Service Level Agreement

Buckinghamshire Council (BC) responsibilities

The Payroll and HR Transactions Management Team aim to provide a high level of payroll expertise and where needed advice and guidance is offered to assist employees in resolving any payroll issues. The Payroll and HR Transactions Management Team is committed to offering you a high quality and effective service that is based around a standard, integrated Payroll process.

We will provide you with;

• A professional payroll service with a secure and safe platform on which payroll is processed.
• Advice and guidance on payroll legislation.
• Compliance to current and future legislation.
• Production of an annual Payroll Processing Timetable available via Schools Web.
• Processing of payroll instructions received as per published deadlines.
• Processing of expense claims for reimbursement as per published deadlines.
• Calculation of net wages and salaries payable, after appropriate deductions, based upon information supplied by the client and in accordance with the statutory Tax and National Insurance rates appropriate at the time.
• A set of Mid-Month Payroll Reports for payroll checking, a copy of the employee master data and a gross cost listing by individual.
• A suite of Month-End Final Payroll Reports to include employee master data, gross cost listing, gross cost summary, gross to net listing, gross to net summary, statement of out goings report, payroll journal report and a wage type analysis.
• Deduction and payment over of employee and employer pension contributions to relevant schemes.
• Deduction and payment over of employee and employer HMRC liabilities by statutory deadlines.
• Deduction and payment over of voluntary payroll deductions, e.g. GAYE, Unison etc.
• Retrieval and processing of tax code and student loan notifications received from HMRC.
• Application of National Insurance forms CA4140 (Age exemption).
• Production and distribution of statutory payroll forms including P45, P60 and P11D
• Timely submission of monthly FPS and EPS returns to HMRC (RTI), and EYU submissions (where required).
• Process of employee benefits on payroll e.g. Childcare Vouchers
• Support to manage long terms absence, calculations and letters to staff regarding entitlements.
• Compliance to and the administration of all court orders.
• Calculation of under and overpayments.
• Monthly exception reporting, quality assurance checks on payroll calculations and month on month variations to net pay of 15% or more.
• Provision of monthly payslips and the payment of net salaries via BACS. BACS files will be submitted in accordance with the customer’s approval. If, however no approval to the contrary is received then BC will submit the files in accordance with the published processing timetable.
• Retrieval and review of BACS Input and BACS Messaging Reports ARUCS and AWACS on behalf of the client within required timeframes (subject to client authorisation).
• Secure data processing in line with GDPR regulations.
• Submission of payment cancellation requests (bacs recalls) subject to client authorisation.
• Ensure reasonable notice is provided should there be changes to deadlines for submitting information for payroll processing.
• A comprehensive Business Continuity Plan (BCP) for payroll processing.
• Notification in the advent of the BCP being invoked and any anticipated impact to service.

Academy/MAT responsibilities

• Ensuring all new starter notifications and additional required documentation are received by the published deadlines.
• Processing all leaver and absence notifications by the published cut-off dates to avoid unnecessary overpayments occurring.
• Ensuring all other payroll changes, including variations to contract and employee personal details are made in the timescale required by both SIMS and e-forms.
• Any notifications received after the published cut-off date will be processed in the following payroll period*. All payroll notifications are subject to a deadline of the 12th of each month unless these dates fall on a weekend or Bank Holiday in which case the deadline will be the previous working day. December payroll will be subject to an earlier deadline date and this will be communicated later in the year.
• Confirm application of automatic pay changes/increments as requested.
• Ensure all appropriate payroll checks are completed following receipt of the mid-month payroll reports, and that any corrections required are notified within 24 hours. Unless confirmation is received to the contrary, BACS files will be submitted in line with the published deadline once any requested corrections have been made.
• Raise any errors or payroll issues to the HR Service Desk as soon as the concern arises.
• Advise payroll of overpayment repayment plans.
• Provide a valid and active BACS SUN number.
• Ensure an adequate processing limit is maintained with the sponsoring bank, and that funds are available as per the statement of outgoings schedule.
• Ensure all BACS Input Reports are collected and reviewed following email notification from the Bacs service. These reports provide details of payments BC have submitted on your behalf and should be independently checked to verify the payment date, number and value of files submitted for payment. Any errors must be notified to the payroll team immediately.
• Ensure all Bacs Messaging Reports - ARUCS (Automated Return of Unapplied Credits) and AWACS (Advice of wrong account for Automated Credit Service) - are collected from bacs services and acted upon within three working days of notification. These reports provide details of the payments that have been amended, adjusted or returned electronically from the Bacs service or the end bank. Authorisations must be put in place with BACS and/or your sponsoring bank should you wish BC to receive and process these reports on your behalf.
• Ensure all security contacts on the BACS Payments Services Website are kept up to date.
• Advise the Payroll Team of your sponsoring bank’s bacs recall (payment cancellation) process. Authorisations must be put in place with your sponsoring bank should you wish BC to submit bacs recall requests on your behalf. In this instance bacs recalls must be advised to payroll no later than 10:00am on the day before pay day.
• Reissue of any rejected payments including notification to beneficiary.
• Maintenance of a contingency and disaster recovery (DR) process to include payroll, including timely notification to BC should a DR situation arise where normal service could be disrupted.

* BC can offer a facility to process notifications received after the published cut-off date which may be subject to an administration fee of £109. However, BC reserves the right to refuse to process the notification until the following pay period.

Performance Indicators

Measures of Service Performance

The Human Resources Service follows Buckinghamshire Council’s Contract Management Frameworks & holds regular Service Review Meetings as and when required.

• Timely provision and distribution of monthly pay statements
• All payroll instructions made within the published deadlines

Send agreed suite of reports Mid-Month Reports and Month-End Reports within the