Reply to: Umbrella Reviews/Recomendadtions

[aeroeng]

I am also considering Danbro. I used their accouncy service and I was quite happy. They seem very responsive now, and they are quite transparent in their illustrations. If I don't like it later on and need to switch, I will probably go for paystream because of referral award and Google reviews are looking good, although some People werent satisfied with their service, but comments in cuk seems bit out of date.

[willss3608]

Orange Genie.. I am satisfied with their answers. Okay I am going to signup with them this week. Anyone here already with them to use for the referral bonus ?

[Snarf]

But have you checked their pension offerings?

I did and for that reason Orange Genie are looking like the frontrunners because they will pay it straight into my existing Sipp without any faffing around transferring it between providers.

[Snarf]

I spoke to Paystream this week. They told me that they did not process expenses and these had to be claimed at the end of the contract with HMRC via a P87 form. Other umbrellas have indicated that expenses can be processed and that can include their margin at approx £1000/yr.
They will pay into a personal SIPP with the major companies at a charge of £5 per week after tax - this is higher than many other umbrellas. They also allow carry-forward of unused pension contributions.
They don't offer medical insurance cover unlike some other umbrellas.
Analysis is ongoing.

Good point for the future - for the current contract its not an issue its 100% home working, it was before lockdown and will continue to be until well past the end of the contract my expenses are pretty much zero as it is anyway with the exception of some software licences which they dont provide and wont going forward because its stuff that I want to use rather than need as Ill need them for other outside IR35 stuff anyway so Ill just buy them through the Ltd company as Im not shutting it down.

Cant think of any expenses that I'd need, but Ill bear this in mind before I sign up

[Smartie]

Hi Snarf. You may wish to check with trafalgar to see do the give any other benefits.
I've been given Danbro (which somebody mentioned trafalgar is part of their group) as one of my brellue options, their margin is competitive but they also give basic BUPA cover as part of their margin.
They do do salary sacrifice and into ones own Sipp at no extra charge.

I found paystream the same as you and charge extra (£6 pw) for salary sacrifice option.

Danbro also on my list and have been very quick to respond to all my questions and provided 5 custom illustrations for different pension levels. Only £1.50/month for contribution to SIPP. My only concern is service quality but that's based on a few comments on this site and others which are often a single personal experience and not always very recent so not the best evidence.
They're a much smaller outfit so possibly more personal service, but less responsive. Analysis is ongoing.

[Monkeypower]

Hi Snarf. You may wish to check with trafalgar to see do the give any other benefits.
I've been given Danbro (which somebody mentioned trafalgar is part of their group) as one of my brellue options, their margin is competitive but they also give basic BUPA cover as part of their margin.
They do do salary sacrifice and into ones own Sipp at no extra charge.

I found paystream the same as you and charge extra (£6 pw) for salary sacrifice option.

[eek]

I spoke to Paystream this week. They told me that they did not process expenses and these had to be claimed at the end of the contract with HMRC via a P87 form. Other umbrellas have indicated that expenses can be processed and that can include their margin at approx £1000/yr.
They will pay into a personal SIPP with the major companies at a charge of £5 per week after tax - this is higher than many other umbrellas. They also allow carry-forward of unused pension contributions.
They don't offer medical insurance cover unlike some other umbrellas.
Analysis is ongoing.

An umbrella's margin is a top line figure that will always come out of your pre-taxed income. It's why looking at the cheapest umbrella doesn't make much sense for us when it's less than 1-2% of the invoice amount.

[Smartie]

Paystream

I spoke to Paystream this week. They told me that they did not process expenses and these had to be claimed at the end of the contract with HMRC via a P87 form. Other umbrellas have indicated that expenses can be processed and that can include their margin at approx £1000/yr.
They will pay into a personal SIPP with the major companies at a charge of £5 per week after tax - this is higher than many other umbrellas. They also allow carry-forward of unused pension contributions.
They don't offer medical insurance cover unlike some other umbrellas.
Analysis is ongoing.

[northernladuk]

Thanks all.

From chats I've had with them all today there isn't much in it between them and as no one came forward with any horror stories I'm a bit happier that they're all going to be ok.

Might just toss a coin a few times to pick one now

But have you checked their pension offerings?

[Snarf]

Thanks all.

From chats I've had with them all today there isn't much in it between them and as no one came forward with any horror stories I'm a bit happier that they're all going to be ok.

Might just toss a coin a few times to pick one now

[eek]

Expenses are for client business travel e.g. sent to remote site by client. The same kind of thing an employee would claim for.

My client only pays expenses net of VAT, so the brolly has to give me the expenses part of the VAT or else I'm out of pocket. They have a copy of my expenses so know how much VAT should be paid to me. I only get back what I paid

Yep I know that.

I was talking very much about how an umbrella employee will handle an invoice and why it was obvious to me as to what happened.

[Acme Thunderer]

I suspect the umbrella read the wrong figure and didn't get it..

Probably because the very first thing you tell someone working at an umbrella and looking at an invoice to work out what figure goes into the gross income figure is "always, always, always ignore VAT"

Expenses are for client business travel e.g. sent to remote site by client. The same kind of thing an employee would claim for.

My client only pays expenses net of VAT, so the brolly has to give me the expenses part of the VAT or else I'm out of pocket. They have a copy of my expenses so know how much VAT should be paid to me. I only get back what I paid

[northernladuk]

The title of the thread says "Umbrella Reviews/Recomendadtions", So sounds like the perfect thread for the poster's question

It is a question about 3 specific ones so a question about a different one hidden down in the chat isn't going to be very useful. It's not a generic thread about brollies.

[eek]

The title of the thread says "Umbrella Reviews/Recomendadtions", So sounds like the perfect thread for the poster's question

But the odds of someone who has used that umbrella reading this thread and replying is about zero.

While if the person created a thread asking about Liquid Friday it's just about possible someone is going to see the question and respond.

[luxCon]

This isn't the thread to post that question on - start a new one.

The title of the thread says "Umbrella Reviews/Recomendadtions", So sounds like the perfect thread for the poster's question