Well before the start of the year we continue to see a huge increase in the number of businesses complaining about the service received from the outgoing payroll provider due to service issues around pensions for auto enrolment or huge cost increases, in some cases more than 60%
When serving due notice to the existing provider a customer expects that the contract will come to an end and that the new provider will liaise with the previous provider to ensure a smooth and accurate transfer of data, or provide the data to the customer for them to send on to the new provider or the in-house team.
Payroll Providers now seem to be identifying this as an opportunity to levy extortionate charges to provide basic payroll data to the customer or the new provider.
In one case this month our new customer was charge £1500 by the outgoing payroll provider for providing standard payroll information in pdf format. This was equivalent to 5 months’ worth of processing charges.
The provision of employee payroll data and year to date information is a very straightforward procedure and is almost click of a button with most modern software systems which can export payroll data into a csv file which in turn can be imported by the new provider to ensure accuracy.
At Dataplan Payroll we now believe the rip off charges is a dreadful tactic and can do nothing but give a bad impression of the payroll industry. Payroll outsourcing customers, whoever they use, deserve to be treated fairly. Is it time for the whole profession to look to itself and co-operate in a fair and professional manner with its customers that are switching.
Operations Director Stewart Waddell said:
"Providing payroll transfer information to outgoing customers in a fair way to ensure the smooth transition to a new provider is the right thing to do, ensuring the customers employees’ wages are paid by the new provider correctly, using the most efficient and correct data available from the outgoing payroll provider is a must."
