Payroll is often viewed as a separate component in relation to the bookkeeping of clients given the numerous complexities and specialist knowledge required to set-up and run the payroll of any client. Some accountancy practices have a separate payroll department whilst others outsource the function altogether which corroborates the uniqueness as well as intricacies involved in performing it properly.

At Cheylesmore Accountants, we use Xero as our trusted software to carry out payroll given the benefits its bestows such as seamless integration with other platforms alike NEST (National Employment Savings Trust) when it comes to filing pension for our clients’ employees, HMRC when submitting monthly pay-runs but more importantly because of the multiple features it offers. This includes the ability to record benefits in kind such as Car or Van benefit as a pay template item, reimbursements which is ideal for clients who reimburse employees for any business mileage via private vehicles.

The user-experience is also seamless as each pay run gives a detailed breakdown of the taxes owed by employees in terms of PAYE (income tax) and NIC. Additionally, it enables us to also make manual adjustments to the figures should the tax computations be out of line with what we believe the figures should be. This is a rare but possible occurrence and flags the need for accountants to avoid relying on the figures generated without manually computing them as a cross-verification check. At Cheylesmore Accountants, we strive to ensure that we perform such cross-verification as regularly as possible across all our clients.

Submitted your pay-run but realised there were errors later on? Xero has you covered. It offers the ability to revert and re-submit pay runs. However, this is often convenient only when the pay run requiring changes is of the previous month as reverting pay runs for multiple months can lead to issues in HMRC’s system being able to cope with all the changes being made in the pay run.

Need to know which days are public holidays…across each of the 4 nations within Great Britain. No problem at all. Xero enables you to allocate your employees by holiday groups divided into 3 nations: England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Still not satisfied? How about the possibility to create a custom employee group based on tracking categories. Xero will also be able to compute the holidays your employees have accrued based on their hours (if paid an hourly wage) or months worked (if paid a monthly salary). Moreover, Xero allows your employees to request holidays via the Xero Me app which can be approved by you. This saves the need for your employees to have to meet you and explain why they need a holiday. Xero allows the employee to provide a reason why they wish to seek a holiday if company policy mandates this.

Still not convinced? We invite you to have a face-to-face session with one of our partners to discuss how we can tailor our payroll and other aspects of bookkeeping to suit the bespoke needs of your business. Whether you’re a small business with yourself as the only employee or a sprawling nationwide entity with nearly 50 employees, we can handle it.