Hi guys,
Me again with the questions! So I’m studying the ICB diploma in payroll management, which uses Sage for the computerised section of the course. I’ve not used any other payroll software before so have no basis for comparison, but it seems pretty user friendly with oodles of features. Running the payroll seems to be a pretty easy if not slightly boring process.
However I don’t think the course materials I have are that great to be honest, so whilst it tells me to generate all these reports, it doesn’t really explain what they are used for. Can anyone who uses Sage to run their payroll for clients please tell me what you would usually send to them each week or month when you do the payroll run? The company I currently use to do the payroll for my business used to send me the employees payslips, a payroll summary report, a HMRC remittance report and a letter telling me what I owed to HMRC that month and when and how I needed to pay it. In the last couple of months they have stopped sending me pdfs and now upload everything to an online portal. I think this might be due to the GDPR coming into force. Does GDPR now mean that you can’t email documents across? Since my payroll bureau started using it I no longer get the individual payslips or the letter telling me what to pay HMRC, which to be honest I found very useful.
Some general advice on what you guys send to clients would be much appreciated by the newbie here! And whilst I’m at it, the reports I’m being told to save before the payroll run on Sage are:
- Analysis of payroll totals
- BACS Pay Transfer Report with Totals
- Payment Summary Parts 1 and 2
- Update Records Check Report
And then after the payroll has been updated:
- P32
- FPS Reconciliation Report
What exactly are these used for specifically and are they all required?
Thanks in advance :)
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Replies (13)
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I can't tell you what sage reports show, as I don't use it, but I can tell you what reports I send my clients.
Wage slips, payment summary, tax and ni due when and how, pension contributions payable when and how.
I don't use Sage anymore, having switched to Moneysoft. However, what you were receiving would be my default, but I honestly send whatever the client requires. One size does not fit all.
Sage payroll ? Easy to run ?
Bless me !! I couldn't wait to get shut of it for the one client who used it.
Sage is full of bugs and things you don't know about until you leave. I had to do an EYU long after I stopped using Sage, as HMRC had just noticed that they couldn't read the FPS I sent 2 years earlier via Sage. HMRC said to me it was a "known issue" and surely Sage would help me sort it out.
Do you guys mind telling what software you use instead of Sage? I’ll have a look at all of them and try them out to see which I think would be best to start my own payroll bureau with.
Yes it seems to be a toss up between the two having had a look at some other threads and the websites for both. People are reporting that Brightpay is better with AE. Their online portal service also looks good, but I think could be quite costly.
Thanks for the replies, it seems really strange that Sage is what appears to be one of the biggest names in payroll software, yet lots of people don’t seem to like it. It’s also the only one they train on in the course I am doing. I was thinking my services may look more attractive to clients if I advertise that I work with Sage as opposed to lesser well known software, but from reading your replies it seems that’s not the case.
Unfortunately you will find that the courses are based often on what the lecturers / course writers have heard of. Not necessarily what's used by those with real world experience.Thanks for the replies, it seems really strange that Sage is what appears to be one of the biggest names in payroll software, yet lots of people don’t seem to like it. It’s also the only one they train on in the course I am doing.
sam1412 wrote:
Thanks for the replies, it seems really strange that Sage is what appears to be one of the biggest names in payroll software, yet lots of people don’t seem to like it. It’s also the only one they train on in the course I am doing.
Unfortunately you will find that the courses are based often on what the lecturers / course writers have heard of. Not necessarily what's used by those with real world experience.
What Sage have is great marketing. Plus they were one of the first feet in the door.
There's usually a report that compares this month's pay to last month's. It's a useful way of checking that starters/leavers/payrises have been properly processed
I’ve just had a look at the demo video for Moneysoft and I must say it looks really good, and I love that it has the agent features on there too. I think I might have to try the free trails for some of these software packages. I’m at a bit of a disadvantage that I’ve never actually done payroll before so don’t have working experience behind me, but I do pick up new software reasonably easily.
So glad I’ve found this site as I’m getting a lot more useful advice and sense from people working in the industry than from the course tutors.
I’m not very impressed with the course documents really as I’ve already had to point out to the college some errors and inaccuracies in them, and then I got marked down as a standard pass in my first assessment because their question about SSP did not have all the relevant employee information in that I needed to be able to work out the accurate payment. However after explaining the problems with the question to them they had to check with their colleague who then agreed that I was right and upgraded me to a distinction!
Since GDPR I’m now just sending a payroll summary report (gross to net analysis) then payslips emailed directly to employees.
If you’re thinking of running a payroll bureau by all means learn Sage on the course but apply those principles and use something like BrightPay. Much better and at a fraction of the cost
