Should I Keep My Payroll In-House?

Payroll is important for any business, but there is one question that you might be asking: should you do it in-house or outsource it?

There is no right or wrong answer because it depends entirely on your business. But many businesses are outsourcing payroll these days, and there are lots of reasons to do so. Here are some of the arguments on both sides.

Why Do Your Payroll In-House?

For many businesses, doing their own payroll in-house means they have complete control over the process, which may be preferable for them.

Payroll involves dealing with sensitive information, and some businesses simply prefer to keep it in-house without the need to rely on anyone else.

If you have an expert on your team who knows how to do the payroll, this can save the expense of paying for outside help, and there is no need to spend time looking for the right payroll outsourcing service.

Why Outsource Payroll?

Despite the above reasons for doing payroll in-house, many businesses prefer outsourcing payroll.

The fact is that payroll is an administrative task that, while essential for any business, is not something that helps you to make more sales. As such, by outsourcing it, staff can focus their time and energy on more productive tasks that have a direct impact on the bottom line.

You may consider outsourcing to be a cost, but you are still paying for it to be done in-house. After all, someone has to spend time working on it. This can also cause problems if the person responsible becomes ill or leaves the business. You may also need to provide staff with suitable software and training, which costs money.

One of the most important benefits of outsourcing payroll is that you avoid making mistakes. When you hire an expert to do it for you, you can avoid making errors that have the potential to cause serious problems for your business.

Payroll can become complex when you have numerous members of staff to account for, you also need to have a good understanding of overtime, wage laws and changes to legislation. When you hire a specialist, you can enjoy peace of mind that your payroll is in safe, reliable hands.

Finding a Payroll Provider

Whenever you outsource a service, you have to invest some time to find the right provider. The same is true of payroll. Your payroll provider will have access to your sensitive data, and you need to be able to trust them and know that they are dependable.

This means choosing a provider with an excellent reputation, good security practices and experience working with businesses similar to your own.

You may find they provide other services, and it can be useful to use one provider for all your financial outsourcing tasks like tax planning.

We Can Help with Your Payroll

We provide payroll services for many businesses in Surrey and Hampshire. Offering a dedicated service that provides you with complete peace of mind, we supply customised payslips, comply with the Real Time Information (RTI) regime, and can provide CIS returns if necessary – plus lots more.

To find out more about our service, get in touch and we'll be happy to explain how we can help your business.