Parasol Umbrella seem to have disappeared today

[eek]

I just signed up with Parasol last week and my "account manager" hasn't even been able to login to docusign to approve the contract from the agency.

What Umbrella would you fine folks recommend me moving to instead?

Default will always be Clarity if it’s an option - otherwise what are the other options on the PSL

[1ne0fFU]

Received the following email from them yesterday. If you are with them and did not receive this then hope it helps..

cheers

...

---

---

As you may be aware, Parasol is experiencing significant issues relating to its systems. I wanted to share with you today how those issues are impacting our current support levels and to provide reassurance on how we are managing critical activities such as making sure you are paid.

Our priority has always been to provide our employees with everything they need in terms of support and care and we acknowledge that we are falling short of this currently.


Your Pay

Firstly, I want to share with you that whilst these system issues have certainly impacted us, we can advance payments to our employees. We may have already emailed you personally asking for further details to assist us.

If you were expecting pay and haven’t received it or heard from us, simply give us a call and we will prioritise your payment.

If your pay is due in the coming days, again you will shortly receive a personal email from us.

We would ask that you look out for any such communication in the next few days to ensure we avoid unnecessary delays.


Ways of reaching us

You will be experiencing issues in accessing MyParasol portal and we therefore wanted to share with you the best ways to contact us until such time our systems are fully restored. Our team of specialist Employee Support Advisors are here and ready to support you with any queries you may have. The quickest way to make contact is through LiveChat and due to the volume of calls we are currently receiving, we would encourage you to use this channel in the first instance.

• You can connect with us via LiveChat between the hours of 8am and 7pm, using this link: https://parasolgroup.co.uk/portal-maintenance
• You can email us as normal at [email protected]
• We also have our team available to answer your calls as normal. Please call us on 01925 644860 between 9am and 5.30pm - if we are unable to answer your call immediately, you will receive a call back the same day.

In the meantime, we are working around the clock to resolve our system issues so that we are fully operational as soon as possible.

Thank you for your understanding at this time.

Kind regards

Doug Crawford,
CEO Parasol

[eek]

Remarkable in what it says within the lines and what it doesn't say at all.

I note that the people asking on linkedIn if the systems have been compromised and personal details stolen haven't had a response (and while its possible that the silence is because they don't know it is worrying).

I commented a while back when Cojak asked about 2 firms that I would recommend picking the newer firm that uses a third party software provider rather than the older firm with in house systems - given this story I would reiterate that suggestion.

[PerfectStorm]

"As an end client with Nixon Williams, there have been no communication for that brand."

Business as usual has resumed!

[KUWTC]

Brilliant - they've told us to email [email protected] and all you get are bounce backs. Useless!

[1ne0fFU]

Some contractors submit timesheets via their Agency so do not have to submit a separate timesheet via Parasol.

If you are one of these then I suggest you hold back submitting timesheets until the IT issues are resolved. I know of someone who followed Parasol guidelines and was given an advance, but it was lower than their usual amount they would normally receive.

[gizzmo]

I really wish umbrellas wouldn't use half the terms they do. If you salary sacrifice into your pension the difference in pay between each umbrella will be the difference in margin. It won't be more than £25 difference in take home pay between any of them once HMRC takes their cut.

Parasol usually end up with a higher figure than others if you use their workplace pension but there are "reasons" for that (not illegal, nor dodgy, more dubious)...

Interested in these "reasons"....? Can you elaborate?

[eek]

Interested in these "reasons"....? Can you elaborate?

If you look at a Parasol pay summary (not the payslip but the bit that contains the employer tax breakdowns) you may see 3 pension figures, not 2... One of them (the smallest one) is a trick that sends some extra money into Parasol's pocket.

[gizzmo]

Received the following email from them yesterday. If you are with them and did not receive this then hope it helps..

cheers

...

---

---

As you may be aware, Parasol is experiencing significant issues relating to its systems. I wanted to share with you today how those issues are impacting our current support levels and to provide reassurance on how we are managing critical activities such as making sure you are paid.

Our priority has always been to provide our employees with everything they need in terms of support and care and we acknowledge that we are falling short of this currently.


Your Pay

Firstly, I want to share with you that whilst these system issues have certainly impacted us, we can advance payments to our employees. We may have already emailed you personally asking for further details to assist us.

If you were expecting pay and haven’t received it or heard from us, simply give us a call and we will prioritise your payment.

If your pay is due in the coming days, again you will shortly receive a personal email from us.

We would ask that you look out for any such communication in the next few days to ensure we avoid unnecessary delays.


Ways of reaching us

You will be experiencing issues in accessing MyParasol portal and we therefore wanted to share with you the best ways to contact us until such time our systems are fully restored. Our team of specialist Employee Support Advisors are here and ready to support you with any queries you may have. The quickest way to make contact is through LiveChat and due to the volume of calls we are currently receiving, we would encourage you to use this channel in the first instance.

• You can connect with us via LiveChat between the hours of 8am and 7pm, using this link: https://parasolgroup.co.uk/portal-maintenance
• You can email us as normal at [email protected]
• We also have our team available to answer your calls as normal. Please call us on 01925 644860 between 9am and 5.30pm - if we are unable to answer your call immediately, you will receive a call back the same day.

In the meantime, we are working around the clock to resolve our system issues so that we are fully operational as soon as possible.

Thank you for your understanding at this time.

Kind regards

Doug Crawford,
CEO Parasol

Its a smokescreen - everyone I know who has tried (and multiple people on linked in and twitter) have tried to call / DM - and we just get told sorry we can't actually access your records so we can't do anything while the system is down. Its been at least 5 days down now so I think the FCSA need to be taking a more firmer view on this, as it certainly is not prompt action.

[eek]

Its a smokescreen - everyone I know who has tried (and multiple people on linked in and twitter) have tried to call / DM - and we just get told sorry we can't actually access your records so we can't do anything while the system is down. Its been at least 5 days down now so I think the FCSA need to be taking a more firmer view on this, as it certainly is not prompt action.

What exactly can the FCSA actually do?