Industry news
PSTAX and CRS merger THE DIRECTORS of LAVAT Consulting Limited (T/A PSTAX) and leading specialist firm CRS VAT Consulting Limited have announced their intention to merge. The businesses will run independently but under common ownership until 31 March 2019, after which the integration will be complete. LAVAT, a provider of tax and value added tax (VAT) services to the local government, police and fire sectors, rebranded to ‘PSTAX’ in late 2015 to mark the change to an all-taxes business. The PSTAX team of fourteen staff currently provide tax subscription services to 170 public bodies, in addition to a wide range of consultancy and training. CRS has been providing VAT services to the National Health Service since 2002. With ten professional staff, CRS provides VAT review and advisory services, HMRC business methods approval and VAT training to over sixty NHS bodies throughout the UK. The combined offering to clients, including PSTAX Club members, will be enhanced by, for example, greater levels of skilled and experienced resource and a shared central London office for client meetings and training events. Chris Silk, managing director of CRS, welcomes the merger: “The scale of the new business will help us attract and recruit the very best staff and we confidently anticipate becoming the UK’s largest specialist public sector tax business in the near future.” Stonewater transformation programme Simon Barker, co-founder and chief executive officer of Conferma, commented: “It simply should not be the case in today’s world that individuals, particularly the low-paid, are having to hold back personal spending due to the delay in expense repayment. Businesses must do more to address this issue for their own benefit as well as the wellbeing of their own staff.” Employees lend employers £300 million each month RESEARCH FROM Conferma, the fintech company specialising in virtual payment technology, reveals UK employees are effectively lending their employers £321 million a month through expenses. This arises as 36% of UK employees use their own money to pay for work-related expenses at least once per month, with the average individual expense claim being £72.20, with 33% experiencing personal cash flow issues because of their company’s expense submission deadline.
activpayroll opens South Africa office THE OPENING of activpayroll’s first office in Africa is an invaluable addition to the company’s regional support. It will enable expansion of its reach across the continent, strengthening relationships with current customers and prospects, and demonstrate continuing commitment to investing in key locations across the globe. Alison Sellar, chief executive officer of activpayroll, said: “Africa is becoming a viable place for investment and it is important we put down roots in order to compete in this emerging economy. We thought South Africa was an ideal location for an office as it represents a gateway to Africa, with excellent access to neighbouring markets including Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.” Jason Chidgey, regional director – Africa, added: “…a lot of hard work has gone into this and I am confident that we have a professional team ready to manage payrolls in multiple African countries. We look forward to achieving customer goals, providing service excellence, and building on existing and new relationships.”
SOCIAL HOUSING provider Stonewater is entering final phase of a transformation programme of its human resources (HR) and payroll functions in collaboration with MHR that are designed to optimise processes, drive efficiency savings and improve employee engagement. Since a merger in 2015, Stonewater – which employs over 750 people and supports over 65,000 customers living in 31,500 homes – has embarked on the programme to drive business performance and deliver value for money to support its ambitious programme of providing 2,765 new homes by 2021. Jenny Sawyer, HR director at Stonewater, says: “We inherited multiple legacy systems following the merger, and to meet our business needs it was clear we required a major overhaul of our HR processes to support our short- and long-term strategic aims. Automation of the payroll process, for instance, has greatly reduced the number of people required to carry out manual corrections and calculate costing post payroll runs. “MHR’s strategic knowledge and technical expertise has been invaluable, and their support has helped fast-track the development and transition of our HR and payroll services to a digital delivery system that benefits all stakeholders.” Anton Roe, chief executive officer at MHR, comments: “The transformation project at Stonewater is a perfect example of how working in collaboration with our strategic team, organisations can adopt new ways of working and innovate their HR processes to deliver business improvements, reduce costs and meet the expectations of their people and customers.”
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | November 2018 | Issue 45 16
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