Employing staff can be a daunting step, the idea of being responsible for their wages and handling everything correctly can seem like a worry to be avoided at all costs.

There is a widely held belief that if your worker is part time or has another boss as well as you, they do not need to be employed as they are self employed. The rules are not as straight forward as this in reality.

If your workers have to turn up in person (rather than being able to send a replacement), get paid a set amount per hour, use equipment supplied by your business and they do not have an insurance policy in place for their own business, the chances are you should have them as staff on the payroll.  There is further guidance available on the government website for you to read in detail - https://www.gov.uk/get-ready-to-employ-someone

It is understandable that small business owners do not want to rush into a step like this, calculating tax and national insurance is complicated enough but there are now work place pensions and the minimum wage to throw into the mix as well.

However it is possible to get help with the payroll.  If you appoint someone to help you with the payslips, they should be able to take care of the calculations for you and even send your employees a log-in for a portal so that you do not need to keep copies of payslips on paper files for them anymore.  

There are also people who can help with HR advice if a difficult situation arises in the workplace and you know it would help to talk the problem through with an expert rather than tripping yourself up with the employment laws in place.

So BW Bookkeeping's advice when it comes to payroll summarised would be ;

1. Be honest about whether your team are sub contractors or employees and if they should be on the payroll, get some help to set one up.

2. If you are not able to deal with the processing yourself, get BW Bookkeeping or another payroll provider to assist you with registering with HMRC, running the payslips each month and advising you about pensions where necessary.

3. Talk to an HR expert if you are not sure how to handle any disputes or misunderstandings in the workplace.