Service Level Agreement

2023 Service Level Agreement

In order to continue offering the best payroll service, we are introducing the following service level agreement for all clients.

Our Payroll team will:

Process all payrolls within agreed timescales
Reply to all payroll queries within three working days
Provide standard payroll paperwork either via our Paysafe portal or by posting which will incur a fee
Make all payroll submissions to HMRC
Advise clients of the amounts due to HMRC (if non managed)
Offer auto enrolment support and implementation
Advise clients of the amounts due to the pension provider (if non managed)
Calculate statutory payments
Calculate starter and leaver payments
Process payments to PA’s, HMRC, Pension providers, David Howard and for invoices received (if managed)
Flag overspending to the client and Funding body (if managed)
Flag underpayment of Client contributions to the client and funding body (if managed and if applicable)
Offer ad-hoc services for clients at an additional charge

Non Managed Static Clients (those that usually have no changes) will:

Send any amendments to payroll by the 9^th of the month
Send amendments on one email to payroll@davidhoward.co.uk
Send clear instructions
Make payments to HMRC, Pension provider and employees as advised
Advise payroll of starters and leavers in a timely fashion using approved forms/format
Advise payroll of any sickness/maternity/un-paid leave in a timely fashion with appropriate documentation attached
Keep up to date holiday records and notify us of when holiday is taken
Reply to any emails or calls from the payroll team in a timely fashion

Non Managed Non-Static Clients (those that send in amendments/hours every month) will:

Send in payroll in line with the Payroll Deadlines issued every year and shown on our website (always allowing a minimum of the three working days)
Send the entire payroll on one email to payroll@davidhoward.co.uk
Send clear instructions
Make payments to HMRC, Pension provider and employees as advised
Advise payroll of starters and leavers in a timely fashion using approved forms/format
Advise payroll of any sickness/maternity/un-paid leave in a timely fashion with appropriate documentation attached
Keep up to date holiday records and notify us of when holiday is taken
Reply to any emails or calls from the payroll team in a timely fashion

Managed Static Clients (those that usually have no changes) will:

Send any amendments to payroll by the 9^th of the month
Send amendments on one email to payroll@davidhoward.co.uk
Send clear instructions
Advise payroll of starters and leavers in a timely fashion using approved forms/format
Advise payroll of any sickness/maternity/un-paid leave in a timely fashion with appropriate documentation attached
Keep up to date holiday records and notify us of when holiday is taken
Reply to any emails or calls from the payroll team in a timely fashion
Only commission care that is within the parameters of your Care Plan issued by your Funding body
Set up a Standing order for the correct amount of client contributions (f applicable)

Managed Non-Static Clients (those that send in amendments/hours every month) will:

Send in payroll in line with the Payroll Deadlines issued every year and shown on our website (always allowing a minimum of the three working days)
Send the entire payroll on one email to payroll@davidhoward.co.uk
Send clear instructions
Advise payroll of starters and leavers in a timely fashion using approved forms/format
Advise payroll of any sickness/maternity/un-paid leave in a timely fashion with appropriate documentation attached
Keep up to date holiday records and notify us of when holiday is taken
Reply to any emails or calls from the payroll team in a timely fashion
Only commission care that is within the parameters of your Care Plan issued by your Funding body
Set up a Standing order for the correct amount of client contributions (f applicable)

Managed Invoice Clients (those that send in amendments/hours every month) will:

Send all correspondence to payroll@davidhoward.co.uk
Send clear instructions
Advise David Howard of any changes of providers in a timely fashion using approved forms/format
Ensure Timesheets are signed and submitted with the invoice
Ensure Timesheets are submitted in line with the payment deadlines
Reply to any emails or calls from the payroll team in a timely fashion
Only submit 8 invoices per month anymore than this will incur a charge
Only commission care that is within the parameters of your Care Plan issued by your Funding body
Set up a Standing order for the correct amount of client contributions (f applicable)

Best Practice

In order to avoid errors or delays to your service, please ensure you follow our best practice procedures below:

Communicating your payroll information to us:

Where possible, please send us your payroll information on one email. If we receive more than one email per month it can lead to misunderstandings and the payroll having to be re- run. Charges will be made for re-runs in these circumstances, which will be a minimum of £12.50 plus VAT (depending on time spent).
When posting paperwork to payroll, please ensure that the name of the Employer and Payroll Reference number is clear and that it arrives at our office in plenty of time for the relevant
When e-mailing information, please ensure that the name of the Employer and Payroll Reference number is clear and that all personal data is password protected.
Please ensure you use correct employee names, if you use nicknames or shortened names we are not always able to identify the correct employee
To improve our level of service for static payrolls we ask that any payroll amendments are sent in by the 9^th of each month, any changes received after this date will result in a re-run charge. If you know you will have a change after this date and let us know by the 9^th we will hold the payroll until we receive your changes.
For our non- static payrolls we have a three working day turnaround, please take this into consideration when sending in your payroll to ensure we can complete on time. We work on payrolls in the order they come in, so in our very busy periods we will require all three working days to complete your payroll. If you require a quicker turnaround, please contact us and we will see if we can accommodate your request, however this is not always possible at busy times. Additional costs will apply for this
If your query cannot be dealt with via email then you can call with queries, all queries must come from the Employer or their designated payroll contact and if possible be kept to a minimum every month.
David Howard Ltd will not tolerate abusive or aggressive behaviour (verbal or physical) towards their staﬀ. Should a client be deemed to have acted in such a way, we reserve the right to terminate service with immediate eﬀect.

Payments to HMRC

The payroll team send PAYE letters to all Employers, if you are not a Managed account then it is your responsibility to make sure that payments are made on time using the correct references. If HMRC contact you regarding an over or underpayment of PAYE, whilst we are happy to help sort out any issues, we will need to know the payments you have made and the date you made them before we can contact HMRC on your behalf.

As this can be a very time-consuming process, charges will be made for time spent.

General Data Protection Regulation

We can no longer e-mail personal data to you that is not protected. We have a secure online portal called Paysafe, we can upload all your payroll reports to the portal and provide on-line payslips for your employees. In order to comply with GDPR, we propose that going forward all our clients use Paysafe, there is no extra charge for this service.

Please note, we will also not be able give out pay details over the telephone or deal with queries directly from employees, all queries must come from the Employer or their designated payroll contact.

Itemised Pay Statements

From April 2019 new legislation came into force requiring employers to provide payslips to all workers. The payslip must show the total number of variable hours a worker has worked. This is only required when workers are paid based upon the amount of time they have worked. This might be because they have worked overtime, the number of hours they work changes in each pay period, or the rate they get for working certain hours is different.

Please ensure all your data complies with this legislation as non-compliance could lead to an employment tribunal.

Auto Enrolment

From April 2019 pension contributions increased to 3% for employers and 5% for employees.

Re-Enrolment

Every three years all employers must re-enrol any workers that have opted out and complete a re- declaration. If we do not hear from you, we will set your re-enrolment date to be on the third anniversary of your staging date.

Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)

Small employers that pay less PAYE in a month than the amount of SMP due, can apply for funding from HMRC. If we apply for SMP funding on your behalf you must send a copy/copies of the cheques you receive from HMRC. This is so that we can ensure that the figures submitted to HMRC on your behalf are correct. If we don’t receive copies we can’t guarantee that the figures submitted to HMRC will be correct, which can result in under/overpayments and possibly a fine.

For larger employers SMP will be deducted from your monthly PAYE reducing the amount you have to pay HMRC.

SSP

If an employee is off sick, please notify us of the start and end dates in the next payroll and make sure you that you have any relevant sickness certificates. You will need to confirm if you have a Company sick pay policy or if only SSP applies, we also need to know the days the employee was absent from work and their normal working days.

Know Your Client Checks

Know Your Client or KYC is a mandatory process that allows financial institutions to confirm the identity of the individuals they do business with, and ensures those entities are acting legally.

Effective KYC protects companies from doing business with individuals involved in illegal activity, such as money laundering, terrorist financing or corruption.

We will ask you to supply photographic proof and proof of address.

We will request this information on an annual basis and failure to provide the relevant information will lead to your payroll being suspended

Holiday Pay

Please note, David Howard Payroll are not responsible for keeping a record of holiday pay. Whilst we are happy to help with calculations we do charge £10.00 plus VAT per calculation.

Leavers

When notifying payroll of leavers, please make sure that you confirm the leaving date, their normal working days and whether any holiday pay is due. If we are not informed of holiday pay we will assume there is none and there will be a re-run charge if we are advised after the payroll has been completed.

New Starters

Please complete a starter form for all new employee’s (see attached). Please can you ensure the form is completed correctly and that it is legible before you send it to us. If there is information missing or if we cannot read the information supplied, it may lead to your payroll being delayed while we confirm the missing details.

Ad hoc requests

Charges will be made for any extra work requested, this will include but not limited to: resolving HMRC queries (including SMP funding), Resolving Bounced Pension Provider Direct debits, failure to return paperwork which then involves chasing for information, late notifications of changes (i.e. backdated increase in hours or rates of pay), resolving transfer issues, resolving queries for clients no caused by DHpayroll.

The charge for these ad hoc requests is £50.00 plus VAT per hour with a minimum charge of £10.00 plus VAT.