25th November 2019
Payrite, IRIS FMP’s award-winning flagship payroll software, will introduce Pennies from Heaven (PFH) capability in its next release. The move supports the UK’s largest micro giving scheme for employees and pensioners.
Pennies from Heaven is a simple concept for charitable giving. It allows an employee to round down their pay every pay period, and give up no more than 99 pence each time in a tax-efficient way.
Payrite, the HMRC tested and recognised payroll software loved by payroll professionals, will introduce the upgrade in the upcoming 2019v02 release. It will allow companies to introduce Pennies from Heaven, and other micro giving schemes. The payroll software will seamlessly create a rounding down of salary to the nearest pound, with the pennies donated to charity.
Micro-Giving schemes – What is Pennies from Heaven?
With Pennies from Heaven employees sign up once. Then, on every salary, the pay is rounded down to the nearest pound with the pennies donated to charity. If net pay was £850.34 then 34p would be donated. Donation is never more than 99p.
- Each employer selects one or a basket of charities that all staff can give to.
- As donations are small it means that everyone can afford to join in. When large numbers of employees join in the pennies soon make pounds.
- To date, the scheme has raised over 5000,000,000 pennies for 265+ charities.
How can my company set up the scheme?
For existing and new Payrite customers it really is easy, as set up is simple – you can be up and running in weeks. Payroll teams have been highly commended for championing the scheme themselves. The main steps are:
- Check your payroll – The good news is that Payrite is fully compatible.
- Choose your charity – this can be any charity you wish.
- Tell staff about it and invite them to join (PFH will design communications for you and staff can even sign up on the PFH Website)
- Flag participating employees once on Payrite and from then on Payrite will identify the employees in the scheme, deduct the pennies and collate them.
- Once a month send all the pennies from Pennies from Heaven via one BAC’s transfer, for distribution to charity.
Pennies from Heaven is a Social Enterprise. Income received by the company allows it to continue spreading the word to other employers. To run the Pennies from Heaven scheme, you will need to pay a small annual license fee. Please contact Pennies from Heaven directly for more information.
Can Micro Giving and payroll Giving work together?
The short answer is yes.
Most companies offer both Payroll Giving and Micro Giving schemes like Pennies from Heaven.
Payroll Giving allows individuals to choose charities and amounts. It appeals to higher-paid staff with a recommended minimum monthly donation (£5-£10).
Micro giving schemes, on the other hand, are more inclusive because donations are less than £1. Pennies from Heaven, once established, has over 40% participation. everyone can afford to join in and feel a part of the success.
The inclusion of micro-giving capability in the new Payrite software release will allow an estimated 1.5 million employees to potentially to donate pennies to chosen charities.
Kate Frost, CEO of Pennies from Heaven said “This development with IRIS FMP has the potential to raise millions of pounds for the charity sector. This software enhancement will now allow employers to be able to set up and run a micro giving scheme.
We are delighted that IRIS FMP has agreed to provide this enhancement as a standard to its system and we are looking forward to helping its clients raise substantial new sums for the sector as well as increasing the numbers of employees giving in the UK. On behalf of the many benefiting charities we thank IRIS FMP.”
For more information about Pennies from Heaven please contact Kate Frost on 01485 210692 or by email: kate@penniesfromheaven.co.uk
A Guide to Payroll Outsourcing
This guide aims to show you how payroll outsourcing works and key things you need to consider. This will give you a better idea of what to expect from the service and how it can benefit your business. At IRIS FMP we work with organisations from all sectors to ensure their payroll is processed accurately and on time. We know all there is to know about payroll outsourcing and how to make it work for you.
