Employing Staff & Payroll

Employing Staff

You may wish to take on employees to work for you in the business. While building a team can be one of the most rewarding parts of running a business, there are many factors to consider and get right. Here is a list of some essentials you need to consider when taking on your first employees:

  • Seek professional legal advice when putting together your first employment contracts and written statements. These are legally binding documents and there are certain inclusions that must be made.
  • Your employees have statutory rights as decreed by law. These include the right not to be discriminated against, the right to equal pay, Maternity/Paternity Leave, annual leave and working time limits, among many others. A list of these rights can be found on the UK Government website.
  • You will need to take out Employer’s Liability Insurance as soon as you take on employees.
    You must pay your employees the National Minimum/’National Living Wage’.
  • You may wish to establish workplace rules and create policies and procedural documents for your employees.

Payroll

When your business begins trading, all sales income must be paid by your customers or clients directly into your company. You will then be able to refund your expenses, and pay yourself and any other employees a salary, which will be paid from the company bank account into the employees’ personal bank account, after accounting for tax, NI and Auto Enrolment deductions.

You should set up your company bank account as soon as the company is incorporated, so that your company can receive payment for your products and services.

Competex offers a full payroll service for clients, either as part of a limited company accounting package or as a standalone payroll service.

In many cases, our clients wish to pay different levels of salary each month, and we can operate variable payroll for clients who require this.

When you are ready to pay salaries, we will set-up your PAYE scheme and operate this on your behalf. Additional employees can be added to the payroll at any time. Your payroll is run on a monthly basis according to a pre-set timetable, with computations usually based on the total funds (including Employer’s National Insurance) that you wish to devote to salaries in that particular month.

Please note that for company directors, there is a technical issue relating to National Insurance (NI). For you, NI is charged on an annual basis, which means that no Employer’s or Employee’s NI is payable until your salary meets the annual “Primary Threshold” (prorated in the first year from the date of incorporation), after which you pay full NI on your entire gross salary. If you have the benefit of unused tax allowances, your first net salary payment will probably include less tax and NI than you would normally expect to pay in later months.

Amy FowlerEmploying Staff & Payroll