Service Level Agreement

Buckinghamshire Council 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 to customers 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 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.
• Mid-Month Preview Payroll Reports for payroll checking – HR Action Report and Gross Cost Listing (Preview)
• Month End Final Payroll Reports – Gross Cost Listing (Final) and Employee Master Data Report
• Deduction and payment of employee and employer pension contributions
• Deduction and payment of employee and employer HMRC liabilities by statutory deadlines
• Deduction and payment of voluntary deductions, e.g. GAYE, Unison etc
• Retrieval and processing of tax code and student loan notifications received from HMRC
• Timely submission of monthly FPS and EPS (RTI) returns to HMRC, and EYU submissions (if required)
• Timely provision of staff payslips and P60s.
• Timely provision and submission of HMRC forms P11d and P11d(b)
• Application of National Insurance forms CA4140
• Processing employee benefits e.g. Childcare Vouchers, Bike Loans etc
• Compliance to and the administration of all court orders
• Calculation of under and overpayments
• Support to manage long terms absence, calculations and letters to staff regarding
• Calculation of employee Family Leave entitlements such as Statutory and Occupational Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Pay.
• Quality assurance checks on payroll calculations and month on month variations to net pay of 15% or more
• Timely payment of net salaries via BACS
• Submission of BACS recall requests to the bank
• A comprehensive Business Continuity Plan (BCP) for payroll processing
• Notification in the advent of the BCP being invoked and any anticipated impact to service.
• Ensure reasonable notice is provided should there be there changes to deadlines for submitting information for payroll processing.

School responsibilities

• Ensuring all new starter notifications or additional documentation are received by the published deadlines.
• Processing all leaver notifications by the published cut-off dates to avoid unnecessary overpayments occurring.
• Ensuring all other payroll changes are made in the timescale required by both SIMS and e-forms.
• Access and resolve the SIMS to SAP validation errors within the published monthly deadlines.
• BC will not process any notifications if the appropriate paperwork and approvals are not in place by the published deadlines*. All payroll notifications are subject to a deadline of the 12th of each month unless these dates fall on a weekend or Bank Holiday by which 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.
• Ensure all appropriate checks are made on receipt of the mid-month HR Action Report and the Gross Cost listing, and that any corrections required are notified within 24 hours.
• Raise any payroll issues as soon as the concern arises.
• Ensure any BACS recall (cancellation) requests are advised to payroll no later than 10:00am on the day before payday.

* BC can offer a facility to process notifications received after the published cut-off date which may be subject to an administration fee of £109.00. However, BC reserves the right to refuse to process the notification until the following pay period.

Performance Indicators