Taking over a payroll nobody documented is routine work here. Our payroll services in Neath start from whatever exists, a spreadsheet, half a login and a leaver's scribbled notes, and get the next pay run out on time.
In a small business, payroll usually sits with one person. Often it is not even their main job. The office manager, the owner’s partner and a bookkeeper who comes in two days a week.
It works until it does not. They leave, go on long-term sick, or retire. The knowledge goes with them, because nobody ever wrote it down. What you are left with is a spreadsheet you did not build, a login you do not have, and a payday in a fortnight.
We take that over. You give us what exists, we work out what is missing, and we run it from there. HMRC’s guidance on running payroll sets out what has to be filed and when, and from the point we start, that is our obligation to meet rather than yours. Short notice is not a problem. Most of the payrolls we inherit arrive with two weeks on the clock.
We see the same few problems most times we inherit a payroll that was run in-house.
Tax codes that were never updated. HMRC sends code changes through the year. If nobody was checking, staff have been on the wrong code for months.
Holiday pay worked out at basic rate. If people regularly do overtime, that overtime should feed into their holiday pay. Plenty of small employers pay it flat. The government’s guidance on holiday entitlement covers how it should be calculated.
Pension assessment done once, then forgotten. Auto-enrolment is not a one-off. Every worker has to be assessed every pay period, and re-enrolment comes round every three years whether anyone remembers or not. The Pensions Regulator lists the full employer duties.
Nobody knows where the records are. Payslips saved on one laptop, the pension portal login in someone’s head, no record of who was postponed and when.
We sort out what we find, and we tell you what it was. Deciding which of these needs an amended submission to HMRC and which can be corrected in the next run is not a judgement call you should be making from a spreadsheet, and it is exactly what payroll qualifications cover. Kay holds a CIPP Degree in Payroll Management and is a full member of the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals. If something needs correcting, we say so rather than moving it quietly into the new system.
A lot of owner-managed firms around Neath end up running more than one entity. A trading company and a property company. A partnership that became a limited company, but the old one never closed. Two related businesses sharing the same premises and some of the same staff.
Each one is a separate employer as far as HMRC is concerned. Each needs its own PAYE scheme, its own RTI submissions and its own year-end. The tricky part is staff who work across both, because their pay from each has to be handled correctly rather than lumped together.
If that describes you, say so at the quote stage. It changes what the work involves, and we would rather know at the start than find out in month two.
We work with employers across the local area and the surrounding valleys, including Briton Ferry, Skewen, Cimla, Bryncoch, Tonna, Resolven, Glynneath, Pontardawe, Ystalyfera and the Dulais and the Neath valleys. We know the area well, and we are reachable in the same working hours as you.
Manufacturing and industrial employers make up a good share of the work. Shift patterns and overtime, often paid weekly. The sums are not complicated, but a mistake lands on everyone in the same week, so there is no room to be casual about it.
Construction is the other big one, and it is usually two payrolls in one business. Employees on PAYE and subcontractors on CIS are filed to different deadlines. The most common slip is paying a subcontractor before verifying them with HMRC, which the government’s CIS guide explains.
Beyond those, we deal with care and support providers, where the previous system usually holds a set of assumptions about which parts of a shift are paid, and nobody left behind an explanation of why. And small professional and trade firms, under twenty staff, salaried, one pension scheme. Those look like the easy handovers, and they are the ones where something has usually been running wrong the longest.
You approve each run. We handle everything underneath it.
Inherited pension schemes are where we find the most unfinished business. Assessments that stopped, a re-enrolment date that passed without a declaration, staff postponed years ago with no record of when. We assess every worker each pay period from the day we take over, and we tell you what was missed before it becomes your problem with The Pensions Regulator.
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Staff get a secure login and pull their own payslips and P60s. It solves a specific problem when you have just inherited a payroll, because historic payslips are usually the thing nobody can find, and the person who could find them has gone.
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CIS is the Construction Industry Scheme. Taking over a contractor's payroll means rebuilding the subcontractor records: who has been verified, at what rate, and who has gross payment status. We check the position with HMRC rather than trusting the file we are handed, then run the deductions, the monthly return and the statements as set out in the government's CIS guide.
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One of the first things we establish is what you actually owe, because an inherited payroll often comes with an unclear PAYE position. From then on, we tell you what is due and when and set the payment up through Apron for you to approve.
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We run the payroll; your accountant handles the tax. When you have lost the person who did both, this is the split that matters: we can pick up the payroll half immediately without waiting for the accounts side to be resolved.
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Everything from the point of handover. Tax codes, calculations, payslips, starters, leavers, year-end, and the RTI report that HMRC expects on or before each payday. RTI stands for Real Time Information.
ContactAt Augustus Payroll, we don’t just process your payroll; our UK-based in-house team
delivers the best payroll service to help our payroll clients' small businesses or large companies grow.
All of our payroll is managed by staff based in the UK, and we guarantee your payroll will never be outsourced overseas.
Services to fit your schedule and unique payroll needs.
Use the latest payroll software for quick, accurate processing and fast responses to queries.
From year-end reports to electronic submissions, we deal with HMRC so you don’t have to.
With over 22 years of payroll and HR experience, you can trust our payroll experts to get your payroll right and compliant.
One point of contact for personal support and smooth service.
By outsourcing payroll functions, you reduce overheads and get a cost-effective solution that optimises your payroll services costs for your business size and sector.
Tell us how many staff you have, how often you pay them, and whether you are taking over from someone who is leaving. We will come back with a price.
info@augustuspayroll.co.uk
01269 543165
Yes, that is routine for us. You give us whatever exists, a spreadsheet, a login, a set of notes, and we work out what is missing and run the next pay period from there. Most of the payrolls we inherit arrive with about two weeks on the clock, so short notice is not a problem.
We start from what is in front of us and reconstruct the rest, which usually means finding where records and logins sit and checking recent tax codes. From the point we take over, meeting HMRC’s filing deadlines becomes our responsibility rather than yours. If something needs correcting rather than carrying forward, we tell you plainly instead of moving it quietly into the new system.
Each company is a separate employer to HMRC, so each needs its own PAYE scheme, RTI submissions and year-end. We can run all of them, and the part that needs care is staff who work across more than one, since their pay from each has to be handled separately. Flag it at the quote stage so we scope the work correctly from the start.
Once a run is checked and approved, payments go out through our 90-second transfer portal, so wages reach your team without delay. Every run is reviewed for accuracy before it leaves us, which keeps corrections and awkward conversations to a minimum. You see exactly what will be paid before anything is released.
Yes. We prepare and submit your year-end documents electronically to HMRC, from P35s and P14s through to the P60s your staff receive. Because we have run the payroll all year, nothing has to be pieced together in a rush at the deadline.