Bringing payroll in-house

truecockney

I've been asked by a friend into whether I can set up an in-house system in their workplace for Payroll and Sales Ledger as they are being charged an extraordinary amount for outsourcing this function (6% on turnver).

Although I've managed payroll over the last 4 years, this is the first time I've had to bring in in-house from outside.

Does anyone know what information I will need to retrieve from the current supplier if they transfer mid-year?

They have a licence for Sage Payroll. Does Sage have a system where it can accept a .xls or .xml export file to bring in current tax figures and employee information or does it have to be entered manually?

NeilH

Hi

Do you know what software the outsourced office uses? If they use the same version of Sage, then a backup of data should be fine. If your friend has a Sage license, see if it includes Sage Cover. If it does, Sage should be able to advise on the best way of bringing information across.

Neil

truecockney

They are using "Tempest Pay and Bill" online, I'm led to believe.

I'll ask about the Sage Cover. Cheers Neil.

truecockney

They don't believe they have Sage Cover so any other advice would be gratefully received.

:001_unsure:

payrollpro

I would say that the first thing is to check the contract because the existing provider may be under no obligation to cooperate with the transfer in house. Big payroll contracts tend to have such clauses but, surprisingly, not always and some providers can be pedantic about sticking to it.

My other wonder is just how big this payroll is because plan B might be to compile a list of the all the necessary data and have it ready to enter into Sage manually if absolutely necessary. One thing the provider must do is provide all the statutory data, though not necessarily in transferrable format and you would want a pseudo year end done in order to show that the two systems reconcile at the point of transfer.

My understanding of the situation, legally, is that the system belongs to the provider and they have no obligation to supply any information pertaining to it, however, the data belongs to the client and cannot be held back under any circumstances. Careful negotiation will probably help to achieve the provision of a transferrable file, even if it is comma delimited, which you can use.

A comma delimited file, or csv, can be imported into any spreadsheet, exel if you must, Lotus 123 if you have it, but Openoffice is so, so, so much better, which can then be imported into Sage.

Payrollpro

truecockney

Many thanks.

The "active" list is relatively small (only 5-10 employees weekly), however as they are in recruitment, the total amount of employees for this FY could easily be 50-60 (haven't been able to determine yet as only had very limited time on the system my mate sees). Hence if given the chance to import the information, it will most certainly not be refused.

At least I now know where I stand and have some kind of plan of action.

Thanks again.