Payroll Guide for Customers

Transcription

1 INDEPENDENT LIVING AGENCY Payroll Guide for Customers We are pleased that you have chosen Independent Living Agency to support you with your payroll. ILA A5 Booklet.indd 1 12/12/ :59

2 This guide is for you to keep. It will answer a lot of your questions and take you step by step through the process of becoming an employer as you now have an Individual Budget, Direct Payment or some kind of Self-directed Support. If you cannot find the information you need please contact us. You can contact us by phone, or fax between 9am -5pm Monday to Friday. Due to our phone system here you may sometimes be asked to leave a voic message. Please leave a clear message including your telephone number and we will get back to you as soon as we can. All new customers receive a home visit from a senior member of staff so that we can explain face-to-face the service that I.L.A. offer. This guide also includes some general information about employing your own staff. CONTENTS 1. Starting Off... Page 3 2. Paying your staff... Page 4 3. Your responsibilities... Page 5 4. Levels of service... Page 6 5. Price List... Page 8 We hope that you will be happy with the service you receive from our Payroll Team. If you have a complaint, a comment or a compliment we would like to hear from you. Our service can only improve through customer feedback and the Service Manager would be pleased to hear from you. ILA A5 Booklet.indd 2 12/12/ :59

3 1. STARTING OFF. Once we have received an initial contact either from yourselves or a referral from your local authority we will contact you to book a home visit. At this visit we will explain everything and answer any questions you may have. The most important thing to happen at this stage is deciding which level of service you feel best meets your needs. We offer three levels of service; Gold Silver Bronze You will find a full explanation of what each service covers at Levels of service (page 6) Our Gold service is the most popular option for customers. We will give you two copies of a Payroll Service agreement. You will need to sign one of these and return it to us before your first pay cycle. The other one is for you to keep. This outlines what we will both do to make sure that your payroll is managed effectively. It sets out what you can expect from us and what your responsibilities are. We cannot set you up on our system or start to pay your staff until we have received this. You will need an Employee Details form and P46 form for each person who is going to work for you. We must receive these with their first set of timesheets or we won t be able to process payment. When you recruit other staff in the future they must also complete these forms and follow the same procedures. If you have chosen our Gold or Bronze service we will hold your funds for you. This means your local authority will make payments directly to us and we will keep your money in our secure client account. If you have chosen our Silver service you will need a separate bank account because you will be holding your own funds. Your local authority will pay your Individual Budget or Direct Payment in to this bank account for you. This can vary but it is usually done every quarter (three months). If you are employing your own staff you will need to register as an employer with the Inland Revenue (HMRC). This can be a worrying process so we can take care of it all on your behalf as part of our service. We need you to sign a form for HMRC at our home visit which gives us authorisation to deal with this on your behalf. ILA A5 Booklet.indd 3 12/12/ :59

4 You will also need Home Employers Insurance to cover your employees whilst they work in your home. We can arrange this on your behalf and the premium can be paid for from your budget. If you hold your own funds you should forward payment to the company yourself after we have arranged the policy. 2. PAYING YOUR STAFF Once we have received your signed payroll agreement we can set you up on our systems here. You will be allocated a unique I.L.A. reference which is made up of numbers and a letter eg; 1234 A. The letter indicates which Payroll cycle you are in. We will send you a calendar which shows important dates for your payroll cycle; when your workers timesheets need to be in. when payment will be made. When you contact us you will need to give us your I.L.A. reference so we can correctly identify you and who processed your payroll. If we do not receive your workers timesheets in time to be processed in your payroll cycle they will be processed in the next cycle. If there is a reason why you cannot get timesheets in on time please contact us so that we can try and work something out. At Christmas/New Year periods and during March for year-end we may ask you to send in timesheets earlier than usual. We will send you a message with your earlier timesheets if we need you to do this. If you want us to pay holiday pay or make any one-off payments to your staff this should be clearly marked in the bottom section of the timesheets and initialled by you. If you are using our Gold service option we will make bacs payments to your workers and then send their payslips to you for you to give out to your staff. We keep copies for financial monitoring. If you are using our Silver service we will send out two copies of payslips so that you can give one to your workers when you pay them. You keep the other one for your own records because you will need this for financial monitoring. If you do not receive your payslips in the post please contact us and we can give you the figure you need to pay over the telephone. You need to pay your workers the amount shown at total pay. You can choose how to pay your workers but we recommend that online or telephone banking is the quickest and safest way. ILA A5 Booklet.indd 4 12/12/ :59

5 Each payslip will show statutory deductions (tax and national insurance). However, these are paid to HMRC once every three months. If you hold your own funds we will write to you to let you know how much needs to be paid to HMRC and will ask you to send this amount to us. We will then forward a cheque on your behalf. If we hold your funds we will pay directly to HMRC without writing to you first. We will send you a copy of your audit sheet every quarter. Then you can see how your funds are being managed. If you would like to receive a copy every month please let us know. 3. YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES As an employer you have responsibilities and your employees have certain rights. We recommend that you complete a contract for each of your employees which clearly sets out the terms and conditions of their employment. You should also provide a Job Description so that your workers role is defined and they are clear about what tasks they are expected to carry out. We can provide templates for you to use or can custom make contracts and documents for you at an additional cost. Please see our price list. All full-time employees are entitled to 28 days (pro-rata for part-time workers) annual leave per year, inclusive of bank holidays. We recommend that you keep your own records of your employees annual leave and can supply you with an Annual Leave Record Sheet at an additional cost. Remember when your worker takes annual leave you will need to arrange your own cover. Your employees are entitled to Statutory Payments if they earn above the Lower Earnings Limit as set out by HMRC. If you have any questions about Statutory Sick Pay, Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Paternity Pay or Statutory Adoption Pay you should contact the Payroll Office for advice. You can also find advice about employment law from the ACAS helpline or at If your funding ceases you must let the Payroll team know as soon as possible. This is so that we can support you in making the necessary calculations and payments such as final tax returns and redundancy payments for staff. It is important that you do not take any steps to return your funds until we are sure you have paid all your outstanding bills. ILA A5 Booklet.indd 5 12/12/ :59

6 4. LEVELS OF SERVICE The payroll service offer three levels of service, as follows: Gold per month. This is our full payroll service with a fixed price no matter how many people you employ. We will Hold your funds in our secure client account. Keep complete payroll records and make calculations using our computerised payroll system. Provide four weekly payslips for your employees. Make bacs payments to your employees on a four weekly basis. Send you quarterly audit sheets so that you can see how your account is being managed. Register you as an employer with HMRC and then deal with them on your behalf. Complete all online filing, tax and national insurance payments, yearend as required. Arrange Home Employers insurance and pay premium from your funds. Monitor your account so that any over or underspend can be quickly identified and complete all financial monitoring with the local authority. Offer support from our friendly payroll team available Mon-Fri 9am- 5pm. Allow you unlimited access to our database of personal assistants, carers and support workers who are looking for additional work. Allow you to join our invite only social networking groups. Collect our monthly fee direct from your account. ILA A5 Booklet.indd 6 12/12/ :59

7 Silver per month. This level of service is for people who prefer to hold their own funds. You will need to have a separate bank account that is not used for anything else if you choose this option. We will. Keep complete payroll records and make calculations using our computerised payroll system. Provide four weekly payslips for your employees for you to make payment to them directly. Send you an invoice for our fee every month. You must make payment for this. Register you as an employer with HMRC and then deal with them on your behalf. Calculate and tell you how much statutory deduction (tax and national insurance) you need to pay. Collect your payment for statutory deductions and forward payment to HMRC on your behalf. Complete all online filing, quarterly tax and national insurance returns, year-end as required. Arrange Home Employers insurance. You pay premium direct to the company. Offer support from our friendly payroll team available Mon-Fri 9am-5pm. Bronze per month. This is the right level of service for you if you choose not to become an employer and use your budget to pay for a service from a company. This could be a home care agency, daycentre, transport provider or if you use a carer who is self-employed. The price is fixed no matter how many companies submit an invoice each month. You will receive quarterly audit sheets so that you can see how your account is being managed. If you choose this option you will not need to register with HMRC. If you only use another I.L.A. service, such as our cleaning service, there will be no charge for using our Bronze service. ILA A5 Booklet.indd 7 12/12/ :59

8 PRICE LIST GOLD Payroll service per month SILVER Payroll service per month BRONZE Payroll service per month Additional home visits each Access to database of P.A. s looking for work one-off fee (Includes access to our invite only social networking groups) Peer Support Broker... to be confirmed CRB checks for your employees (carried out by Barking and Dagenham Volunteer Bureau) We can also provide a number of documents and record sheets to make your life easier as a new employer. These can be ed to you, sent by second class post or custom-made to your exact requirements and sent by first class post. Document price by: post custom-made Application Form Job Description and Person Specification Contract of employment Annual Leave record sheet Sickness record sheet Mileage record sheet Expenses record sheet ILA A5 Booklet.indd 8 12/12/ :59