By Richie Lennon ACA
At a glance
Reliable payroll needs accurate information, agreed deadlines, checks, approval and completed payments. Software handles calculations; someone still has to manage changes, reporting and employee queries. Around Finance uses BrightPay, Dext for employee expense collection and, where agreed, Around Pay for payment runs. The business owner still confirms pay decisions and approves the work.
I describe payroll as handling sticks of dynamite. Most of the time, nothing goes wrong. But when it does, it can go badly wrong.
A miscalculation lands directly with the employee. It is their pay that is wrong. And a small error repeated over 52 weekly runs can become a painful one to put right.
Payroll is straightforward until it isn’t.
The fixed salaries go through. Everyone gets paid. Then someone joins halfway through the month, a bonus arrives after the run has been prepared, or an employee asks why their expenses are missing.
That is when you find out whether you have a payroll process that works.
The employee feels the mistake first
As a business owner, you might see a payroll correction as another job to sort out.
The employee sees the wrong amount in their bank account. They may have payments going out that day. They need an explanation, and they need to know when it will be fixed.
An error in the hours supplied, an unapproved salary change and an incorrect calculation can all produce the same result for them: their pay is wrong.
That is why I care about who checks the work, deals with changes and follows a problem through. The software matters. So does everything that happens before and after it.
Agree the dates before the pressure starts
Our payroll specialist, Heloise, pays attention to the actual payment date.
The date you send the information, the date payroll is prepared and the date staff receive their money can be different. A weekend or bank holiday makes that distinction particularly useful.
Agree those dates in advance. Someone in the business needs to confirm starters, leavers, hours, salary changes and bonuses in time for the run to be checked.
There also needs to be an agreed way to handle something that arrives late. Can it be included safely? Does the run need to be revised and approved again? Who tells the employee what will happen?
A last-minute message does not make those steps disappear.
Payroll needs room for things that crop up. It also needs the business owner to respond. We cannot infer a pay rise from last month’s payslip or approve a bonus on your behalf.
Take the founder out of the expense chase
Employee expenses are a good example of where the admin can be made easier.
We use Dext with individual sub-user accounts. Employees submit their receipts directly, and we prepare a monthly expense report for the business owner to approve.
The founder does not need to collect every receipt and build the report. They still decide whether the claims are approved.
That distinction matters. An uploaded receipt does not tell you whether the employee paid for it personally, whether the company card was used, or whether it has already been reimbursed.
Those checks come before payment. Otherwise, a tidy-looking expense report can still lead to someone being paid twice.
Once approved, the claim needs the correct payment and reporting treatment. Collecting the receipt is one part of the job.
Tax-free does not mean unreported
Vouchers and expenses can fall outside the normal salary conversation. They still need to reach the person responsible for reporting them.
Under Revenue’s Enhanced Reporting Requirements, certain untaxed expenses and benefits must be reported on or before they are paid or provided. That includes qualifying small benefits such as vouchers, remote working daily allowances, and qualifying untaxed travel and subsistence.
It does not mean every expense belongs in that return. You first need to establish what the payment is and whether the claimed tax treatment is correct.
For vouchers, the current small benefit exemption allows up to five qualifying non-cash benefits with a combined value of €1,500 per employee per calendar year. Only the first five relevant benefits can qualify. Vouchers redeemable for cash do not qualify, and the benefit must not replace salary the employee is entitled to receive.
The practical problem is often timing.
Suppose you give an employee a qualifying voucher on 12 December. Your payroll team needs that information before you hand it over. Discovering the purchase in the bank feed afterwards does not solve the reporting deadline.
Our monthly expense approval process does not move a reporting deadline. Anything reportable when paid or provided needs to be flagged in time, including payments outside the normal payroll run.
A payslip does not put money in someone’s account
For a long time, we automated much of the finance work and still left the founder with the payment run.
I had a drawer full of AIB digipasses. Processing client payments by hand depended on a particular person being available and put payment risk in the wrong place.
Around Pay, powered by NoFrixion, lets us prepare payment runs for the client’s approval.
The wallet is in the client business’s name. The client funds it, reviews the batch and authorises payments. Approved payments can be scheduled, with transactions feeding back into Xero.
That takes away the individual payment entry and the fiddling with files and digipasses. The owner still approves what leaves the account.
There are still things to get right: funding, payee details, approval and cut-offs. Someone must check the payment outcome. A prepared batch is not proof that an employee has been paid.
Around Pay is something we agree as part of the service scope.
What we use for payroll
We use BrightPay at Around Finance. It is our preference for managing payroll as the workload scales.
If you are considering running your own payroll, we are happy to recommend Parolla. It also serves accountants and payroll bureaux and offers a Xero integration. Check the plan includes the access and integrations you need.
A working payroll does not need changing just because your accountant uses another system.
First establish what is causing the problem. Is information arriving late? Are changes being approved? Is someone checking the output? Are payments being left until the last minute?
Changing software will not settle those responsibilities for you.
What should outsourcing payroll take off your desk?
A managed payroll service should make the recurring work easier to run. Agree what that means before comparing prices.
Who collects the changes? Who prepares and checks the run? Who handles Revenue submissions, expense reporting and pension administration? Who prepares the payments, and who approves them?
Those tasks may sit with different people or be separately scoped. Find that out before you assume they are included.
Employers must report payroll to Revenue on or before the pay date. Issuing a payslip, submitting payroll and completing the bank payment are separate jobs. Agree who completes each one.
Ask what happens when the usual payroll operator is away, or an employee queries their pay. There needs to be someone who can pick up the records and deal with the issue.
You should also know what remains with you. Your business must confirm the underlying pay decisions, supply accurate information and give the necessary approvals.
The aim is to get you out of the routine admin loop while keeping those decisions with you.
Before the next pay run
You should be able to answer five questions:
- When must changes be supplied, and who confirms they are complete?
- Who checks and approves payroll before it is finalised?
- Who is told about expenses and vouchers paid outside payroll?
- Who authorises payments and checks they have gone through?
- Who deals with a query or takes over if the usual person is away?
If you cannot answer one of those, that is a useful place to start improving payroll.
Payroll support from Around Finance
Heloise is our payroll specialist. We use BrightPay for payroll and can arrange Around Pay for the payment runs, with the scope agreed around your business.
Our payroll services in Ireland explain how we can help. Our Irish payroll guide covers the employer obligations in more detail.
For Irish owner-managed businesses looking for payroll alongside recurring accounting support, a Finance Fit Call is the place to discuss what you want taken off your desk.
Frequently asked questions
What should an outsourced payroll service include?
Agree who collects changes, prepares and checks payroll, handles submissions, deals with queries and prepares payments. Expense reporting, pension administration and payment services may be separately scoped. Confirm what is included before comparing fees.
Does preparing payroll mean employees have been paid?
No. Calculating payroll, reporting it and completing the bank payment are separate tasks. Agree who funds and authorises the payments and who checks that they have gone through.
What does the business owner still need to do?
Confirm starters, leavers, hours, salary changes and bonuses; supply accurate information by the agreed deadline; and approve the work and payments. Outsourcing the administration does not remove those decisions.
How does Around Finance handle employee expenses?
Employees submit receipts through individual Dext sub-user accounts. We prepare a monthly expense report for the business owner to approve. Payments or benefits with separate reporting deadlines must still be flagged in time.
Which payroll software does Around Finance use?
We use BrightPay. If you are considering running payroll yourself, we are happy to recommend Parolla, which also offers a Xero integration. The software needs to fit the workload, access and integrations you require.
