Tag Archives: payroll

EPayslips. To E or not to E that is the question

As a solution provider it is our aim to provide customers the right solutions that best fit with the strategy of the organisation. Internet connection

In this post, Print, digital and the environment I discussed the importance of consultation with customers and employees when it comes to considering electronic methods of communication rather than simply dismissing paper as a means of communications.

Where can epayslips fit in and should I be considering them as an alternative to paper slips?

E-solutions and e-comms are developing at a fast rate and at some point during our working day we are likely to receive some form of e-communications whether it is a reminder that our mobile bill is ready for collection to a newsletter or an electronic invoice sent from one of our suppliers.

Online accessibility of information through the use of tablets to iphones has made it significantly easier to view your payslips or any other document online. The widespread availability of apps means that often there is a mobile version available to view.

Part of Digital Print Management’s services are outsourced payroll printing.

Some companies outsource their payroll functions and manage the distribution of payslips internally, others outsource the complete payroll process but retain control of a portion of their payroll processing like their pensioners.

Epayslips aren’t for everyone and there is a certain degree of comfort in receiving that monthly piece of paper that says I’ve been paid.

e-payslipsIn this example paper slips are generated monthly and posted out, epayslips would not work for the simple reason the company knows its aged employees well has surveyed them regarding migration to epayslips and the overwhelming response was a preference for a paper payslip.

Old dogs die hard – old habits are difficult to change.

What options are there for epayslips?

Standard online epayslips have low adoption rates. In comparison ‘push’ delivery of epayslips increases the recipients adoption of paperless documents.

Emailing payslips (or using a push service whereby the payslip information is pushed to the employee via the sender, sent either as an encrypted PDF attached to an email or embedded within the email) you can read more about pull e-services here.

The traditional ‘pull’ process is convenient for the sending organisation but cumbersome for most recipients. Senders ‘deliver’ their epayslips electronically by loading them on a website and then sending an email notification to recipients.

What are the advantages of ‘push’ and ‘pull’ epayslips

If you take a look at my slides and they highlight the advantages and disadvantages of the options available.

[slideshare id=36673825&doc=e-payslips-140706103558-phpapp01]

Many of Digital Print Management’s customers use a combined print, push/pull distribution of payslips which works very effectively.

Every organisation is unique and is restricted or enhanced by its payroll software.

Ultimately the epayslip model chosen is often determined by the strategy of the HR and/or Payroll department, the types of employees from weekly, monthly and from young to old will also determine the successful take up of epayslips.

But, there is no reason why the use of paper payslips and epayslips can’t co-exist in our working environment.

Whether it is E-statements, E-billing the same process detailed above can be applied. The key to successful uptake is understanding your employees and customers to ensure a timely and effective transition to E-documents.

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Why would I want to outsource my payroll or HR department?

outsourcing payroll

Outsourcing doesn’t have to result in a whole department being outsourced.

Although I’ve discussed payroll outsourcing before emphasis has been on the physical process of outsourcing the complete department and not some of the components of payroll and HR.

There is a genuine misconception that outsourcing a part of the overall process won’t be cost effective or indeed that outsourcing yields little or no return on investment.

Two questions that need to be asked by organisations prior to considering outsourcing and way before costs are considered are:-

How could outsourcing work for us? Do we need to outsource?

Here is an alternative that can work and delivers results that are measurable.

Why not consider automating a process rather than outsourcing a whole department?

What do I mean?

Organisations can decide to outsource a department to a third party company de-congesting them of non core business activities but what if an organisation wants to maintain control of the payroll department but only outsource some of the more time consuming tasks?

For many small to medium sized organisations payroll and HR come under the same umbrella with payroll and HR engaging in tasks that might otherwise be department specific in larger organisations.

One of the primary reasons companies outsource their payroll function is to eliminate non core business tasks that don’t add any tangible benefit to a company’s bottom line.

In-house administration of payroll and HR requires on-going compliance and staff resources. Outsourcing can provide a continuum of expertise and knowledge in HR and Payroll as part of the outsource process, administering this in-house can be costly.

HR departments can be bureaucratic, obstructive and often stuck in the comfort zone of form filling and being seen to support the strategic process of an organisations objectives but not always aligned with the company’s goals.

The other side of the coin is that HR provides senior management with employee information in relation to business development, staffing resources needed for business mergers, acquisitions or restructuring of the business.

HR departments are under increasing pressure to ensure that the service they deliver is efficient and cost effective. There are many manual functions that are fulfilled by HR department’s – employee contracts, appraisals, health and safety, pension documents, new employee inductions, absence reporting documentation, employee communications and document knowledge management.

Whilst the relationship between HR and its employees is a core business function and important for on-going employee relations, the payroll, tax and pension administration and HR compliance are not. iStock_000019367513Small

What part should I outsource?

Payslip printing, e-payslips and multi-channel distribution automation without outsourcing the whole department

Payroll departments who want to maintain control of their main core functions but wish to outsource their payslip printing, e-payslips and distribution can certainly benefit from relinquishing themselves from this process.

Outsourcing the print and distribution of payslips can save from 3-5 days of processing internally reducing the time it takes to handle this task enabling payroll managers to better redistribute their resources to handle employee queries rather than stacking the printer with paper, folding and inserting.

When managing this process internally how do you ensure confidentiality? How do you make sure employees don’t see each other’s pay information?

Outsourcing a payroll departments printing makes it easier to manage.

Processing and distributing payslips and p60s is one of the easier more straightforward aspects that lends itself to outsourcing. Confidentiality is maintained and security is foremost making payroll managers jobs easier.

payroll outsourcingHR automation without outsourcing the whole department

HR Managers are either driving staff recruitment or managing a decrease in staffing levels and temporary contracts. HR teams deal with many documents most of which are in paper format that are required to be filed, archived and stored.

Automation of some of the HR departments tasks not only adds value to the company’s bottom line but ensures the HR process is streamlined and efficient.

By automating accessibility to key employee documents reduces storage and paper usage and by providing secure access to these documents ensures that documents are managed to conform to compliance needs. Your HR system doesn’t need to be replaced but it can be enhanced by using an electronic filing cabinet and automating some of the more mundane processes associated with HR departments such as:-

Applications

Applications for jobs can be submitted in any media from email, web and post and CVs along with covering letters can be entered into the system making review easier and more streamlined. Approved applications are stored and tagged for appropriate skills and then routed to the line manager.

Interview processing

Predefined and digitally stored letters can be populated and produced for interview invitations. Feedback from the interview is stored in one location making it easier for managers to review.

Offer or rejection

Workflows send acceptance or rejection notifications to the HR department which in turn generates the contracts with the predefined terms such as salary, offer or rejection letters are automatically generated and sent to the applicants.

Inductions

Once a candidate has accepted an offer, departments can be notified of a new starter ensuring that all employment documentation and related tasks are completed prior to the commencement date.

Employee

Training, employee development, performance review, grievance logging and holiday booking forms can be saved electronically in one centralised location.

Leavers

Automated management of the leaving process ensures that employment records are automatically archived, company equipment is returned and retention policies ensure destruction of employee documentation at the appropriate time.

In both payroll printing and HR automation:

  • The productivity curve is improved and shortened
  • Workload reduced in both departments
  • Expertise in payslip printing and HR automation
  • Flexibility
  • Processing costs reduced
  • Establish consistent repeatable processes
  • Duplication errors reduced

For more information click here

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How to optimise a hybrid mail solution to mail out information to your employees?

Employees communications

Any employee communication letter can be mailed using print-2-mail

Payroll departments are often besieged with paperwork managing and processing a variety of different employee document streams.

Auto-enrolment forms continue to be a headache for companies along with absence reporting documentation all of which can be manual intensive tasks. But there is a way of mailing out these documents at the fraction of the cost of a 2nd class postage stamp.

How do payroll departments manage to communicate the various bits of information that need to be sent to the employee?

Payslips are a great way of communicating important information to your employees but there are often limitations on space and the amount of detail that can be printed on your payslips.

Emailing information can be time consuming but what if employees don’t read it or the email is misplaced?

Then there is the need to update your employee database with new starters and leavers?

Having a cost effective hybrid mail solution that enables your payroll department to mail out employee communication letters at the touch of a button, without moving from your desk and cheaper than a 2nd class stamp including stationery, envelope, printing and mailing will save the department’s resources in time and money.

How does a hybrid mail solution work?

We are often asked ‘can we just mail out 25 pension statements, a few hundred employee communication letters and what about absence reporting documentation?’ 

The answer is very definitely YES, you can!

Using a hybrid mail solution an organisation is guaranteed to save money on postage, printing and processing.

Hybrid mail is a combination of printing and posting as a bundled service and by combining small mailings for many customers and by optimising DSA (Downstream Access ) pricing is guaranteed to save payroll departments time and money by cutting down on the mundane administrative tasks.

What can I use hybrid mail for?

Any payroll related employee interfacing document as mentioned above.

Variable pages and variable numbers of pages, single sided and double-sided pages, colour documents, any document you need to print and mail out.

There’s no limit to the number of pages so any communication letter that needs to go to employees can be done so with print-2-mail

How secure is it?

The process is very secure and documents are uploaded using an encrypted HTTPS connection (the same standard used for online banking). All your documents are printed in an APACS approved, ISO27001 security production facility.

Stacked MailHow can hybrid mail work for your payroll department?

Aside of the obvious cost savings on processing, printing, fulfilment and postage there are the invisible cost savings of energy, equipment, stationery and consumables.

You can send out from 1 to 1,000’s of letters daily, monthly or when you need to. There are no minimum volumes or minimum usage if you choose to use it for a month and then decide not to continue with the service there is no penalty for doing so!

By using your web browser you can access the print-2-mail web portal by clicking here  fill in your name and email address,  go to ‘branch’ and select “demo” and you will be emailed with your login details.

There’s no software to install and you can use it on a PC or Mac.

By downloading the print driver you don’t even need to create PDF’s. Selecting the print driver launches the application, uploads your documents and converts them to PDF’s.

That’s it, couldn’t be simpler or easier to use.

To read more about how print-2-mail can help your payroll department click here

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How to outsource your employee P60 printing but you don't know where to start?

p60 and payslip printing

Outsourcing your payslip and P60 printing is an effective way of reducing the headaches in your payroll department.

Why should you use an outsourcing service and are there any tangible benefits?

Outsourcing payslip printing and p60s will save time and reduce the hassle of keeping on top of one of the most complex and daunting tasks for any business, it will also ensure your staff are paid accurately, on time, every time and free them up to concentrate on business related tasks.

To make sure your supplier achieves this you need a reliable partner who can demonstrate they can deliver for you.

With p60s omnipresent I’ve put together some of the most frequently asked questions by customers during the investigation phase to help you along your payslip and p60 printing  journey.

But first here is a quick recap to the benefits of outsourcing:-

  • Experience in delivering the services you need.
  • Expertise in the area or areas in which you operate.
  • Support to help you with any queries you may have during the implementation process and beyond.
  • Technology that can deliver the job now and in the future as efficiently as possible.
  • The flexibility to meet your changing business needs over time.
  • Concise and accurate pricing giving you get the best value for money ensuring you pay for what you need when you need it.

I want to outsource our employee p60 and payslip printing but I don’t know how to start?p60 and payslip printing

It’s not a complicated process if you follow the steps below.

A good provider will discuss and understand your internal processes, how the data files are generated, what system(s) you use and if you already have an existing layout of the p60s, to timescales and deliverables and agree an implementation brief and specification so all parties are working from the same document.

Before you embark on the process of outsourcing your payslips and p60s you need to have a clearly defined set of objectives and a specification that can be presented to the incumbent suppliers during the selection process.

It doesn’t have to be a long winded document on the life and times of the organisation but should include a simple overview of the payroll department as follows:-

  • How many employees work in the company?
  • Are they located centrally or in branch offices?
  • How many p60s are you likely to process and want posted or delivered back to your organisation?
  • What timescales are you looking at? Consider starting with the end in mind for example if your p60s historically get despatched mid April then work back from that date and establish when the data files are prepared ready for printing.
  • Are there likely to be any changes from the HMRC which could slow down the process or require you to make amendments to the current p60 slip?

I only want to outsource our company p60s is that possible?

Yes. Many companies process and print their payslips and ancillary documents in-house but p60s are a time driven task often tieing up payroll departments unnecessarily at a peak time during the year. Simply outsourcing this task can reduce the burden on your payroll department and free up time for staff to concentrate on dealing with everyday payroll queries. Because p60s happen once a year it makes sense to consider removing this task from payroll and as long as you follow the steps above it is a straight-forward process.

payslip and p60 printingI’m worried about the timing, how will I know that my p60s will go out on time?

Firstly make sure you have a clear and planned outline of when they are required to be printed and despatched. It is also a good idea to have what I call a fall back date in other words date 1 is the ideal date you are working toward getting your p60s out the door, date 2 is the very latest date you fall back on should there be any problems with you generating the information you need for the p60s or you have some technical issue which means your despatch window becomes smaller.

The p60 deadline for 2014 is 31st May by which time every company employee should have received a p60.

Agreeing with the supplier the dates and deliverables ensures that all parties are working toward those dates. It is no good agreeing dates and then forwarding a test file two weeks after the agreed date and then expecting a live file to be processed on time.

In my experience companies need to be aware of the impact of missing deadlines. Suppliers can accommodate your wishes but it is a big ask and usually invokes a best endeavour approach.

You have to be realistic and set expectations that your supplier can work to, moving and changing timescales when you are well into the implementation phase makes it very difficult for your objectives to be achieved so bear that in mind.

If you believe you will miss the deadlines due to internal issues then advise your supplier at the earliest so they can re-schedule and work with you.

How do I find the right supplier? payslip printing checklist

There are many companies that can provide outsourcing payroll services. A google search for ‘payslip printing services’ or ‘p60 printing’ will give you a number of options.

The key is to research the services on offer, read what is on their website, look at any relevant articles and evaluate the services, do they meet your key criteria?

When you have a minimum of three potential suppliers contact them via telephone or website and request a call back with more information and details. Using the questions above will tailor the information you get during the conversation. Set up either a site visit to the production facility or request that a consultant visits you to talk through your brief. The next stage will be to get indicative pricing; either you will make a decision solely on price which is unwise or you’ll agree internally on a process of elimination and end up with 2 potential suppliers that you are keen to have further exploratory discussions with.

At this stage you must be absolutely clear what your criteria of selection is for determining which supplier you intend to work with.

We’ve never outsourced before and I’m worried about data security, what compliancy should I be looking for?

I would advise that you work with an ISO27001 accredited production facility where files sent via SFTP, a secure mode of transmission can be accepted. After all, you are outsourcing your employees payroll information. Ensuring that payslips and p60s will be processed accurately, securely and confidentially should be key to your selection process.

What else can I do to ensure the supplier can deliver the service we asked for?

Ask questions, no matter how trivial they might sound they are important and relevant to you. The surest way is to visit the production facility and follow the process through from start to finish if you are happy that the supplier can show you a comprehensive, secure facility and can demonstrate work they do for other companies along with case studies and references then your evaluation is complete.

How do we go about implementing the project?

The right supplier will effectively manage the project from start to finish for you. Reminding you of key dates and deadlines thus justifying their service pricing and reducing the headaches for you. In turn you must be prepared to respond quickly to any queries and make sure the supplier has every bit of information they need to ensure the successful implementation of your project.

We only want a short-term payroll solution?

Although p60s come but once a year companies often need help with fluctuating peak times in payroll where there is a requirement for part-time or casual employees such as christmas time.

Outsourcing your payslip printing for 3- 6 months makes outsourcing an ideal choice for organisations. There is a long held belief that outsourcing involves a long drawn out contractual process and a minimum requirement of three years applicable to I.T outsourcing or payroll function but for print and mail requirements outsourcing can provide a great cost effective short-term solution.

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How to automate your timesheet processing!

 

Time sheet processing can be a time consuming and a very manual intensive task for large and small companies alike.

 

Maintaining accuracy and correct data entry are the cornerstone of any payroll system.

Time sheet automation resolves this problem.

If time sheets are not processed in time then quite simply employees don’t get paid. Late salary payments lead to discord and disgruntled employees irrespective of the cause of the problem.

We are creatures of habit and at the end of the month we expect our salary to arrive in our designated bank account!

Manually completed time sheets present the following issues:-

  • They are often illegible
  • Tea stained, ripped, folded and written on
  • My all time favourite from my recruiter days – crumpled like its ready for the bin.

Payroll staff feel under pressure at the best of times and they don’t want to let employees down. However, manual keying can result in errors, it’s human nature after all particularly when under pressure.

The payroll department are under pressure to get timesheet data into the payroll system. Automating the system speeds up the process.

How do you automate time sheet processing?

Automating the process makes time sheet processing simpler and faster changing the way time sheets are routed into the payroll department.

  • Timesheet automation is triggered by paper copies being converted into electronic scanned images
  • Data capture technology with a read success rate of 90% the data is extracted from the scanned images
  • Data capture helps a business automate the time consuming and error prone process of manually entering data
  • Incorporating a Fax solution also helps you manage the process of electronic fax time sheets
  • Document Management automates the record keeping by providing storage, retrieval, data protection and security
  • The paper flow is improved by removing the inefficiencies associated with time sheet processing being automatically checked and then pushed to payroll

No system is faultless and there can be a small number of exceptions where documents are illegible when this happens an exceptions queue is created and a person within the organisation will usually be responsible for ensuring these exceptions are managed.

Automating the time sheet process = accuracy = results

  • The payroll team can access the electronic time sheets, change and add information or send them back to the member of staff by email for re-presenting
  • A captured time sheet that is either incomplete or needs further approval can be emailed back to the sender, moved forward to another part of the organisation or sent to the client for clarification
  • Full reporting provides compliance and control
  • It eliminates the need for repetitive manual keying of time sheet information
  • Query handling time is reduced and exceptions are managed in real time as documents are digitally stored making it easier to find them
  • There is no need for physical document storage as time sheets are electronically stored in a digital repository
  • Time sheet automation has low ongoing costs and delivers a ROI in just a few months.

    No organisation is too large or too small to see a ROI in just a few months!

Mistakes are drastically reduced and payroll deadlines are met!

Next steps

If this sounds like you then contact us using the form below and one of our advisors will contact you for an informal chat.
[gravityform id=”4″ name=”Arrange a call back!”]
Timesheet ProcessFlows is modular and scalable. The software and technology work with your current business systems this is achieved by linking systems and processes using intelligent software making the integration easy and with the minimum amount of time needed to learn.
This maximises your investment, is simple to use and implement – rollout is phased and supported by our customer services team minimising your I.T. team’s involvement.
End user and administrative training is provided ahead of any system going live.

The good news is that no company is too small or too large to save money and benefit from this automation

 

Outsourcing Business Processes. Why outsource?

A necessary business evil or not?

The term outsourcing immediately conjures up a feeling of fear, creates a sense of foreboding and there tends to be a general misconception that it will lead to redundancies. Factor in a lack of awareness or understanding of the benefits that can actually be derived from outsouricng a particular business function or process of your organisation and you can understand why people pale in front of you when the “O” word is mentioned.

There are 12 good reasons why a company might like to consider outsourcing here!

As companies expand in size and in operations, management must become more focussed on core business activities and consider whether non essential, non core business activities can be outsourced to vendors who can provide the specialisation lacking in-house.

What is outsourcing?

Outsourcing some of your business processes can save you time and money!

Outsourcing some of your business processes can save you time and money! 

Outsourcing business processes is when you contract out a business function either a task, role or process to a third party over a substantial period of time.  The outsource provider ostensibly takes control of the function and becomes responsible for managing its effectiveness and ultimately its success.

Outsourcing has become synonymous with large enterprises who offshore manufacturing or call centre operations to remote providers based in China or India.

This is not a viable option for the SME or for organisations wanting to outsource maybe one or two business processes. An effective and cost saving option is to consider “nearshoring” the process by which a company outsources to a local service provider (when I say local I am referring to a UK based provider)

Outsourcing core business processes may save you money, note I suggest the word may. The success of the process and its overall effectiveness must be clearly defined and managed and there are some guidelines to consider here!

An outsourcing partner can give you flexibility and the help you need to manage growth this is offset with the benefits you derive by offering your business access to outside expertise and technologies without having to make massive investments in infrastructure change and maintenance. Outsourcing can be scaled to suit the changing needs of your business.

Why outsource?

If you have found yourself asking the:-

  • are my resources being used effectively?
  • are my current resources capable of supporting new technology?
  • is there a better and more efficient way of handling our processes?
  • do the employees have the operational expertise to manage the tasks internally?
  • what is this all really costing the business?

Then the benefits of outsourcing can be great.

Capital for start ups is limited and outsourcing some of your business processes can ensure you know exactly what your on-going monthly costs will be allowing you to allocate much needed funds to the development of the business.

Consider these points:-

How?

  1. Will outsourcing allow my business to focus on its strengths?
  2. Will it improve efficiency of the business?
  3. Will your business gain a competitive advantage?
  4. Will it save me money?

How will outsourcing help me?

Firstly it will focus you and the business on what the company specialises in providing it’s customers, here I mean the core business function, whether it’s making hats and shoes or screws and plugs. You wont be distracted into unproductive and non-profit making business activities.

Internal resources will be re-directed and re-focussed into core business activity.

Migration to new technologies without you having to make investment internally reduces the risk of bad purchasing, minimum downtime and productivity ensuring that a move to newer technologies is minimal.

In any outsourcing partnership risk is further reduced because the outsource partner will have disaster recovery and back up mechanisms in place providing a rapid response to any problem that besets your company.

Points to consider

Think through what you need and how the company will benefit!

  • What process(es) are you thinking of outsourcing and why?
  • Weigh the costs of doing it in-house VS outsourcing
  • Consider a consultant to help you set up a service provider
  • Consider what the on-going costs would be if you don’t outsource it
  • Are you prepared to invest in the time and management of the outsourcing relationship?
  • Do you have realistic expectations?
  • Are you outsourcing a key function which you really should keep in-house?
  • Finally weigh up the risks of outsourcing VS managing the process in-house!

Whatever your decision, outsourcing or keeping the process in-house, you will need to consider the cost implications and the longer term impact on your business.

One final thing.

To reap true, tangible cost savings the process must be carefully managed and monitored. In other words the relationship must be built on trust, knowledge, security and ultimately become a partnership! Much like a marriage!

What do you think?

Have you outsourced a component of your business?

How successful was it?

Would you do it again?

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For more information about how to outsource click here

How RTI will impact your business in 2013! RTI – Are YOU Ready?

We’ve recently been discussing RTI with our Payroll Manager customers and what impact they believe it’s going ot have on their business.

Comments range from “really unsure how the HMRC are going to be ready to take in such a potential mass of data each month or week”; “what about data integrity?” to “We don’t know how its going to impact our business”; and what additional administrative tasks will be required?”

What is RTI?

Real Time Information is a new system that is being introduced by the HMRC to fundamentally improve the operation of PAYE (Pay as You Earn) Currently PAYE return process is a manual procedure that happens annually; it is prone to error and inaccuracies – employers only find out at year end if they have deducted the correct amount of tax during the year.

RTI will result in this information being collected regularly when employers submit their payroll submissions.

Why is it changing?

The current PAYE system has been in place since it was introduced in 1944 making it 68 years old; operating unchanged and is the method used by employers to pay income tax and national insurance contributions (NIC).

Employers deduct payments from employees’ pay each week or month and for a large part; the current system works for the majority of employers and employees.

However, it has become prone to error, fraud and inefficiencies making it difficult for the HMRC to identify errors and assist employers and employees’ to resolve problems in a timely manner.

 

The RTI system will require employers to send data about PAYE, NIC and student loans every time they pay their employees rather than with their end of year tax return.

Why introduce RTI?

Simple. RTI should enable HMRC to respond to errors, improve the accuracy of payroll and reduce the probability of fraud.

Benefits of RTI

The government wants transparency of financial status and RTI will consolidate and automate tax reconciliations for individuals. It should reduce administrative costs of PAYE by phasing out annual employer returns and removing the need to submit P45 or P46 forms.

RTI will prevent identity fraud, reduce errors and overpayments in the current benefits and tax credits system which will ensure that individuals are taxed correctly through PAYE.

payroll print out

Concerns of RTI!

Small businesses will struggle to implement real time reporting the Public Accounts Committee has warned the HMRC; who must or will have to find a way of supporting businesses that do not  have electronic payroll systems in place.

Approximately 94% of employees receive earnings electronically but small businesses without electronic payroll systems and self-employed don’t submit monthly data to HMRC. How the HMRC intends to manage these employees is yet to be worked out.

How will it affect you?

Instead of submitting information once a year at Payroll Year End, employers will submit information electronically to HMRC for PAYE, NIC and student loans every time employees are paid.

When will it come into effect?

RTI will be phased in from April 2013 and will be mandatory for all employees from October 2013.

The system is being piloted from April 2012 and the current timetable published by the HMRC is as follows:-

  1. March 2011 – technical specification to be issued
  2. Oct 2011 – test system available to solution providers
  3. April 2012 – pilot customers submitting RTI (complete by Oct 2012)
  4. April 2012 – Large employers (25o+) to start RTI
  5. April 2012 – Medium employers (50 to 249) to start RTI
  6. Aug 2013 – small employers (<49) to start RTI
  7. Oct 2013 – all employers submitting RTI

What do I need to do?

To get your software right you will need to ensure your payroll provider is compliant so you can submit additional RTI information required along with Bacs payments.

Small companies will have access to the HMRC’s basic PAYE tools which will work with RTI free of charge.

Ensure your data payroll is right ensuring that the payroll details for your employees are fully up to date and in the right format for RTI:-

Name must be your full name and official forename(s) surname; no initials and in the correct order. Date of birth must be given in the format “DD/MM/YY”. National Insurance Number (NINO) must be given as two letters, followed by six digits and end with a letter which will be either A,B,C or D.

With every business in the UK expected to commence migration to RTI between April 2012 and October 2013 it makes sense to prepare your business. Taking control and adopting RTI early will enable you to understand what the impact is likely to be on your business and its payroll practices, ensuring that you continue to pay your employees and HMRC on time.

What do you think of RTI? How do you think its going to affect you? Who will pay for RTI?

Is RTI the Government’s way of getting much needed revenue into the treasury quicker than the current PAYE?

Drop by and leave a comment in the comment box below; we love to hear your opinion!

If all this all sounds like too much hard work or worrisome then contact Digital Print Management for independent and impartial advice on how to outsource your payroll.

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6 great tips on why SME's should outsource!

Outsourcing

I ‘m a strong advocate of the benefits that can be enjoyed by outsourcing a component of your business whether its print, payroll, billing I.T or customer services to the outsourcing of a complete department of an organisation as long as it’s a strategic fit for the company and there is utmost transparency in the way an organisation manages the process.

Traditionally when people think of outsourcing they associate it with big corporations who have the infrastructure and the resource to benefit from a large scale re-deployment of one of their business components.

But this is not the only way that outsourcing can be used effectively. Small to medium businesses can use outsourcing to their advantage. Sections 382 and 465 of the Companies Act 2006 define an SME that has a turnover of not more than £6.5 million, a balance sheet of not more than £3.26 million and 50 employees; a medium sized company with a turnover of not more than £25.9 million, a balance sheet of £12.9 million and 250 employees.

I’ve talked about the benefits of outsourcing in the past with particular reference to payroll and billing here!

The same principles can be levied for any business component you are considering.

why its good to outsource

6 great tips on why companies should outsource

Here are 6 things to consider when outsourcing:

  1. What business aspects are you struggling with? Where can your company outsource to make cost savings and streamline the organisation processes for example it might be marketing, web design, payroll printing, invoice processing/printing. All of which are important to a company but are time consuming and manually intensive.
  2. Outsource as much as you can but not the core elements of your business after all that was the main reason the business was established unless it’s some manufacturing element that you are considering.
  3. Dont be afraid to use the same company for many different things the more services that an outsource provider does for your business in relation to outsourcing the more you are likely to see volume savings. In the same way you see in the supermarket buy two get the second for free. If you are looking to automate your accounts systems such as AR/AP or outsource your invoice processing/printing make sure the provider can manage the distribution element for example you may print, mail and electronically send your invoices so make sure that the company you choose can manage this process for you and more importantly they know what they are talking about and can demonstrate success criteria.
  4. Investigate the market place and evaluate who you think best accommodates your requirements. Don’t think short term, think medium term at least otherwise if you get it wrong it might be painful to get of and you may well end up by repeating the exercise again six months down the road.
  5. Don’t be swayed by the cheapest option or choose on price alone if you do you will shoot yourself in the foot. There isn’t such a thing as a free lunch! When you see something cheap what’s the first thing that springs to mind “what’s wrong with it?” or “that sounds cheap”! “What does everyone hope for but rarely gets? A great deal?” You get what you pay for and often a company that offers a service cheaply is trying to win your business with a view to a serious price hike three months later or they haven’t understood your requirements. In which case you will find yourself in trouble and the cheaper service could have a detrimental effect on your business. Can you afford for that to happen?
  6. Finally, know what area or business function of the business do you want to outsource? Why do you want to outsource? Be realistic about your expectations. Set a time limit to achieve your objective and most importantly work with a company that has the expertise and knowledge and can offer sound, impartial advice!
Digital Print Management are leading advisors in the outsourcing process. We are committed to ensuring our customers get the right solutions for their business which in turn results in cost and efficiency gains.

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p60 Printing and how to manage it.

p60 printing solutions.

P60 printing time is looming fast for all Pay Roll Departments.

But fear not because help is at hand!

P60s  and p60 printing doesn’t have to be a cumbersome task that has to be managed internally.

Outsourcing this onerous task can free up the Pay Team department’s valuable time. 

How?

Simply outsourcing the process to an experienced outsource provider!

By taking your p60 datafile we remove the pressure to generate and distribute p60’s ahead of the annual deadline.

Once printed, we collate the p60s using our verification mailcare system ensuring that individual forms are checked and inserted accurately prior to despatch.

Outsourcing P60s; P45s; P11d’s can all be outsourced whilst you continue to manage and maintain the payroll printing internally.

Managing the processing and printing of P60s takes the responsibility away from you and places it firmly and squarely on the shoulders of the company fulfilling your P60s.

How does the process work then?

From the outset, we discuss with you your requirements, the layout and specific timescales and agree a time and date for you to send us a datafile.

In the first instance we receive a test file from you for us to evaluate. Upon agreed specification; proofs are created for you to sign off and approve. When you are ready and on the prescribed day, you forward a P60 datafile; which is proofed, signed off by you the customer and then the P60s are printed and despatched following our pre-agreed timescales.

I’ve never done this before, who will help me and what about security?

No need to be concerned! Our expert specialists will guide and keep you informed every step of the way. All data files are managed in a secure ISO27001 accredited facility with C&CCC (Cheque & Credit CCClearing Company) compliance.

Using a secure method of transmission (SFTP) a full audit trail is generated for each file and all the relevant and important steps are put in place to ensure compliance and data integrity.

I have data from different systems, how will you manage it?

We regularly receive data files from different I.T. systems or software even data files sent from multiple locations. As long as we are aware of this at the start of the project this can be integrated into the implementation process and managed appropriately.

How will you get the P60’s out to our employees?

You tell us what you want. We can either post them out or have the documents boxed and securely returned to a Head Office address. Or, we can post out and optimise the best postage discounts available; post to multi-branch locations for internal distribution.

But we process our payslips using pressure seal?

Again no problem you can have either format. If your employees are use to receiving pressure seal type payslips then we can send the same format for your P60s. Alternatively, if you prefer your P60s to be A4 and then inserted into envelopes we can manage that as well.

How do I know I can rely on Digital Print Management’s expertise?

Quite frankly you don’t and we can quite understand that you might be taking a big step into the unknown.

We understand the concerns and issues associated with outsourcing any project that is why we specialise solely in OUTSOURCING.

We are committed to ensuring that our customers get the right solutions you might say that it is a passion of ours making sure the customer gets what they want!

To make it easier we’ve written a few articles for you to browse which should help make selecting the right print partner easier!

There’s a selection on our blog, but we think these two will help! Why Outsource?  Top Tips to Consider before you Outsource?

For your p60 printing needs please contact Digital Print Management. Or call us for a free impartial discussion.

We focus on payroll, payslip printing and distribution so you can focus on business!

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Outsource payroll services: How to manage the process of outsourcing your payroll?

Payroll outsourcing

Payroll processing and printing can be time consuming. Outsourcing some or all of the processes will save time and money

Outsource Payroll Services

How to manage the process of outsourcing your payroll follows 10 Reasons to outsource your payroll

I’ve talked about the benefits that can be acheived by outsourcing payroll, invoice printing and processing here are a few reminders:-

  1. You know what your monthly fixed cost for the operation is
  2. Allows you to focus on the area of business you hope to succeed in
  3. Allow experts to manage the process
  4. Reduce the cost of internal errors
  5. Speed up the process
  6. Benefit from your providers’ technology without having to make the investment
  7. Flexibility – you’re no longer reliant upon people to manage the process in-house
  8. Secure in the knowledge that any disaster that affects your organisation it’s business as usual for your outsource provider

You’ve now taken the unprecedented decision to outsource your payroll function.

What happens next?

The next step is to find a payroll provider that can faciltate your requirements?

Easy?

Not so, when you are unclear or uncertain as to what you are looking for and what you need to look out for!

Where do you start?

You only have to google payroll bureau and a whole host of names pop up from the small to the large service providers and that’s where it gets sticky because do you have the time to search, research, evaluate, tender, set up visits to establish creditability then make a decision.

All told, the process might take you anything from 2-6 months and that is a conservative estimate.

Here are a few things to consider when outsourcing your payroll:-

 Small (1-50), medium (50-150) or large (150+) employees on your payroll will help determine the type of bureau you select to work with.

  • Expertise – does the payroll provider have relevant industry expertise to manage your payroll efficiently?
  • Flexibility – can they offer solutions tailor made to fit with your requirements and not a box that comes pre-packed and one you need to fit in?
  • Technology – can they offer online pay slips, paper slips or a combination of both? Can they manage multi-channel distribution?
  • Does their system offer the flexibility to integrate with yours?
  • What reporting functionality are you likely to get with each payroll run? Ask for sample reports and payslips both on and offline so you get to see the quality of the output. If you have a need for both paper and online slips how are the paper slips being printed – pressure seal (without envelopes) or A4 folded and inserted into an envelope establish the quality.
  • Find out if the cost of postage is included. There are a host of mailing discounts available via the Royal Mail and DSA (downstream access) which your payroll bureau should be able to offer.
  • One final thing – let your payroll team be instrumental in the project after all they will be the people managing some or all of the process going forward. Payroll outsourcing

What type of payroll services will you need?

  • A fully managed payroll system
  • Bureau payroll
  • Hosted
  • BACS
  • Multi-national payroll
  • CIS

 How do you then manage the process?

Project management is paramount. Any business process that integrates with the payroll function needs to be considered such as HR and Finance. A pay calendar or schedule is imperative for the bureau to determine cut off times and when data will be made available to the bureau for processing.

This must include BACS transmission dates, pay dates and the physical distribution of the pay slips.

During the migration phase the payroll system will need to be tested to ensure data integrity, compliance and accuracy with the current system.

This process is usually tested over a 2-3 month period where parallel runs will be done by the payroll bureau and measured for accuracy against the current system.

Feeling overwhelmed!

Digital Print Management are independent of any manufacturer, I.T. solution provider and print supplier.

As a solutions and print management specialist emphasis is on understanding the customers requirements and not trying to sell them something which doesn’t cut the mustard in the long term.

Put simply we offer a free consultative, no obligation approach to helping customers who are overwhelmed by the prospect of outsourcing any business process.

Processing and printing or the complete function of a department.

We are here to help so please do call us or leave a message and one of our consultants will be in touch.

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