A typical day in the office starts with checking our email inbox. Within the accountants, we work from a shared inbox where work is categorised to individuals, so this is our first point of call. We work on a first come first served basis so we work in date and time order ensuring that the oldest emails are dealt with first. We also have a few clients who prefer to phone in so we can deal with a high volume of phone calls during the day.
As well as working from the inbox we have an internal system with our own individual task lists for that day, week, fortnight and month. Payroll has constant deadlines with each client having different requirements so time management and organisation is key.
When receiving hours from a client we then check the clients individual file, this has lots of personalised information to that specific client, such as how they like to receive the information, by what date, what reports they require and any tailor-made requests. We process the client's payroll ensuring that they are compliant with all of the following: National Minimum Wage, Pensions regulations, Tax Code changes from HMRC, HR Legislation, Tax bandwidths and Statutory Payments (Sick, Maternity, Adoption, Paternity etc.).
Firstly we check HMRC and whether they have advised us of any tax code changes for the client's employees and begin inputting the data. Once the inputting and checking has taken place we then compile all the reports and send these direct to the client password-protected to ensure we comply with GDPR. We then action the submissions to HMRC, we send an RTI (Real Time Information) direct to HMRC using their portal, this informs them how much the individuals will be paid. This MUST be with HMRC BEFORE the employees pay date, if we don’t keep within our deadline for this then they will issue late filing fees! We produce P30s and send these to our clients, this tells the client how much PAYE and NI contributions have been taken from their staff, the P30 is like a bill that the client must pay to HMRC.
If the client is a small employer and pays any statutory payments like maternity then this can be deducted from the P30 and an EPS (Employment Payment Submission) is then sent to HMRC to tell them not to expect the deducted amount that we have calculated.
Due to the volume of RTI’s that are sent to HMRC, sometimes they can get lost in their computer system. If HMRC feels that something is missing then they will write to our clients and ourselves to advise us. We speak to HMRC on a regular and sometimes daily basis regarding clients PAYE accounts, unfortunately they can be difficult to get hold of at times and we can be on hold for longer than the query itself, but we have to phone them to ensure our clients payrolls are up to date and correct.
Within the last 12 months, we have been making claims for our client's furlough payments, this has been an added job for the payroll team as it’s not part of our normal processing and is instead a claim for state aid. Once payrolls have been calculated we need to ask HMRC for the funds back and calculate any reclaims for employers national insurance and pensions contributions (if relevant).
This past year has proven to be more challenging and shone a light on Payroll – HMRC would only pay out on furlough if your employees were on a payroll scheme and they had received the relevant RTI’s. This has led to us receiving more requests from companies who now want us to run their payroll to ensure if anything like this happened again, then they will be able to claim the state aid. When we receive information from the new client we then need to apply to HMRC for a PAYE scheme and get this set up for them, in many cases we also need to set up a pension scheme and advise the clients on staying compliant with the pensions regulator.
The end of the month is the most demanding on the team as its when most people get paid and its therefor our busiest time of the month, however it’s also the most rewarding and satisfying when all the work is completed for the month. However a payroll professionals job is never ‘complete’ when one deadline is hit, the next one begins to count down. Payroll is deadline-driven so we have to organise our time and prioritise the workload efficiently and effectively.
At the start of the month, we handle CIS returns for our Construction Industry clients. We receive invoices and have to process the payments and submit the data to HMRC and advise the client of the amounts deducted or suffered.
Like any job, challenges are a part of everyday working life. As the payroll department is often seen as a cog within the wheel of business, it’s the job of our payroll professionals to pass on their expertise and knowledge.
HR is a function very close to payroll, so we do offer lots of advice to our clients when issues arise. It can be challenging to convey the information to those from a non-payroll background, however it is very rewarding when we help people better understand the issue, and when we manage to resolve it together.
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