Payroll for accountants: running forty client payrolls identically

Judging payroll software for accountants

1. Run a batch, not a payroll. Ask to see twenty clients processed in one sitting, with the exceptions surfaced rather than hunted. Batch behaviour is the whole productivity difference and it is rarely demonstrated unless requested.
2. Check client separation and permissions. One client's data must not appear in another's report, and a junior should be able to prepare without being able to file. Both are ordinary requirements and both are configurable rather than automatic.
3. Time the month end. Filing, payslip distribution, and the reports clients expect. Multiply the difference between two products by your client count and the licence price stops mattering.

What batch working means in payroll programs for accountants

Processing many schemes from one screen, with the product telling you which need attention rather than you opening each in turn. An exception driven workflow turns a week of month end into two days, and it is the single largest difference between products aimed at practices and products aimed at employers.

Bulk filing matters equally. Submitting for forty clients individually is forty opportunities to miss one, and a product that files in a batch with a consolidated confirmation removes a genuine risk rather than just a chore.

Getting client data into accountants' payroll software

This is where practice payroll really consumes time. Clients send hours by email, by spreadsheet, on paper and by telephone, in formats that change without warning. A product with a client portal or a stable import template moves the effort back to the client, where it belongs.

Look for approval as well as submission. A client who has confirmed their own figures in the system is a client who cannot later claim the figures were yours, and that record is worth having in a fee dispute.

Liability, which sits differently for a practice

When a bureau makes an error, the client's penalty is the client's, and the relationship is yours. That makes audit trail, approval evidence and the ability to reproduce exactly what was filed on a given date more valuable to a practice than to an employer.

Check how long the product retains filed submissions and whether they can be produced as they were sent. Practices that have been through an enquiry rate this above most features on the comparison sheet.

Common questions

Can a practice use employer payroll software for clients?

For a handful of clients, yes. Beyond about ten schemes the absence of batch working and bulk filing costs more than the licence saving.

How should clients send their payroll data?

Through one route, ideally a portal or a fixed template, with the client approving the figures. Mixed channels are where practice payroll errors originate.

Does the practice or the client hold the filing reference?

The scheme belongs to the client and the practice files as agent. Keeping that distinction clear in the software matters when a client leaves.

What happens when a client moves to another accountant?

You must be able to hand over complete history. Check the export before you take on the client, not when they are leaving.

Coverage by country

• Employer of record vendors covering Singapore
• Employer of record vendors covering Mexico
• Employer of record vendors covering Spain
• Employer of record vendors covering Colombia
• Employer of record vendors covering United Kingdom
• Employer of record vendors covering France
• Employer of record vendors covering Hungary
• Employer of record vendors covering New Zealand