An agency should consider outsourcing CIS payroll when managing it becomes too time-consuming, cumbersome or distracting from the core business. Agencies have a lot of responsibilities to their workers. Collecting schedules, verifying workers, checking deductions, dealing with queries and completing reporting can quickly become another major responsibility, even for a relatively small agency.
The right provider should do more than simply process payments. Look for reliability, accurate HMRC verification, clear records, responsive communication, flexible payroll schedules and a straightforward process for payments, deductions and reporting. They should also communicate professionally with workers and provide a dependable point of contact who understands your agency.
Stability and experience matter too. You are trusting a provider with worker payments and tax deductions, so you need confidence in the business behind the service.
At Centurion Payroll, our approach is reliable, flexible, personal and compliant, helping agencies reduce the administrative burden of CIS payroll while ensuring their workers are paid accurately and on time.
CIS Can Become Increasingly Demanding
For recruitment agencies working with self-employed construction workers, CIS payroll is one of those responsibilities that can become increasingly demanding as the business grows.
The point at which outsourcing makes sense isn’t necessarily when an agency reaches a particular size or number of workers. It is when managing payroll starts taking time and attention away from running and developing the agency.
In a smaller recruitment business, the owner or management team may already be responsible for sales, marketing, HR, credit control, compliance and client relationships. Add a deadline-sensitive weekly construction payroll to that workload and there can quickly be a lot to manage, and sometimes agencies can make mistakes under pressure.
At Centurion Payroll, we believe outsourcing should remove that burden while giving the agency confidence that its workforce will be paid accurately, on time, every time. That’s why choosing the right provider is about much more than finding somebody capable of processing a payment.
Is it time to outsource your CIS payroll?
Tick anything that applies to your agency.
This checklist is a simple guide. The right time to outsource depends on how much payroll is affecting your time, resources and ability to focus on your agency.
When does managing CIS payroll become too much?
There isn’t necessarily a point where an agency becomes “big enough” to outsource.
The better question is: what is managing payroll preventing you from doing?
An agency owner can have many different responsibilities competing for their attention. Payroll adds another regular deadline, with payment schedules to collect, workers to verify, deductions to check, queries to answer and reporting to complete.
CIS payroll is something that can be completed in-house, but many contractors simply don’t have the knowledge or time to navigate alongside their other responsibilities.
If significant amounts of your week are being spent administering payroll when that time could be used to develop the business, win new clients or support existing ones, outsourcing becomes worth considering.
Payroll shouldn’t distract you from running your agency
For a small agency in particular, time matters.
The person responsible for payroll might also be responsible for generating new business, maintaining client relationships, dealing with staff and managing the company’s finances.
Every hour spent chasing a payment schedule, dealing with a deduction query or checking whether somebody has been processed correctly is an hour that can’t be spent elsewhere.
We believe that is one of the main benefits of outsourced payroll: taking care of the administration so agencies can concentrate on their businesses.
But outsourcing only solves that problem if the provider itself is dependable.
Reliability should be at the top of the list
In our opinion, reliability is one of the most important considerations when choosing a CIS payroll provider.
After all, you’re trusting another company with something incredibly important: your workers’ pay and the deductions being made from it.
Workers expect to be paid correctly and on time. We truly believe a workforce is an agency’s greatest asset and there is little more important to workforce morale than knowing payroll will be accurate each week and that any wage queries will be addressed quickly.
That means an outsourced provider shouldn’t introduce another layer of uncertainty.
You should feel confident that when your payroll information is supplied, it will be processed accurately and your workers will receive their money when expected.
Look for proper CIS verification and compliance
Accuracy doesn’t simply mean transferring the correct amount of money.
CIS payroll involves establishing the appropriate treatment of workers and applying the correct deductions.
Centurion’s process requires a subcontractor’s UTR and National Insurance number so their details can be verified with HMRC. That verification determines whether the subcontractor receives the standard deduction, higher-rate deduction or gross payment status.
A provider should therefore have a clear process for verification, deductions and payments rather than simply assuming every subcontractor should be handled in the same way.
For more information on this, read our blog post on why paying construction workers can be more complex than other forms of payroll.
Our outsourced payroll service is compliant with HMRC guidance and focused on ensuring the correct deductions are made.
Dave Davies, Managing Director of Centurion Payroll, explains:
“You outsource payroll to take a responsibility off your desk, not to create another one. You need a provider you can rely on to get people paid correctly and on time, deal with problems quickly and be there when you need them.”
Communication matters when something goes wrong
Payroll doesn’t always run perfectly. Agencies can make mistakes.
A timesheet might be missing. Information could arrive later than expected. A worker might query their hours or the amount they’ve received.
The important question is what happens next?
Because Centurion maintains close relationships with agencies and their workers, problems relating to construction payroll can be addressed immediately.
That responsiveness is particularly important with payroll because a problem that might seem relatively small administratively can be extremely important to the worker waiting for their wages.
When comparing providers, look at how easy it will actually be to speak to somebody when you need them.
Look for a provider that works around your agency
Your payroll provider’s process should fit the way your agency operates rather than forcing the agency into an unnecessarily rigid system.
Every agency we work with has its own preferred way of working. Rather than dictating a single deadline, we accommodate the timescale that works for the individual business and run multiple payrolls throughout the week.
Our typical agency process is straightforward.
The agency supplies a schedule showing information such as the worker’s name, hours or days worked and hourly or daily rate. Centurion issues the relevant invoice, communicates approved hours and expected payment information to workers, and processes payments once the agency’s payment is received. Workers are then sent confirmation and password-protected pay advice detailing their payment and deductions.
Make sure workers are communicated with properly
Outsourcing payroll shouldn’t mean losing control of the worker experience.
From the worker’s perspective, getting paid is one of the most important interactions they have with an agency. If communication is poor or queries disappear into a system, that can reflect badly on the agency as well as the payroll provider.
One of the things that makes us stand out is that we communicate directly with workers during its process. Workers are advised of the hours approved by the agency and when payment can be expected. Once payment is processed, they receive another message confirming the net amount alongside their pay advice.
For an agency choosing a provider, it’s worth understanding exactly how that provider will communicate with your workforce and handle their questions.
Don’t underestimate the value of a regular point of contact
We’re an independent, family-run business rather than an impersonal call centre. Clients have a regular point of contact, and Dave’s phone is available for urgent enquiries outside conventional office hours.
That reflects the realities of recruitment and construction payroll.
Your working week doesn’t necessarily fit neatly between nine and five, Monday to Friday. Payroll information can arrive late and unexpected problems can need resolving quickly.
Having somebody who understands your agency and workforce means you don’t need to explain the entire situation again every time you need help.
Flexibility is particularly important in agency payroll
Recruitment agencies don’t all run payroll on exactly the same day or work to identical schedules.
Centurion runs construction payroll throughout the week and can accommodate the timescale that works for the agency rather than dictating deadlines. Payments are made using Faster Payments so that they clear into workers’ accounts almost immediately after processing.
When choosing a provider, agencies should therefore ask whether the service can genuinely accommodate their payroll cycle.
A provider might be technically capable of running CIS payroll, but if its processes consistently clash with the way your agency and clients operate, outsourcing may simply replace one administrative headache with another.
Look at the stability of the provider
Agencies should consider the business behind the payroll service.
You’re potentially trusting that company with substantial sums relating to worker payments and tax deductions. You need confidence that it is going to be there when you need it.
Based on our experience, warning signs can include frequent changes of company name, poor communication, problems around money being set aside for tax, or businesses disappearing and subsequently reappearing under different identities.
These aren’t small considerations.
Price and convenience matter, but so does understanding who you’re dealing with and whether they have a stable track record.
Centurion has more than 20 years of payroll-sector experience. We established this independent CIS payroll company after previously spending around ten years working for larger businesses in the sector.
What should you look for in an outsourced CIS payroll provider?
Based on our experience, an agency should be looking for a combination of:
- Reliability: Workers should be paid accurately and on time.
- Compliance: HMRC verification and deductions should be handled correctly.
- Clear records: Workers and agencies should be able to understand what has been paid and deducted.
- Responsiveness: Payroll queries should be dealt with promptly.
- Flexibility: The provider should be able to work around the agency’s payroll schedule.
- Good worker communication: Workers should know what has been approved, when they’re being paid and what deductions have been made.
- A clear process: The agency should understand how schedules, invoices, payments and reporting are handled.
- Personal service: Ideally, there should be a dependable point of contact who knows the agency.
- Experience and stability: You need confidence in the business you’re trusting with payroll.
When is it time to outsource your CIS payroll?
If payroll is manageable, accurate and isn’t consuming valuable time, there may be no immediate reason to change.
But when collecting schedules, verifying workers, checking deductions, answering payment queries and dealing with reporting starts becoming cumbersome, outsourcing deserves consideration.
The question is ultimately one of where your time is most valuable.
If outsourcing gives you more time to develop your agency and support your clients while providing confidence that workers will still be paid accurately and on time, it can remove a significant administrative burden.
And when you choose a provider, don’t base the decision on processing alone. Look closely at its reliability, communication, flexibility, compliance processes, experience and stability.
For Centurion, that’s what outsourced payroll should provide: a personal, dependable service that works around your agency rather than the other way around.
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