For years, accountants and bureaus have been offering payroll services, taking a massive burden off the hands of their clients. However, the payroll profession has changed dramatically over recent years with the introduction of Auto Enrolment. A significant 1.2 million small and micro businesses are set to start staging between June 2015 and the beginning of 2018. The Pensions Regulator defines small businesses as employers with 5 to 40 workers and micro businesses as having one to four workers.
The thought of choosing the right payroll provider has exasperated with the new AE employer duties that need to be completed. Some software providers are avoiding auto enrolment completely, while others are offering AE features with limited functionality or at a high extra cost. If you have payroll clients they may have an expectation that you will handle the AE setup and ongoing duties for them. For bureaus, it will be important to discuss the options with your clients as early as possible.
Auto Enrolment Functionality
Payroll software will play a vital role in ensuring the success of Automatic Enrolment. Many of the functions necessary to comply with Automatic Enrolment duties are process-driven and can be handled by technology. Your payroll clients will need to access their employees to ascertain who they have to automatically enrol and who will have the right to request to join.
The Pensions Regulator recommends that payroll software should automate the majority of these processes, such as assessing employees’ eligibility, producing employee communications, monitoring employees’ ages, and earnings on ongoing basis, producing the required reports and much more. It will be important to check with your software provider to see if it can handle the requirements of Automatic Enrolment. From that point on, it is all about efficiency and there are several questions that need to be answered first in order to start making a profit from these jobs.
So what should you be looking for in potential payroll software to process AE more efficiently? These 10 questions outline key factors to ease the decision making process.
1. Does it support your chosen AE pension schemes?
2. Will employee assessment be automated?
3. Is enrolling employees problematic or effortless?
4. Can it produce employee communications based on individual’s work status?
5. Does it allow for Postponement?
6. Are employees being continuously monitored by the software?
7. What are the limitations regarding the number of employees or employers that can be set up?
8. Will it make contributions and deductions?
9. Does it allow you to produce the required reports?
10. Are auto enrolment features and support charged at an extra cost?
Discover how the right payroll solution will empower you to improve profit margins and increase the turnaround of clients. This step by step guide details how the correct systems in place with fully optimise their payroll operations for efficiency. Check your have full AE functionality.
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Written by Karen Bennett for BrightPay Payroll
