Worst Umbrella Company - Parasol

[hobnob]

I've been with Parasol since Novemeber. They were alright until they were hacked. But, I'm confused about the 'employment costs'. They've given me a breakdown with the calculation but I don't understand the calculation, which looks weird to me.

They've got:

(invoice value - margin - pension auto enrolment - weekly NI allowance) * (14.3 / 114.3) + 0.75

They explained they're calculating 14.3%, which is the sum of the 13.8% employers NI + 0.5% apprenticeship levy. Then they're adding 75p to adjust the apprenticeship levy which they calculated after the weekly NI allowance was deducted. Which results in the weird (14.3 / 114.3) + 0.75 calculation.

So, how does 14.3 / 114.3 calculate 14.3%? Is my basic maths flawed? That looks like 12.5% to me. It looks like the cost is too low, which I imagine no one will complain about. I prefer their amount but I'd rather be accurate. What am I doing wrong?

Wow, that sounds like a mess. It might help if you could to post specific figures.

When you (or they) say "weekly NI allowance", I think you mean the Secondary Threshold (ST), which is currently £170/week.

Basically, the umbrella will get a chunk of money from the agency (based on your daily rate). The employment costs then fall into 4 categories:
* Company margin
* Pension (employer's contribution)
* Apprenticeship levy
* Employer's NI

Whatever's left becomes your gross salary, which is also your "earnings for NICs".
* Apprenticeship levy = 0.5% x earnings for NICs
* Employer's NI = 13.8% x (earnings for NICs - ST)

NB This creates a loop: the employer's NI and apprenticeship levy are calculated from earnings for NICs, but those earnings are calculated by deducting the apprenticeship levy and NI! I'm not sure what formula the umbrella can use for that, or whether they just do trial and error until everything matches.

My approach is to chuck all the numbers into Excel, then verify that they match. I.e. calculate what the apprenticeship levy and employer's NI should be (based on earnings for NICs) then verify that "lump sum - employment costs = earnings for NICs".

[MrContractor]

Can confirm Parasol absolutely sucks.

Late payments last/this week - taken pension off again from me when I opted-out late last year - taken two weeks' margin off me despite them having prior evidence that I was on a dual package with them (and then my accountant being OOO so he couldn't confirm that with them, so they took it anyway)

Phone lines never work - Live chat constantly wants to take things offline so they don't need to follow up - Customer Service emails are responded to by whoever; I've had 6/7 different reps get back to me in one email chain, each replying to my following reply so what happens is information gets lost along the way and no one particular person follows things through.

Just a big Grade S s***-tier umbrella.

AND they got hacked too. Nightmare.

[Wilf]

Just received a letter from Nest (pensions). They've reported Parasol to the Pensions Regulator because "Parasol Ltd either haven't paid contributions to Nest on time or failed to notify us that contributions weren't due to be paid. This breached their legal duty as an employer."

[gizzmo]

My agency moved me from Parasol to Paystream after the hacking debacle. Parasol was my first experience of an umbrella. I have now had my first payroll from Paystream this week and OMG - what a contrast. Like night and day. The payslip is so much clearer, the salary sacrifice done as it should be on the day rate before deductions.
Parasol's was so complicated I had to build myself a spreadsheet in order to check the calculations each month and keep track of the pension amounts etc - which was very hard as they did it on fixed amount each month on which they added back the NI - but if you earnt less then the salary sacrifice etc changed each month by a wierd percentage which they could never explain how they worked it out.
Happy to be with Paystream now (so far at least) - they seem a much more professional outfit.

[Wilf]

I've received an email and a text message from these dodos today:

We havenâ?Tt heard from you since your assignment ended, so we wanted to find out your current plans.
If youâ?Tre taking a break from contracting, you can resign from Parasol and request your P45 by logging into MyParasol and clicking My Details and Resign from Parasol. If youâ?Tve not yet finalised your plans, there is no rush.
We are obliged to give you notice of our intention to terminate your employment so, if we don't hear from you in 4 weeks, your employment with Parasol will come to an end.
If contracting is likely to remain your long-term future, we would be happy to welcome you back at any time. We offer a flexible solution to contractors who have assignments inside and outside of IR35 through one of our accountancy solutions which includes umbrella employment whereby we won't apply our usual margin.

I clicked on the MyParasol link and guess what? 404 not found.

[MrContractor]

A follow-up to Parasol sucking; I'm still being charged a margin when having asked for weeks now to try and get it removed.

Phone lines put you on hold for hours after directing you to Live Chat....you go to Live Chat and they use generic names, promising that they have to move this to email you and then of course, they never get around to emailing you.

Pensions get opted out from and then they still keep taking it from my paycheck.

Tax code was also updated over a week again, I'm still on D0 for some reason.

These cowboys are just really the worst.

[css_jay99]

I'm with parasol at the moment and 1st IR35 contract ever. Coming from a ltd setup previously where I used SAGE Payroll products, I understood my tax affairs and know what was paid and remitted to HMRC.

But now with Parasol, I can't even understand the payslip. I tried working it out on paper but the hacking fiasco and late/irregular payments over that period just convoluted the process of reconciling the figures to make sure all is as expected.

I noticed as well that work invoices for worked t client between 21st March to 3rd April went into 2022-2023 tax yer. I accept that the invoices won't have been paid but surely it should go under previous tax year.

Granted, I have not had major issues apart from the hacking scandal which could potentially happen to any company but it will be good to know I can change umbrellas at anytime during a contract without financial repercussions. How easy is it changing Umbrellas?.

It would be nice if all these brollies provide a demo login to see what's under the bonnet.

[eek]

I'm with parasol at the moment and 1st IR35 contract ever. Coming from a ltd setup previously where I used SAGE Payroll products, I understood my tax affairs and know what was paid and remitted to HMRC.

But now with Parasol, I can't even understand the payslip. I tried working it out on paper but the hacking fiasco and late/irregular payments over that period just convoluted the process of reconciling the figures to make sure all is as expected.

Parasol's problem is that until they move payroll provider their old systems are a complete hodgepodge of different systems (from my experiments it seems one system calculates gross pay, and that figure is then used for payroll before another system them picks up the pieces to reconcile the lot). And that reconciliation won't appear on your pay slip / summary it's only revealed when you check your pension pot.

I noticed as well that work invoices for worked t client between 21st March to 3rd April went into 2022-2023 tax yer. I accept that the invoices won't have been paid but surely it should go under previous tax year.

Tax is due on the day payment is due / made (except for weird exceptions that don't matter here). So as payment would have been post April 6th then the tax is based on post April 6th figures

Granted, I have not had major issues apart from the hacking scandal which could potentially happen to any company but it will be good to know I can change umbrellas at anytime during a contract without financial repercussions. How easy is it changing Umbrellas?.

It would be nice if all these brollies provide a demo login to see what's under the bonnet.

Changing umbrellas depends on the agency more than anything else. Some make it easy others make it impossible (for reasons that could be sane or could revolve around PSL agreements).

[css_jay99]

Now I'm not sure if I should stick with Parasol or not considering the complaints on the forum. Just about to change client and this could run for some time. I would like to dip into SIPP's at some point this year and put a bit more into pension

I spoke to Parasol (as well as Paystream) on this and both said not an issue though very scanty on the details, more so when I was told no additional charges.

[northernladuk]

Now I'm not sure if I should stick with Parasol or not considering the complaints on the forum. Just about to change client and this could run for some time. I would like to dip into SIPP's at some point this year and put a bit more into pension

I spoke to Parasol (as well as Paystream) on this and both said not an issue though very scanty on the details, more so when I was told no additional charges.

Call Lucy at Clarity and get her working on the agent to get on the PSL and then go with them. Sorted.