Moving a live payroll without breaking it
Most payroll problems that surface at year end started at a migration that was rushed. This is a defined project with a fixed fee, a written plan and a sign-off point, precisely because it is the stage where things go wrong.
collecting the payroll data from your current provider or system and checking it for completeness before anything is loaded: employee records, tax codes, NI categories and letters, year-to-date figures, pension scheme and contribution details, student loan positions, statutory payment positions in progress, and attachment of earnings orders.
a written list of everything missing, inconsistent or unclear in the inherited data, with what is needed to resolve each item. You see this before we build anything.
year-to-date figures loaded and reconciled against your existing records, with the reconciliation documented.
the payroll configured in commercial payroll software recognised by HMRC: pay elements, rates, deduction types, pension scheme setup, departmental and cost-centre structure, and report formats.
where agreed, one period processed alongside your existing process and reconciled line by line, with every variance explained in writing before go-live.
you formally approve the build and the reconciliation before the first live run. Nothing goes live on assumption.
the processing calendar, cut-offs, approval points and contacts confirmed for the live service.
Migration is cleanest at the start of a tax year, but mid-year moves are routine and are what the year-to-date reconciliation exists to handle. We will tell you honestly whether your preferred go-live date is realistic given the state of the inherited data, rather than agreeing to it and discovering the problem in week one.
We do not advise on or resolve historic payroll errors made by a previous provider, beyond identifying and reporting them. Where the inherited data reveals an underpayment, overpayment or incorrect submission in a prior period, we report it, quantify it where the data allows, and refer you to your accountant or tax adviser on how to correct it. Corrective processing, if you instruct it, is quoted as separate work.
We do not act as your representative in any dispute with a previous provider.
A fixed project fee, quoted against a written scope stating the number of payrolls, the employee count, whether a parallel run is included, and the go-live date. Invoiced half on acceptance of the scope and half on documented sign-off.
Additional work identified in the gap report — historic data reconstruction, for example — is quoted as a written variation and only carried out once you have accepted it. No hourly overruns are billed after the fact.
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