It is essential you critically assess both your pension and payroll provider at the planning stage to ensure they can deliver your auto enrolment requirements. It is important you meet them both to agree together how workplace pensions will operate for your business. Following auto enrolment both providers will have to work together in a different way so it’s necessary to agree responsibilities at an early stage to ensure you are less likely to run into problems later on. Agree what systems they will both use to transfer information, and are they compatible? How will data be transferred, and which provider will be responsible?
For an employer to fulfil their legal auto enrolment obligations both payroll and pension providers must deliver the service level agreements agreed at the planning phase.
Chris Wallace, Managing Director at Visionary Accountants’ St Albans said: ‘we recommend that before employers do anything they check that their payroll provider’s software can deliver an auto enrolment solution for their business. The payroll must be able to work out the correct employer deductions and how much to pay your staff. Using the right system is important as it need to hold personal staff details and earnings information to ensure you pay the correct pension contribution to each member of staff. Companies should prepare for auto enrolment early. If you have to upgrade your payroll solution during the auto enrolment project you may delay your staging date. At the end of the day it is the business owners risk and cost so make sure your payroll provider can deliver. If your company is due to stage and needs payroll advice call us on 01727 730550.’
Visionary Accountants is based in St Albans and offers Accountancy Services, Bookkeeping Services, Payroll & Auto Enrolment, Tax Planning & Tax Advice.