What is a payroll accountant?

What is covered by the payroll accountant?

Payroll accountants take care of many different components of the payroll process, beginning with gathering the personal information of your employees, such as their complete name, address, NI number, and income. Then, to make sure their salaries are accurate, it is necessary to keep track of the hours they put in and their pay rate.

This must also be considered if you have staff that are paid a salary rather than an hourly wage. How you will compute each employee's compensation depends on whether you keep track of whether they are paid an hourly wage or a salary.

A salary is based on an annual pay amount that is fixed and divided into 12 installments. Rather than being a fixed annual sum, a wage based on hours worked is sometimes determined on a weekly basis. To determine their salary for the predetermined period, multiply their hourly wage by the number of hours worked.

Depending on your employer's sick pay policy, all sick days must be recorded. If they are paid hourly, a clocking-in system may record overtime or any late timekeeping, which you must also keep track of.

What payments are made from an employee's salary?

Each employee's gross and net pay must be calculated and shown in full on their payslip. Their total income is their gross compensation, while their actual income is what is left over after statutory deductions like tax and national insurance.

Every employee is required by law to deduct tax and NI from their gross compensation. Depending on the individual worker's earnings and conditions as defined by their tax code, the amount may vary.

There can be additional deductions to consider, such as a corporate pension plan. The employer is in charge of making sure the appropriate amount is withheld from employees' paychecks and that the related tax is paid to HMRC each month.

If your employees receive commission or tips in addition to their regular pay, there may be additional payments in addition to deductions.

How can a freelance payroll accountant assist with payroll at your company?

Payroll accountants can establish relationships with HMRC and pension providers in addition to handling the challenging task of calculating and paying wages, relieving the employer's workload.

The employer gives their freelance payroll accountant the pertinent information for the month, including the amount of the employees' rate of pay, either as an hourly rate or as a monthly salary, two or three days before payroll is required to be submitted. The amount that each employee is to receive will be computed and updated by the accountant.

Additionally, they will add any new employees to the payroll, distribute any necessary pension notices, and decide whether any additional employees need to be enrolled in the pension plan. Prior to submission, the accountant will send the employer a draught of the payroll. The amount paid to the pension plan, the net amount paid to each employee, and the amount of tax and NI that must be paid to HMRC are all displayed. There will be an opportunity to talk about any adjustments that might be necessary at this stage.

The payroll accountant will send the required paperwork to HMRC and the pension plan on pay day, along with the payslips, either directly to the employees or to the company for distribution. The employer will make arrangements for the payment of the wages in accordance with the accountant's instructions.

The payroll accountant will send out annual P60s and draft P11D returns for HMRC for any employee who has received perks or expenses in addition to the usual day-to-day duties.

Can you save time by outsourcing to a payroll accountant?

Owning your own payroll might take a lot of time. Even with the aid of a sophisticated software package, it can still take a manager up to 16 hours per month to calculate wages, salaries, and deductions for a company with 200 employees, 40 of whom are salaried.

It is believed that an "exhausting" task may be completed in 12 hours without interruptions or breaks, but in the workplace, this is never likely to happen. There will always be hiccups, and working nonstop for two whole days is unhealthy.

As businesses expand and have more locations, employees spread out among many centres, and others split their time among many sites, payroll becomes more and more complicated. Due to the complexity of the data, the payroll team will have to spend a growing amount of time managing information and correcting errors.

Dealing with your monthly payroll obligations by outsourcing to an agency or a freelance payroll accountant can save time and hassle, and additionally will avoid a financial fine from HMRC caused by payment delays or errors. So if it is time for your business to use the services of a professional payroll accountant you can compare prices of local independent payroll companies in your area? Simply fill out our form <<here>> and we'll show you local payroll companies for comparison - for free!