Committee stuff - help!

[5ofus]

Hi all,

I'm Company Secretary on the committee of our pre-school.

After a series of mistakes and problems we've decided to look around for a new accountant to do Payroll and our annual accounts.

The lady who did these for us really charged a very low amount (£6 per month), but we're starting to think the adage "You get what you pay for" might apply.

Committee members - how much are you paying for accounting services? I don't want us to be paying too much, at the same time I do think perhaps we've had it cheap for too long - help!

Someone should be able to do payroll for you, it's not that difficult if you buy a payroll package.

Then you keep the accounts up to date as you go and the accountant just does the year end stuff?

I think our problem comes from the fact that historically the treasurers have done things manually with spreadsheets and calculators. We don't understand payroll. Perhaps we should invest in some software but I wouldn't know where to start looking. Can anyone suggest some good pre-school software?

I can't remember what we used sorry, look for some on line reviews?

Keeping spreadsheets is absolutely fine for your bookkeeping don't bother with an accounts package.

Hi, I manage a Pre-school and we only pay a acountant to do our end of year accounts.
If you have a computer and are registered with the tax office they will send you a free disk which you can run on your computer which will work out all your employee deductions. Also at the end of year you can file your P60's on line using the links from this disk.
I just keep time sheets and work out the girls hours and gross pay.

Hope this helps.

Hi 5ofus, I run a payroll bureau and I am treasurer of our pre-school. If you want to out-source your payroll, I'll be happy to quote prices.

I work at a pre-school and it worked out best for us to employ an administrator, she not only does the payroll but also deals with orders and invoices, keeps track of fees for unfunded children, applies for the funding, milk and any grants, organises the training and possibly other stuff I've forgotten.

This has helped the childcare workers focus on the children and has taken a lot off of the committee which in turn has made it easier to get parents willing to be involved.

I don't know her hours and pay though I'm afraid.

I am going to take over the administrator role at my pre-school. I will be doing 8 hours a week (rather not put the pay on here but if you CAT me i'll tell you)

I agree that a spreadsheet will suffice for the accounts(i'm currently the treasurer!) and the disk from HMRC is adequate for the payroll.

Thanks all - very good info. Will be heading off to HMRC to get the disk.

We do already employ an administrator waves to our administrator who might be on here! but this job doesn't include staff wages or accounting.

We do have a meeting with a local book-keeper on Monday to get more info on her services too.

Thanks again!

Hi

I am administrator at our pre-school but we out-source pay-roll and inputting certain info onto Sage. We pay her £15 an hour for general book-keeping and £20 ph for pay-roll but this does seem a lot to me. We pay an accountant to do end of year accounts and charity commission return and it costs us £420. Would also be interested to hear what others charge.

I have been doing payroll as part of the admoin job but hate it.

I have found a local book keeper who will do it for £20 a month, but she has stressed that that is because she is local and we are a charity.
Some of the companies I contacted weer £50 a month (there are 9 members of staff).

We pay £195 per year to someone found through our local council / early years recommendation.

We only have 5 members of staff.

The treasurer role is voluntary but took 3 hours per week.

Arghh - meeting with accountant was very enlightening but she quoted £40 a month for payroll for our 8 staff and £650 to prepare the annual accounts and do the companies house submission! That's well over £1000 per year in accountants fees....

Am planning to contact local pre-schools to see who they are using - but it's a headache I don't need right now.

that seems like a lot. Are you a charity or LTD? I've replied to your CAT

Is your pre-school a member of the Preschool Learning Alliance? If so, they have accountancy services at very reasonable rates. We outsourced our payroll to them and it only costs about £30 a month but saves a massive headache each month and it's made the payslips look nice and professional :-)and as it's the PLA you sort of feel they must know what they are doing!

Ah - now that might be worth checking out! Thanks!!