Exact Payroll

[youngguy]

I had rather hoped that at this stage I'd have a P45 and could draw this thread to a close.

I'll continue to document the litany of errors here as a record and warning for anyone considering using this umbrella.

Having been fobbed off by the few remaining staff that didn't leave or get sacked for gross misconduct (I kid you not) a new person turned up to schmooze me. He is very good at telling me I should feel assured as he is working with the internal team blah blah blah. I'm not sure he knows what he means and I know I don't. He is very good at ignoring all my questions and would likely go far in politics.

He also tried to send me a hamper as a "gesture of good will" but managed to send it to the wrong address despite calling me to confirm my address and sending me a letter (with my address on!). He then said I had told him the wrong address?! Essence of Bojo perhaps.

SAR : 63 days and counting.

Complaint: 6 weeks and counting.

Payslips: 9 weeks. I was told it would take Exact a week to re-run my payslips (6 timesheets, 4 pension payments). I received a new set of payslips - I have over 22 now - it took me 3 mins to see that my pension contributions on the payslips didn't match the actual pension contributions Exact had made to my SIPP. Upon rasing this I was asked to "state what pension I wished for". My reply was I wished for it to reflect reality. That was 11 days ago and I have had many schmoozy emails since but no one has told me how long I have to wait before I get another set of payslips.

FCSA: Useless in their first response.

Bonus today: Due to Exact Payroll mess ups, HMRC have removed my tax allowance for the year so I've just been hit with a £10.5k tax bill. I can't wait to try and sort that out with them when I have no record of my pay for the last 6 months.

[youngguy]

Update on my situation, should anyone else be searching this in future and thinking Exact are a sensible Umbrella choice: TLDR AVOID!.

Following the errors mentioned in this thread, Exact attempted to correct this, which resulted in my next payslip showing up spurious 'Expenses' lines. Nothing added up and all anyone could say to me was "That's how the system works".

After many conversations with many people, including their Head of Finance and Head of Payroll, they said they would re-run things. What they actually did was delete me as an employee before re-signing me up as a fresh person (I can't wait to explain that to HMRC). This removed all my payslips.

The CEO (who was the Head of Finance and appears to have just taken the company over) and Head of Payroll (who apparently left last week suddenly) assured me they would fix this within the week.

That was a month ago.

Since then they've ignored all emails and calls (8 emails, 4 phone calls). No responses and no call backs. They've missed responding to a SAR on time and missed responding to their own complaints process in time.

It appears the company has recently changed ownership hands and everything seems to be slowly sinking. For 2 days their IT systems have been undergoing "an upgrade" (hmmm, not sure if this is a cyber issue or the company is just silly enough to schedule a 2 day upgrade on a Mon and Tues?!).

I'm now waiting for my P45, but I ain't holding my breath!

[eek]

What constitutes a dodgy payslip? (Serious Q)

Payslip - not much

Pay Summary - I would expect to see 4 items against employer costs - Umbrella Margin, Employer NI, Apprenticeship Levy + Employer pension fully broken down.

What you may see is 5 items (hiding something) or no breakdown at all. And in that latter case it may or may not add up to the figure it should be (and it usually doesn't).

[youngguy]

They have on multiple occasions offered to provide FCSA with any payslips from FCSA members that are dodgy and the FCSA have never been interested..

What constitutes a dodgy payslip? (Serious Q)

In my case Exact made so many errors that they tried to correct them by adding faux lines to my next payslip - they've "refunded" money they previously took incorrectly in relation to tax and pension payments by adding it to the next payslip and calling it "expenses".

They got themselves in such a pickle they removed me as an employee from their systems entirely, set me up as a brand new employee mid year and will now - I presume - retrospectively generate payslips for the past year. A kind of mulligan if you will

Quite what those payslips will now say or how the paperwork will marry up to actual payments and to whatever reporting has already taken place to HMRC is anyone's guess....infact I am pretty sure Exact ARE guessing and making this up as they go along.

Suffice to say, they are an umbrella to be avoided.

[eek]

I suspect I already know the answer but....

Is there actually anyone an Umbrella can be reported to?

I'm still chasing money owed (due to them making errors and me needing refunds) and seeking correct payslips (their fudges to return money they incorrectly assigned to my pension ended up in spurious lines on my payslip referencing expenses which I've never had/claimed)

Exact have been so quiet and poor, I'd assume they are under cyber attack if I hadn't been told that their system is so old it isn't even cloud based


FCSA (ha)? HMRC? Two hopes?!

FCSA don't care - there is a firm that checks payslips at the requests of contractors and agencies. They have on multiple occasions offered to provide FCSA with any payslips from FCSA members that are dodgy and the FCSA have never been interested.

At least with Professional Passport, Crawford listens and then investigates.

[youngguy]

I suspect I already know the answer but....

Is there actually anyone an Umbrella can be reported to?

I'm still chasing money owed (due to them making errors and me needing refunds) and seeking correct payslips (their fudges to return money they incorrectly assigned to my pension ended up in spurious lines on my payslip referencing expenses which I've never had/claimed)

Exact have been so quiet and poor, I'd assume they are under cyber attack if I hadn't been told that their system is so old it isn't even cloud based


FCSA (ha)? HMRC? Two hopes?!

[lucyclarityumbrella]

Look forward to it

[youngguy]

If it gives any of you any hope, I had one very persuasive contractor who managed to get one of the big agencies to work with us, they tried everything to kick back and failed to find any non-compliance even though they tore everything to pieces. Just depends on how much the end client wants you, and how far you are prepared to push it I guess

I will be in touch!

[lucyclarityumbrella]

Alas it's the usual PSL issue with Clarity, otherwise they'd be my first choice hands down

If it gives any of you any hope, I had one very persuasive contractor who managed to get one of the big agencies to work with us, they tried everything to kick back and failed to find any non-compliance even though they tore everything to pieces. Just depends on how much the end client wants you, and how far you are prepared to push it I guess

[eek]

It really is the Wild West (as you well know).

Alas it's the usual PSL issue with Clarity, otherwise they'd be my first choice hands down

Speak to Lucy - I suspect there is something she can demonstrate to the agency that will trump the PSL requirement - and she may already be dealing with them.