20th March 2017
Life used to be so much easier for accountants when it came to payroll. It was always an easy option to just give clients payroll services in order to retain their valuable accounting business.
And if it broke even as a service that was a plus, since many accountants saw the service as a loss leader. And in the day, it was simple accounting associated with payroll, so resourcing wasn’t an issue. How times have changed.
With legislative and regulatory changes, Living Wage calculations and Auto Enrolment staging creating many changes that have seen the complexity of payroll rocket, payroll processing has become labour intensive, technically intense and a ‘time bandit’ in practices. Forward-thinking accountants are looking for a more profitable way forward.
So how can Accountants profit from payroll?
The key is to think differently with the approach to fulfilling a client’s payroll need. All the reasons for doing payroll in the first place are still there – offering a complete offering that creates loyal sticky clients, attracts new clients, and helps to create more profit from those clients – but savvy accountants are turning to outsourcing (and white labelling of their offering to retain brand control), using a simple model built around bolt on profit
Bolt-on payroll outsourcing
It’s a simple model. By buying in payroll outsourcing accountants get control and profitability. And selling on the service for a little bit more than it costs, makes it an attractive option.
The benefits are enormous. The regulatory headaches become the supplier’s headaches. The need for specialist staff disappears. Accountants get time back to concentrate on the big money earners and core activities.
Of course, for some accountants payroll outsourcing may not be an option presently. Our recommendation would be to review current software to ensure that it has the ability to automate the delivery of data to and from multiple pension providers with a single simple integration, reducing significantly the time taken. In this way, accountants can maximise time usage.
