Payroll Options

[ladymuck]

So what are you using for recording all your day to day business transactions and accounting journals that you'll need to post throughout the year? As Mal says, there's more to running a business than just the payroll.

[Lance]

Freeagent looks good, but £30 a month unless we nabk with RBS/Natwest and we are happy with Starling Bank.

Does anyone use any of the following freebies that the HMRC recommend? Why is Freeagent better?

1 2 Cloud Payroll Free Cloud Payroll, Free Cloud Bureau Payroll
12Pay Express
Accentra Technologies Primo Payroll with Auto Enrolment (up to 10 employees)
Capium Capium Payroll (up to 3 employees)
EnrolPay Small Payroll
Hartigan Software Design RTI Lite
HMRC Basic PAYE Tools
IRIS Software IRIS Payroll Basics
Kashflow Kashflow Payroll
Shape Payroll Shape Payroll (up to 3 employees)
Stansoft Stansoft Linux

FreeAgent is supported.
Most of those free ones are stripped out versions of a commercial product. Any idea why they offer this? It's not for charity.
FreeAgent will be maintained with the latest tax rules, interfaces etc. and is backed up.
You get what you (or a bank) pay for.

Great for Starling that you're happy with them. Although I'm not sure why if other companies offer more service for the same or less money. Did you know you're 10 times more likely to get divorced than change your bank? Why are people so loyal to banks? It makes no sense.

Ohh. and you can have more than one bank account you know. One that provides FreeAgent for free, and still keep this Starling thing you love more than your partner.

[Lance]

Sign up for a business bank account with RBS/Natwest and you get freeagent for free (avg fees are less than £5 a month after a introductionary period)

Sign up with Mettle (Part of NatWest) and have FreeAgent provided and no monthly fee.

[malvolio]

Why is a car better than a mountain bike? Suppose you want to take some bags to the dump, which would you choose?

Your list only does payroll. There's rather more to running a company than that. FreeAgent and the like are a full accounting package so will do bookkeeping, payroll, VAT, P&L, Dividend management, and more....

But hey - what do we know...

[JamesC34]

Freeagent looks good, but £30 a month unless we nabk with RBS/Natwest and we are happy with Starling Bank.

Does anyone use any of the following freebies that the HMRC recommend? Why is Freeagent better?

1 2 Cloud Payroll Free Cloud Payroll, Free Cloud Bureau Payroll
12Pay Express
Accentra Technologies Primo Payroll with Auto Enrolment (up to 10 employees)
Capium Capium Payroll (up to 3 employees)
EnrolPay Small Payroll
Hartigan Software Design RTI Lite
HMRC Basic PAYE Tools
IRIS Software IRIS Payroll Basics
Kashflow Kashflow Payroll
Shape Payroll Shape Payroll (up to 3 employees)
Stansoft Stansoft Linux

[JamesC34]

It could be that this particular accountant has unbundled all their services and the OP is paying (less) for a basic accountancy service.

That's correct. We were just paying the accountant to start us up. Payroll services were an optional add-on.

[wattaj]

Sign up for a business bank account with RBS/Natwest and you get freeagent for free (avg fees are less than £5 a month after a introductionary period)

I think that it's actually free if one goes with the new online bank that RBS/Natwest have created?

[Paralytic]

I should look long and hard at your accountant. If he can't handle a payroll for you, what else can't he do?

It could be that this particular accountant has unbundled all their services and the OP is paying (less) for a basic accountancy service.

[SimonMac]

Indeed, get FreeAgent will give you a lot of time back (freeagent free with natwest account also )


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Sign up for a business bank account with RBS/Natwest and you get freeagent for free (avg fees are less than £5 a month after a introductionary period)

[GhostofTarbera]

Probably because they are a cloud accounting support service that includes a payroll module, rather than a dedicated payroll supplier.

Also remember that software is usually worth as much as you pay for it. FreeAgent (and similar, such as Xero) is not free, but is often bundled by accountants since it saves them a fortune in bookkeeping effort.

I should look long and hard at your accountant. If he can't handle a payroll for you, what else can't he do?

Indeed, get FreeAgent will give you a lot of time back (freeagent free with natwest account also )


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[malvolio]

Thanks for tip. Any reason why they aren't on the HMRC recommended list?
Find payroll software: Free software - GOV.UK

Probably because they are a cloud accounting support service that includes a payroll module, rather than a dedicated payroll supplier.

Also remember that software is usually worth as much as you pay for it. FreeAgent (and similar, such as Xero) is not free, but is often bundled by accountants since it saves them a fortune in bookkeeping effort.

I should look long and hard at your accountant. If he can't handle a payroll for you, what else can't he do?

[JamesC34]

Open an account with FreeAgent. Job done.

Thanks for tip. Any reason why they aren't on the HMRC recommended list?
Find payroll software: Free software - GOV.UK

[wattaj]

Open an account with FreeAgent. Job done.

[JamesC34]

Hi,
Can anyone advise please?
I am in the process of setting up my own small limited company, just myself as Director and my wife employed as Secretary.
Our accountant advises that we should use a payroll service costing £160p/a as they will have the proper software that HMRC requires.
However, I see that HMRC has a list of free payroll software for businesses of less than 10 employees (like ours) - Find payroll software: Free software - GOV.UK So why wouldn't we use the free version and do it ourselves? Are we missing something? Is it difficult to set up, understand and use?
Also which of the 11 free packages that HMRC recommend are the best/worst?
Any advice much appreciated.