Payroll software guide for accountants
Accountants are a very important asset to every business. They ensure accurate financial records are kept, taxes filed on time, and perform audits each year to maintain compliance. One of the best ways to elevate your accounting practice is to streamline processes and administrative tasks so you can focus on providing consulting to your clients to help them reduce costs, enhance revenue, and improve profits.
Many accountants manage payroll for clients struggling with day to day operations and accuracy. If the client sends incorrect data, or time-keeping is mismanaged, manual payroll administration becomes extremely time consuming. Using an online payroll software can greatly reduce your administration time allowing you to take on more client payroll as a result.
Imagine completing client payroll with a few simple steps and clicks of a button? Getting more involved in your clients’ businesses and helping them achieve their goals is beyond the scope of daily accounting activities, and makes you an asset to their business. You become a part of the team instead of just a service provider, and your clients will look to you for direction and guidance when new opportunities come up.
Online payroll and HR software gives you more time to focus on growing your client portfolio, how you can be an advisor to them, and in turn can elevate your accounting practice to the next level. In this article we will go over what payroll software you should be using for accountancy and how it can help save hassle and time day to day.
Accountant Payroll Challenges
Firstly, let’s cover accountant challenges. Accountants manage many vital financial aspects of their client businesses, but payroll can often be the most challenging. If client data is not accurate or information is not communicated to the accountancy practice, mistakes can be made and client employees could be paid incorrectly.
Common challenges Accountants face when managing client payroll:
Technology: Many issues with payroll begin with technology. If your clients are using spreadsheets and email to communicate with you regarding their payroll, it’s time to make a change. Sending personal data via email is not compliant with GDPR regulations, and can also cause errors due to manual entry and inaccurate data. Utilising a payroll technology is vital to simplifying your client payroll processes and ensuring compliance.
Data Security: With new regulations regarding data security and privacy each year, staying ahead of the new requirements can be impossible. To make sure your practice is managing client data security and privacy, you must enforce data transfer procedures that follow GDPR guidelines, make sure your clients do not send private information via email, and use secure technology to process payroll transactions.
Reporting: Once you have completed payroll for your clients, how do you provide payroll reporting specific to each client? Creating manual payroll reporting for each client would take countless resources, so ensuring your payroll technology offers customised reporting is very important. Clients can view trends, identify areas for improvement, and provide you with updated information to manage their payroll if they are receiving monthly payroll reporting. Ensure your technology gives you the flexibility to create customised reports for each client based on their needs.
Look for technology that provides you with compliant payroll processing, a customised reporting tool so you can ensure accuracy, and a team of payroll professionals that can help when questions come up. PayEscape has payroll solutions for Accountants to streamline the payroll process, create customised reporting for each client, and has a team of CIPP-certified payroll experts to help you ensure compliance. Click here to learn more
Automating Payroll for Accountants
Managing client payroll can be both challenging and frustrating at the same time. Most clients want payroll included in their accounting services, but don’t understand how time and labor-intensive payroll can be each month. If you are managing multiple client payroll each month, it can be difficult to ensure accurate and on-time payroll without some type of automation.
With new requirements from HMRC, and new so many regulation changes each year, Accountants are turning to automation as the solution to their payroll problems. Payroll software does not only simplify HMRC filing, but lets you easily produce payslips, calculate and make pension deductions, pay multiple employees at different intervals (monthly, bi-monthly, weekly) and produce customised reporting for your clients.
Getting your client payroll automated can ease your resource burdens, ensure accurate and on-time payroll, and help file directly with HMRC. Accountants also need payroll software with a service team available when questions arise. Make sure you have access to an experienced team so you can quickly get help and don’t waste time.
Simplify Year-End for Clients with payroll software
Year-end payroll reporting can be stressful. Especially if your clients are using any manual processes to provide information or do not have a system in place for filing directly with HMRC. Accountants often struggle with client payroll due to circumstances beyond their control, but how can you simplify the process for your clients?
Using a payroll solution that automates payroll submission, reporting, and filing with HMRC simplifies the monthly payroll process, but it also makes year-end reporting easy to manage no matter how many clients you have.
Guiding your clients to select the right software can be challenging based on their current systems in place, but if you offer a solution that streamlines payroll processing, integrates with their company systems, and provides custom reporting each month, it is easy to get clients on board. PayEscape payroll software provides easy-to-use software, customised monthly reporting, and directly files with HMRC so you can ensure compliance for all of your client payroll.
Adding client payroll and reducing resources
Accountants are sometimes hesitant to take on client payroll due to the complexity involved, manual processes, and low returns. What if you could increase your client payroll, reduce resources to manage client payroll, and be compensated for your efforts?
Your clients can input their details, employees can make personal changes through self-service portals, and the technology updates each year to accommodate new requirements. You don’t have to spend time researching payroll changes or HMRC regulations and you can focus on your strategic client work.
Help clients prepare for new payroll rules
Accountants can help their clients prepare for upcoming regulations and ensure payroll and compliance operations are ready before changes are enacted.
IR35 Off-Payroll
If your clients use contractors or personal service companies to staff their business, there are new regulations for the private sector when it comes to classifying contractors and paying tax and national insurance contributions. Talk to your clients now about who they employ and how they currently report taxes for those who are temporary or contract employees. Once you have determined if their contract employees will be affected by the new private sector off-payroll rules, you can ensure the corr.
Employment Law Changes
Non-disclosure agreements, confidentiality clauses, and health reforms are just a few of the proposed changes the government is making this coming year. Your clients may have to adjust their payroll and benefits to accommodate new provisions. Talk to your clients about how they manage their HR and payroll, and prepare them for what might affect their payroll withholding, tax payments and benefits.
How Accountants can move from Compliance to Advisory Role
Accountants have a complex and challenging role to meet client needs. They have many arduous and time-consuming aspects of daily accounting work that is critical for their clients and provides a vital service. So how can Accountants move from working on compliance and general accounting work to more of an advisory role for their clients?
We have built an Accountant Partnership Program to help Accountants easily manage client payroll, reduce manual processes, and automate compliance. We take the burden of payroll off your shoulders allowing you to focus on more profitable work while still being able to offer your clients payroll and other professional services. Our easy-to-use technology provides real-time access to client payroll, customised reporting, and direct filing with HMRC to simplify the process.
We can also provide you with co-branded marketing materials so you can market to your clients, offer payroll, HR, and time management services, and provide full-service solutions for your client businesses. Talk to us today about how Payescape can help you grow your accounting practice from compliance and service to an advisory focus. Click here to learn more.
