I am going to take over a customer of mine, from his previous accountant . I've been through his 2020/21 books already but has not taken payroll as yet, threfore that payroll is still done by their previous accountants . The customer wants me to take the payroll over from April .
This customer is a SE medical practitioner and employs only one person part time, that's what I got from them.
As rahter new in payroll , I wonder what information should I request from their existing accountant . Are there any usefull tips I'd better know before I start with that customer's employee payroll.
Other than that, to your opinion, which of the software packages are be more cost effective but still do what they should do, for similar size of jobs. I've already looked on to BrightPay , seems not bad and quite well explained at their web site. Any others?
I use Sage 50 desktop and Sage One for day-today bookkeeping , but Sage Payroll addon seems a bit too expensive if looking longterm for similar sized jobs.
If you're starting the payroll in the new tax year you will need employee's personal details, and also you will need to know what
tax code he was on at 05.04.2021. Obviously, you'll also need to know what to pay them and when!
For a small payroll such as yours, I would recommend Moneysoft Payroll Manager, it gets a lot of good reviews and is very
competitively priced. It's only downside is that it's not cloud based, but as long as you use something like DropBox or OneDrive
to store the data files you should be OK (and personally, I take regular backups as well.)
Hi Kirill - I have no experience of Moneysoft but have been using Brightpay for the last couple of years and would recommend it particularly if you are only processing payroll for one company (you can pay slightly more to add further companies). I have been looking around for an alternative with the new tax year looming but going to stick with Brightpay as it has a lot of functionality for a relatively small price and has some new features in the pipeline for 2021/22 such as direct payments to bank accounts and multiple users so your client could have access too for example. I also like the Brightpay Connect feature which has more functionality than eg Iris's similar offering.
Previous to Brightpay, we used Sage which was good but pricey...
I am opting for Bright pay as it seemed extremely handy for me. Price is important , but efficiency is a key.
John thanks for your post .
Rather technical question. Sorry if that seems too simple to be asked.
As I 've described above, I'm taking over a customer with one employee. I know their previous accountants had set up the payroll for them.
What's is the correct way of letting HMRC know about that, is it just to exchange an agent's name at my customer's account? Do I need to get a separate payroll number (PAYE) for that customer again or I have to use previous agent's PAYE referencing number for that particular employee?
If you're an agent, apply for authorisation in the normal way. The employers paye reference and accounts office reference remain the same. I would recommend using the same employee payroll id as previous if you know it
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John
Any advice given is for general guidance and professional advice should be sought applicable to your circumstances.
I've managed to speak to their previous agents and they've suggested payroll id will be given to customer.
I am starting with Bright Pay.
Thanks.
Did you send prof enquiry (prev clearance)? You should have. Then you would get all you need. Sounds like they are not playing ball for some reason but why?. Bit worrying you think the PAYE refs would change. Are you really competent enough to take this on? You could be ruining peoples lives if you get it wrong.
-- Edited by Sage on Thursday 8th of April 2021 12:07:50 PM
Did you send prof enquiry (prev clearance)? You should have. Then you would get all you need. Sounds like they are not playing ball for some reason but why?. Bit worrying you think the PAYE refs would change. Are you really competent enough to take this on? You could be ruining peoples lives if you get it wrong.
-- Edited by Sage on Thursday 8th of April 2021 12:07:50 PM
Just received their agent's reply containing all I need - P60, previous three years schedules, details of submitted furlough claims, e.t.c. Thanks for your reminder. As stated previously, I have all the info I assume is necessary. There is an ex-colleague (payroll manager) who is keen to assist. I'll get an extra course on payroll , have put a plan for it.
