HR Zone: Payroll takes to the Cloud

The idea of "self-service" applications, where the end users input their own details and are responsible for maintaining their own records has proved particularly popular in HR. Some of the country's biggest HR bureaux and full-service consultancies have been running web-hosted services for years and online HR and payroll applications are now the norm among corporate users.

There is also a huge legion of payroll and HR software providers who cater for smaller companies, many of which have been forced to review their payroll systems to cope with the requirements laid down by Lord Carter that all companies will have to file year end PAYE returns online from 2011.

MidlandHR's payroll & legislation adviser John Black points out, "The advent of mandatory in-year electronic filing may give this further impetus as it’s no longer just a year-end issue." Firms with more than 50 employees will need to have compliant in-year systems in place from April 2009.

Karen Paterson, who set up the Patersons online service, argues that outsourcing the entire payroll to an online provider is the best route for a company struggling to cope with these new regulatory demands. Not only are the year-end and in-year returns taken care of, but so will all the annual payroll upgrades, which will be handled by the developer in the cloud.

New wave "payroll as a service" providers

Patersons, ADP and companies such as Abel Internet and Netpaydue.com have been providing web-based systems for years, but Lord Carter's drive for online filing sowed the seeds for a new range of online payroll service providers. These include:

• EfileReady.com
• Liberty Accounts
• MyPAYE.co.uk
• PayrooCIS
• ThePayrollSite.co.uk
• TRG Advantage

For details of other on demand and payroll HR companies, see The HR Zone guide to payroll software and suppliers and The HR Zone guide to human resources software.