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Q for FreeAgent Accountants

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    Q for FreeAgent Accountants

    Apologies for hi-jacking forum in truth CBA to find my AccountingWeb login

    One for FreeAgent accountants. (a) Is payroll included in the sole trader package and (b) how robust / user friendly is it.

    I'm thinking about a weekly payroll 5 people.

    We've recently signed up with FreeAgent but haven't done the initial training yet and my manager who is dealing with FreeAgent is off this week, meanwhile I'm sorting a quote out on a pub who are rather scared by my weekly payroll price.

    TIA

    #2
    Have you asked your... Erm.. NVM
    'CUK forum personality of 2011 - Winner - Yes really!!!!

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      #3
      I knew I would get that. I almost discounted it...

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        #4
        I think weekly payroll will be your main problem. AFAIK it's only monthly and they have no plans to change that.

        Payroll is included. FreeAgent isn't cheap, but you get everything for the price, rather than other software where you may have separate chargeable "bits" that you can turn on/off as required.

        It is very user friendly. There are a handful of things that it doesn't do (well) which are a bit annoying, but they're not every day things. Main ones that are of irritation for us are:
        - maternity pay - you need to do all the calculations independently and manually enter the numbers each month.
        - de-registering as an employer - this can't be done via FreeAgent, as contractor companies can often have relatively short lifespans, it's something we need to do fairly often, and currently use HMRC's basic tools just for this purpose.

        The software's constantly evolving, but the above is true as of now to the best of my knowledge.

        Bit confused though...so you do lots of contractor work, but someone with a pub sole trader business has approached you and you're thinking about getting them on FreeAgent? Maybe I've misunderstood, but if so that seems odd!

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          #5
          Thanks Chris, is useful to know it will only do monthly.

          It is a bit of a trial to see how a sole trader gets on with FreeAgent in advance of MTD. Clearly there are other options, but there are attractions of single platform our end for the non PSC end of the client base. I look after a lot of sole trader Yoga Teachers as well, and I've got one eye on a simple MTD solution there.

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            #6
            You probably know I'm a firm FreeAgent advocate, but part of me thinks that for non VAT registered sole traders not needing a payroll, it's arguably overkill. That's not to say it can't cater to them, far from it, but there will be simpler and cheaper options.

            Definitely agree that from the accountant's perspective makes life easier if you have everyone using the same system.

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              #7
              Definitely only monthly payroll which is a bit annoying. Although it did force us to convince our weekly clients to monthly so probably saved us a lot of time in the long run.

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                #8
                Originally posted by Alan @ BroomeAffinity View Post
                Definitely only monthly payroll which is a bit annoying. Although it did force us to convince our weekly clients to monthly so probably saved us a lot of time in the long run.
                Thanks Alan. I have a right pickle here where it seems the existing accountant is running weekly payroll monthly, and the employer is deducting estimated deductions for some staff, or deducting them a month in arrears for other staff. Sweet...

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by Maslins View Post
                  You probably know I'm a firm FreeAgent advocate, but part of me thinks that for non VAT registered sole traders not needing a payroll, it's arguably overkill. That's not to say it can't cater to them, far from it, but there will be simpler and cheaper options.

                  Definitely agree that from the accountant's perspective makes life easier if you have everyone using the same system.
                  Looking at the portal rate for a sole trader, I'm not sure there will be much cheaper without going to the absolute freebies, the Waves of this world, which I have reservations about.

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                    #10
                    We used a payroll system which was £140 or so per year for ~400 1,2 or 3 person payrolls. I can't remember the name but it was extremely functional and good value. I think I it may be moneysoft. I'll check.

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