[TVCS]

Hi folks. 
We have just taken on 2 members of staff.  Our first 2.  Now after a sit down with our accountant he has given us a quote to manage payroll for us.  I have had a quick look online and you can get free software from the HMRev website to help you handle this for yourself. 

Do you guys do it yourself or let the accountant handle it??  I am trying to way up the pro's and con's of doing it myself. 

I am not a mathematical genius so am thinking that maybe let the accountant take the hassle out of it for me. And save any mistakes   

Thanks
Ant

[cleaning-team]

We use Sage for Invoicing and Payroll and, as the two link together, it is pretty easy to do - the only more difficult time is year end when it is probably best to get your accountant to at least check what you are doing before you submit.

IMO paying an accountant for 2 employees, however litle he may charge, is totally unnecessary with the availaiblity of cost effective sopftware applications which can do it for you.

The other piece of advices I would give are pasword protect your application and take lots of regular backups (i.e. every time you do something in the application ideally) and store them safely off site - the great thing about regular backups especially with a small number of employees is if you do make a screw up you can easily restore to the last backup and start again.

[TVCS]

Thanks for your reply.

The cost the accountant is talking of seems a lot for just 2 employees so that is why I was thinking of having a go at it myself. 

Have found a package called quick books.  Watched some tutorial videos and it all looks pretty straight forward.  (even for me )

I will google sage and have a butchers and compare the 2 packages.  The quickbooks packages start at about £100.

Regards
Ant

[cleaning-team]

Sage Instant Accounts and Payroll is around £150 for both if you shop around - the only downside we came up against is Instant Accounts cannot handle Flat Rate VAT nor Purchasing Orders and Payroll is limited to 10 leavers in one year. Other than that I love them and have no complaints about either.

[TVCS]

thanks a lot cleaning team.

[TVCS]

great website by the way

[Paul Heath]

Go to www.moneysoft.co.uk been using it for the last 4 years, i think its about £50 for the year for up to 20. It is very good, does it all for you and you have a months free trial, with regular updates and file on line facility. Pay accountants enough already, without letting them do the payroll as well.

[trees]

i use thepayrollsite which is really easy to use and £5.75 per month then my accountant uses my login info to submit the return online and charges me £80 per year

[Scotbrite]

Hi,
I use www.payroo.co.uk its free for the first 50 employee's and for me works a treat, the only cost is at the year end for email returns & for i think about 15 employee's it cost me £25 approx. It does everything for you except a bacs transferTakes a bit to set up properly but once you get used to the system its a doddle.
Regards,
Ron

[absolutecleaning]

The HMRC disc is an absolute doddle and is free.  It even does the year end return without any messing around.

Simon