Solution Focus
• Payroll Bureau and Personnel Software
Outsourcing Benefits
Why Outsource, according to Family Mosaic
• Controlling costs – it would be
prohibitively expensive to have all the expertise, and headcount,
necessary in house for a task that has peaks and troughs throughout
the month
• Managing the risk – Family Mosaic has access
to the extensive expertise within Sage Outsource Services to manage
a very diverse and complex payroll
• Accessing payroll expertise – Sage Outsource
Services has to keep up to date with all the latest developments
and legislation related to running a payroll
• Ease of use – with so much data to enter
Family Mosaic can focus on entering all the static data themselves
and offload the complexity of entering the paper claims and running
the payroll to Sage Outsource Services
Sage Outsource Services:
A payroll like no other
The organisation’s policy of honouring the employment contracts
that these staff had in place with their former employers means
that there is no such thing as a standard set of terms and
conditions at Family Mosaic. The payroll, as a consequence, has to
accommodate a wide range of different employment contracts. In
addition, there is a mix of different rota patterns, with some
people on fixed patterns while others have more flexible
arrangements. The complexity doesn’t stop there however. “Each
month we have at least five A4 lever arch files full of temporary
payments for expenses, additional hours, and enhancements, which is
when individuals have special arrangements,“ explains An, “for
example if they work certain hours they will receive their basic
pay plus a percentage enhancement of, say, 30%.” All this
information has to be entered into the payroll each month to ensure
that staff are paid correctly, and that each support contract,
which is treated as a cost centre, is kept within budget, “No two
months are ever the same!” concludes An.
A problem shared
Family Mosaic had used an outsourced payroll solution prior to
working with Sage Outsource Services, but there were a number of
issues. “The payroll and personnel systems were separate, which
caused inconsistency in the data, plus the old payroll supplier
only provided paper outputs,” explains An, “this meant we had to
keep all the reports they gave us in case we needed to look back
over our old data.” There were also service level issues which
caused problems, so why keep outsourcing? “There is so much to do
each month to run the payroll, but it tends to come in peaks and
troughs, it would be difficult to justify a full time headcount for
something we don’t need every day of the month.” says An, “Working
with Sage Outsource Services we get access to their payroll
expertise at a lower cost than if we tried to do it in house.” But
it’s not just general payroll expertise that An relies on, “The
team at Sage really know our payroll, they understand what it’s all
about and why it’s vital to our business.”
Working as a team, Family Mosaic and
Sage
Outsource Services divide the work necessary to manage this highly
complex payroll between them. Staff at Family Mosaic enter all the
static data, with twenty-six staff from their HR, Payroll and
Finance teams across five offices having access to the system from
wherever they are, taking responsibility for entering starters and
leavers, terms and conditions etc. The team at Sage enter all the
paper claims (all five A4 files worth) and run the payroll. All the
data is checked by a payroll officer at Family Mosaic, and it is
checked again at Sage, to ensure that errors are minimised. “There
are always going to be errors in a payroll this complex,” according
to An, “but Sage is always very responsive.” With a dedicated team
to support her, An is very happy with the level of support she
receives from Sage. “We have several contacts at Website www.snowdropkcs.co.uk Email
snowdropkcs@sage.com
Sage, and if I can’t get hold of someone straightaway, they always
get back to me, and,” An explains, “when we have had issues with
the payroll, Sage has always handled them appropriately, and worked
to resolve them to our satisfaction. We have a close working
relationship, which is vital.”
Looking to the future
As it plays such a major role in the business the management of the
payroll is under constant review. “We always need to be thinking
about the best way to manage it,” says An, “currently we run two
payrolls, which we are in the process of bringing together.”
To this end An and her team will be spending
time with the Outsource Services team to come up with a joint plan
of action, to manage the changeover as smoothly as possible. Having
built a successful partnership with Sage Outsource Services, An has
some sound advice for anyone thinking of outsourcing their payroll,
“It’s not just about the data, it’s also about the knowledge of the
payroll, you have to share both with your outsourcer.” She also
says that it’s vital that everyone internally gets involved,
especially the finance department. “If you have a good team
internally and in the outsource company, as we do, then you can
ensure the payroll is well managed on a day to day basis, and does
what it needs to do for the business. If people understand the
importance of the payroll and feel ownership over it the rewards
are huge,” An concludes. An admits she sometimes dreams of having a
nice simple payroll to run, but for now she has a living, breathing
payroll like no other, and the team in place to manage it, both
within Family Mosaic, and with the help of Sage Outsource
Services.