As a new small business owner, you’ll spend a lot of time trying to find solutions to business practice without the aid of professional services until you feel you can’t do it alone. That’s why Pebbles specialise in providing payroll services for small business.
One of the key areas business owners feel compelled to take onto themselves is the company payroll, whilst others straight away choose to use payroll outsourcing services. Now it is possible to set up your payroll, but you are going to have to know your way around on a computer to do it. If you are not adept at the use of computers then an outsourced service may be your better option.
Starting Out
Starting, you will need to either buy an off the shelf payroll package or use the HM Revenue & Customs online payroll scheme.
Before going any further you will need to establish if any of your employees are paid less than £120 per week, get expenses or benefits or have another job or receive a pension. If so, you will not need to register for PAYE but will be required to keep records. PAYE is HMRC’s system that collects Income Tax and National Insurance from employment.
When you run payroll yourself, you will be required to report your employees’ payments as well as deductions on each payday or before. Payroll software will work out the figures of tax and NI contributions owed. Payments usually are made to HMRC every month, unless you are a small employer that pays out less than £1,500 per month, in which case you can arrange to pay quarterly.
You will have to inform HMRC of any employee circumstance changes such as if they become a director or reach a state pension age, or when taking on new employees. You will also be required to run annual reports at every tax year-end, informing HMRC of any expenses or benefits.
When registering for the HMRC online payroll scheme, you will need to quote both your Employer PAYE reference as well as your Accounts Office reference.
Other Party Use
Of course, this may sound like a lot for you to undertake regularly, which is why many business owners entrust an accountant or small business bookkeeping solutions to handle this area for them.
The main consideration in utilising payroll outsourcing services is that they too work to deadlines to meet processing requirements not just for you, but for many clients. Accountants will sometimes be able to take upon payroll but will cost much more on time than another specialist such as bookkeeping services in Manchester. The good news is that the margins for error are greatly reduced in having a professional payroll service handling this area with HMRC and your accounts.
For those wanting their payroll handled by professional bookkeeping services and payroll services for small business, contact the team at Pebbles today.
