How to dip your toes into the new generation of cloud payroll

Accountants don’t change software packages very often.

Time is money, and switching systems takes time. Even if your current system is bloated, antiquated, and takes far more time than it should to configure for new pay runs or tax years, at least you know it, and know how much time you might need to do said configuration. New software might save you an extraordinary amount of time over a longer time horizon, but it could also be a giant waste of time. It’s hard to know without investing some time trying it out first.

While this attitude to change is understandable, it will hold you back in the long run. New cloud-based payroll software could save you days and days of time in the long run, with far better automation and less time spent checking compliance with ever-changing requirements from HMRC.

A good way to dip your toes into a new bit of software is with a smaller and perhaps new client. Transferring the payroll setup for a huge company with complex rotas and hundreds of staff is a huge undertaking. But onboarding a new client with more simple payroll needs on a different software is far easier.

We’ve designed an “Essentials” pricing tier of our cloud payroll software for exactly this purpose – smaller clients with less complex payroll needs, new or existing. While Essentials lacks some of our more complex features like automation, rota management, or the WorkZone app that lets employees manage their own payroll information, it will still deliver compliant pay slips through the cloud, along with everything a small business needs, like payroll auto-enrolment and the ability for an employee to access their own payroll records.

This is not everything cloud payroll can deliver, but it is still cloud payroll. That means no more waiting for software updates after (seemingly endless) changes to national insurance rates, or double and triple-checking that you are always using the most up to date tax rates through every pay run. It means you can work from anywhere with an internet connection. And despite these benefits there are no major upfront costs.

We know that not everyone who does payroll for their clients sees it as their core business. For many accountants it is more of an add-on service, an afterthought to the main work they are passionate about.

Making this stuff simple should free you up to take the time needed to perform more strategic work and complex tasks – the stuff that will make a difference to your client, and will make you stand out from your competitors. This strategic advice is often far more important to smaller clients who are just starting up, who won’t have a payroll or accounting strategy yet, but who might need one.

Cloud payroll is fantastic – and there is no reason that every single business with an employee shouldn’t be using it. It is 2022 and there is no excuse for anyone still managing payroll through Excel.

By Phil Bernie, Co-founder of KeyPay

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