Auto Enrolment: A Pot of Gold for Accountants
There is a huge amount of uncertainty surrounding the changes to workplace pension’s law for employers. Small businesses will be concerned about what is involved for them and their employees. According to research carried out by the Pensions Regulator, just 43% of small and micro businesses due to stage in 2015 are even aware of their Auto Enrolment staging date. Further research indicates 78% of small businesses will look to their bookkeeper, accountant, payroll bureau or advisor for advice and counsel.
Employers unprepared for Auto Enrolment
A massive 1.2m small and micro businesses are set to start staging from June 2015. For the majority of these employers, this will be their first experience to review any kind of pension scheme for their employees. The fact also remains that many employers lack the capacity and ability to handle these additional payroll tasks and the thought of implementing a new system can be daunting.
Opportunities for Accountants
Accountants need to decide quickly if they are ready or prepared to take on Auto Enrolment business. They are likely to find that a large portion of small and micro business employers will contact them very close to, or even after their allotted staging date. In addition, clients will have an expectation that their accountant will present this Auto Enrolment advice in a way that is easy to understand, relevant and actionable. Many feel the experience and expertise of their accountant will help them understand what they need to do to be fully Auto Enrolment compliant.
A Pot of Gold
Accountants will naturally increase their profits by providing this commodity where they can orchestrate the necessary level of service in exchange for an initial set up fee plus a monthly retainer to manage the ongoing auto enrolment duties.
Additionally, if these accountants offer other services such as bookkeeping, tax returns, audits, management accounts, etc they will have a new platform to reach and up-sell to this new audience. You will find employers will be happier to consolidate all their outsourcing services to one person or advisor.
With a combined payroll and auto enrolment solution in place, bureaus will benefit from greater efficiency, increased value and improved cost savings. BrightPay is an easy to use auto enrolment solution that can provide what you need to provide a profitable auto enrolment service to your clients. Through BrightPay’s bureau package you can benefit from unlimited employers, unlimited employees and unlimited support.
BrightPay’s Key Auto Enrolment Take Aways
- Be Ready: Be prepared to ensure you are a credible authority of all employer auto Enrolment duties and obligations. Further guides for accountants are available on The Pensions Regulators website.
- Open for business: Be proactive and inform your clients that you are open for Auto Enrolment business.
- Costs: Be aware of hidden costs when researching Auto Enrolment solutions. You need to think about any limitations when it comes to the number of employers or employees.
- Auto Enrolment: Make sure you have the correct software and systems in place to prepare your clients easily for Auto Enrolment. Be aware that some payroll software packages will only partially handle AE.
- Customer Support: Support can be a function that payroll bureaus forget to consider. Confirm that support costs are included or inexpensive with your chosen solution.
For BTCSoftware customers BrightPay is offering 25% discount for the first year subscription. Contact sales@brightpay.co.uk or +44 (0) 845 3004304 to avail of this offer.
*Offer applies to new customers for the first year subscription only. This offer does not work in conjunction with any other offer.
