APRIL 2020 | PAYROLL ON POINT
7
CORONAVIRUS – IMPACT TO PAYROLL
With the continued impact of the Coronavirus across the UK and measures that are being put in place, it is appreciated that there may be concerns as to the impact to payroll processing during this period and the steps we have put in place to address in the BDO payroll team. Business continuity is key to managing payroll processing as deadlines for processing and payments are fixed, so rest assured this is an area we continuously review and test during the year to ensure our disaster recovery and continuity can withstand any impact. We can confirm that, as we manage payrolls out of four different locations across the UK (Reading, London, Manchester and Glasgow) and all four locations processes and systems are aligned and centralised, we are able to manage all of our clients’ payrolls from these locations, thus ensuring we have the highest level of continuity. We have recently gone through an exercise to ensure our clients files are centralised electronically, so authorised payroll staff can review at all times, even without access to an office, should we have a situation that an office location has to be temporarily closed. In addition, we can confirm that as all of the systems we share with our clients for payroll services (Star, Client Engage Portal and PayDashboard) are cloud based solutions, our clients have the benefit of being able to access their information online and liaise with us outside of their working environment, ensuring there is no impact to them for payroll should their offices be impacted by the virus. We would advise our clients to ensure they have noted their login details for the systems, so they can access outside of their normal working environment. They should also give consideration to the process they wish to undertake should they not have access to other internal systems, which could impact the data collation for payroll, as some companies may decide to pay a flat/basic no change month in this instance. This may not be relevant for companies with hourly paid staff, so a plan should be put in place within their business to manage this situation as we will require instructions from our clients as to how they wish to progress. We’ve set up a resource hub at www.bdo.co.uk/covid-19 that contains the latest guidance and measures to support your business during this time.
DIRECT DEBIT
We are now invoicing our clients on the basis of each time the payroll is completed, which for most of our clients is on a monthly basis. With the technology available through most accounting systems on the market, this should not incur additional administration for our clients. However, we do understand that this may not be the case for all and to assist with any additional administrative work this may cause, we are able to offer a Direct Debit facility. With this method of payment, the invoice issued for the processing of the payroll will be collected at the end of the following month it was issued in. This facility can be used for all BDO invoices issued, or just this from your payroll service if you wish.
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