payroll software

[freelancenewbie]

Hi, can anyone recommend a good payroll software please. Limited company, just me - paying myself a salary. Can I put in historical data from earlier this year so that it will automatically calculate how much PAYE/NI I need to pay (when I need to pay it)? I'm just entering data direct on HMRC RTI at the moment as I've not reached PAYE threshold yet but I'm thinking ahead to when PAYE becomes due. Thanks.

I use the HMRC Basic Tools package. Not the most user friendly, but it does the trick.

I have found sage to be great

Iris is another free one that is supposed to be a bit easier to use than the hmrc one.

hmrc basic tools is absolutely fine, absolutely free, and if it makes a mistake.... hmrc are to blame ...

Hmrc one is fine for a single employee. The idea as a director is that you take a base salary (approx £641per month) and top it up with dividends otherwise there is not much point to being limited. Do talk to your accountant about making sure dividend paperwork is correct though.

Free pay and 12pay do free versions of their RTI software I believe.

Don't shell out for sage, you really don't need to. If you insist on paying moneysoft payroll is fab.

it may be worth playing with the £645 next year because of the up to £2000 ERS NI discount ...

Yes you're right Talkinpeace, and I'm sure we'll all come up with the magic figure for next year!

My point was does the OP know about the most tax efficient way to pay herself through a company? It sounds not as she refers to paying herself more so that PAYE/NICs are due.

thanks everyone - will get stuck into basic tools. I think I maybe already use this - is this what I use when I file my RTI via the HMRC website each month? I need to be limited - limit my liability through my company. Thanks all.

I was also going to suggest the HMRC RTI. My mum has run many fairly large payrolls over the years with several different packages.
Now she just pays herself and my Dad and now just uses HMRC she is happy it is total adequate for what you will need.

Basic Tools is a small piece of software that you download and put your pay in each month. It then tells you how much to send to HMRC every month and does the RTI submission. It also does your year end submission as well. Like I said, not hugely user friendly but it does work once you've worked out its quirks! And it is free :-)

I pay 8 people each month using it, payroll usually takes me about 90 minutes, and that is working out pay (it's different every month as not salaried staff), putting through Basic Tools, doing payslips and setting up online transfers.

Of course, with payroll software, you can do quick work but you need to learn the particular payroll software if you are using for the first time. You can find some learning programs based on popular payroll software here usemyreviews.com/mosquito-magnet-reviews/, it has listed around 10 top payroll software with guidelines, how to use individual software.

By mistake I put the wrong url and I'm not able to find a way to edit, the correct url is usemyreviews.com/payroll-software-reviews/ thanks

I use payroo. Can't say I like the user interface but it works.

me again - just checked & it turns out I'm already using basic tools - I didn't even realise it. So will that just tell me when I start owing tax on my salary? That's all I want to know I guess. At the moment, it says 'total amount owing HMRC £0.00' for each month - so now I've looked more closely at this I'm guessing this will automatically update & tell me when I owe money to HMRC? Is that right. Sorry to be such a novice.

yup, but if you are paying yourself the £675 that day will never come

Ah yes that's true! Probably for the best as anything HMRC related is completely stressing me! Thanks everyone.

Anything over £641 will have NI to pay though.

645 .... I file a bundle of them on rti every month

sorry, 675 .... that is the magic number this year

next year it will change depending on how we decide to play the ees ni bonus

Talkinpeace Sorry to be labouring a point but paying £675 per month over the entire year (assuming you are doing directors cumulative annual NICs) would result in a total of £8,100 salary attracting £41.40 of employee's NICs and £55.75 of employer's NICs. A total unnecessary combined NIC amount of £97.15.

Maybe you are putting through a bundle of them at £675 pm but on a director's annual NIC basis the NICs will only show up in March. Probably worth double checking before you have to present them with a NIC bill.

I'll check : and they'll just pay themselves less probably.

What do you reckon on the £2000 ERS for next year

necause EES NI at 12% is less than CT at 20% so it will be worth paying right up to the tax allowance as the NI will be less than the CT

Haven't thought properly about next year as have just read a quick briefing note rather than the full detail but from what I now know it would seem to make sense to do as you say and pay up to tax allowance.

Alad - I have used payroo too and I hate it! And I'm an accountant so lord only knows how a non-accountant deals with it.

I bit the bullet and subcontract mine and my clients payroll to a proper bureau now.