the net wages account didn't balance when I started!!!
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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
For weekly payroll if I go away on holiday payroll is run in advance (using the advance option of sage so the NI is still calculated correctly) and the pay is based on the standard 38.5 hour week. Overtime & other expenses are then paid once we are back and time sheets processed. This is made clear to the workforce upfront that this is what will happen. If anyone happens to be off sick/or does less hours for any reason the adjustment is made on the next payroll.
This is made clear to the workforce upfront that this is what will happen.
Hope that is their contracts, otherwise a disgruntled employee can cause a whole load of bother.
But this is another example of HMRC/Gov putting added burdens on small businesses by way of reporting things, which then HMRC just ignore and mess up people's tax anyway. (Adding this after having just sorted another RTI foul-up)
Dont we have a great job
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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
