Recommended Umbrella Company

[Iveco]

We're traditionally a permanent IT Recruitment Agency who occasionally do introduce contractors to our clients on a contract basis. As such, the contractor will be employed on site through an umbrella company and we take a small introduction fee.

The question is, which umbrella companies come highly recommended, and are there any to avoid? We've previously had a few issues, and thought this would probably be the best place to ask.

Many thanks

CV Screen Ltd

[ilovehr]

I've used PayMatters in the past

Went limited after a while but they were excellent.

[Paddy]

Utter lying scumbags; all of them. Umbrella companies tend not to always tell the truth and make lots of mistakes, Most experienced contractors have their own limited company.

[BdP]

Utter lying scumbags; all of them. Umbrella companies tend not to always tell the truth and make lots of mistakes, Most experienced contractors have their own limited company.

Somewhat sweeping. I usually contract through a ltd co, then close it down, go brolly for 6 months, then fire up another ltd co.

The best brolly by far is Parasol. If you take up the PCG brolly scheme, you get membership thrown in and same day payment.

Superb customer server. PCG Umbrella | PCG

[thunderlizard]

We've previously had a few issues

How exactly? If all you're doing is taking an introduction fee, isn't it just down to the client and the contractor to choose and deal with the ongoing payment arrangements?

[original PM]

Possibly but if you recommended the brolly in the first place the client may not see your advice as worthwhile which may affect future business.

Parasol and the Parasol PCG hybrid are good BUT there are cheaper companies out there who offer just as good service.

You normally find the majority of issues with brollies in terms of payment originate with either the agency not paying the brolly or the contractor not submitting the timesheet/invoice in time.

Brollies will generally pay the contractor as soon as they can as the interest they could gain by holiding on to the money is thrown out of the window trying to deal with all the calls from contractors trying to find out when they will get paid.

[Iveco]

Re: Recommended Umbrella Company

The candidates we place typically don't have a ltd company and will ask us if we know of any good umbrella companies. We've then passed on details of a couple of umbrella companies who we thought were reputable, only for the candidates to struggle to get prompt payment.

We don't actually get involved with the payment process at all, it can just be a little embarrassing if there are then issues and so we'd rather be recommending those with good reputations within the contracting community.

[filthy1980]

used crystal umbrella up until a few months ago and they were quite good, very helpful when required and paid on time