FREELANCE PAYMENT PORTAL (FPP) GUIDANCE FOR AGENTS The FPP is hosted on BBC servers and secured by the BBC firewall; the portal uses SSL security. This is the industry standard method for securing data collected over the internet and is used by banks and internet shopping sites. The system has been vetted and approved by BBC Information Security and the processes around it have been checked by the Information Policy and Compliance Unit to ensure they conform to the Data Protection Act. [1] GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE PROCESS Terms and conditions will be sent out by email and will have to be accepted electronically Purchase orders will be replaced by a booking confirmation e-mail containing a unique booking reference number. This will be sent to your one nominated agency e-mail address An agency will be given access to our online Freelance Payment Portal. All agents within that agency will share the same log in details The booking must be accepted online by the agent via the Freelance Payment Portal (FPP) before payment can be claimed Contracting and claiming payment will happen online using the Freelance Payment Portal (FPP) All payments will go into one agency bank account Agents will have a single contact email address (the exception is those agencies based in multiple locations who can have one address per office) To be linked to a freelancer you need to be set up on the BBC system [2] HOW TO GET YOUR AGENCY REGISTERED ON THE BBC S SYSTEMS If your agency is not already present on our system, the BBC person carrying out the booking administration ( booker ) needs to send a request to HR Direct (the BBC s HR service provider) who will contact you to get your agency details. Once you have returned these details to HR Direct they will update our systems so that your BBC booker can proceed with the booking for your freelancer and an account can be set up for your agency on the FPP. HR Direct will supply you with a log-on and password for the FPP. [3] HOW TO GET A FREELANCER LINKED OR UNLINKED TO/FROM YOUR AGENCY ON THE BBC SYSTEMS Once you are registered on the BBC systems, the booker can link a freelancer you represent to your agency on the system. When this has been done all email correspondence about the freelancers booking and payment will be sent to your agency email address. Once linked on the system your agency will be deemed to represent that freelancer for all their BBC work until such time as you, or the freelancer, contact HR Direct and ask for the link to be removed.
[4] NOTIFICATIONS When the booker links a freelancer to your agency notification will be sent to the freelancer by the BBC. [5] INFORMATION YOU WILL NEED TO SUPPLY TO YOUR BBC BOOKER For any new freelancer you represent who has never worked for the BBC before, your booker will need to ask you for the individual s date of birth, national insurance number, home address and email address. The date of birth and NI number are core data for our systems and your booker will not be able to proceed with the booking unless this information is provided. The home address and email address are also required for our records although all contractual information will be sent to your agency email address. [6] ACCEPTING OVERARCHING TERMS AND CONDITIONS The BBC s overarching terms and conditions will be sent out to your agency email address when a freelancer you represent is booked for the first time using our new online process. You may accept the overarching terms and conditions online behalf of your freelancer or forward them on to your freelancer to accept. [7] ACCEPTING BOOKINGS All booking confirmation emails and updates to bookings will be sent to your agency email address. You will need to logon to your account on the Freelance Payment Portal, select your freelancer and accept the booking on their behalf before payment can be claimed. [8] CLAIMING PAYMENTS AND PAYMENT REPORTING Payments can be claimed on or after the date the BBC booker has designated them as due on the system. or after the date specified on the payment schedule. Payments will be made weekly via the BBC payroll. You will be emailed a report of all payments made to your agency each week. All payments claimed on the Freelance Payment Portal will be sent to your agency bank account. Please see below for information on expenses. [9] EXPENSES In order to claim both personal costs and BBC disbursement costs, you or your freelancer will complete a form which will be available to download from the freelance section in the About the BBC pages on the bbc.co.uk website. Once the form has been completed it should be sent to your BBC booker/contact for authorisation after which it will be passed to our financial provider Steria for payment. Monies can be paid directly into the freelancer s bank account if these separate bank account details for expenses have been set up by you on the Freelance Payment Portal. Page 2
[10] QUERIES If at any point you need to update your agency details or any freelancer details that cannot be done on the Freelance Payment Portal, please contact HR Direct. For queries relating to the details of individual bookings please contact your BBC booker. Queries on deductions/missing payments or issues with the Freelance Payment Portal please contact HR Direct on 0800 082 8080 or by email hr@bbchrdirect.co.uk [11] FREELANCE PAYMENT PORTAL USER GUIDE FOR AGENTS 11a Freelancer & Supplier Login This is the login screen where you should enter the login ID and temporary password provided to you by BBC HR Direct. The system will prompt you to reset the password. 11b Agent Manage Freelancers This is the first screen you will see and will show all freelancers linked to you on the BBC system. Select the individual you wish to view and click the Manage Freelancer button at the bottom of the screen. Page 3
11c Freelance Payment Portal My Details This screen will show the personal information held on our system for this particular freelancer. Wherever the Make a change button is present you can update personal information on behalf of the freelancer and add separate bank account details for the freelancer s expenses if required. If your freelancer is VAT registered you will need to add their VAT details to this section in order for VAT to be applied to payment claims. Any information that cannot be updated on the portal can be done by contacting HR Direct. Page 4
11d New Bookings/Bookings Awaiting Acceptance To view new bookings and bookings awaiting acceptance, click on the link in the menu bar. This screen will list all bookings yet to be accepted. To accept a booking select the booking and click the Accept Booking button. Please note the details of the booking will be contained in the corresponding booking confirmation email. 11e Current Bookings/Claim Payment Once the booking has been accepted you may automatically be taken to the Accepted Bookings/Bookings Awaiting Claim page. Alternatively if you have previously accepted a booking you can navigate directly to the page by clicking on the link. This screen will list all bookings that have payment claims outstanding. Select the booking you require and click the Claim button. 11f Accepted Booking Items/Booking Items Awaiting Claim This screen will show all outstanding claims for the booking selected. Please note that you will only be able to claim a payment once the claim date has been reached. Select the payments you wish to claim and, if appropriate, select the VAT dropdown to add VAT to the payment and click continue Page 5
11g Submit Invoice This screen will display the summary of the invoice. Check the box to confirm that VAT has been applied correctly and click the Submit Claim button 11h Printing the Invoice This screen displays the successfully submitted invoice which can be printed. The Claim History link will display all submitted claims/invoices for this individual. Page 6