The Payroll Site Closure - Message from Steven Tucker, Managing Director

We have made the difficult decision to permanently close for business in April 2025. This will mean our customers will need to choose different payroll systems for the 2025/26 tax year, which starts on 6th April. For suggested alternatives, see below.

I started the business in 2004 with my brother Kenny, with the aim of making payroll simple for small businesses. I think we and our team have done that successfully, against a backdrop of a steadily increasing administrative load on employers. In recent years, our customer numbers have declined while the burdens of running the service have steadily increased, bringing us to the point where it is becoming unviable. Rather than wait until the business encounters serious financial stress, we have chosen to close down in an orderly manner, giving sufficient notice for customers to prepare. We are grateful to our loyal customers and we wish you all well.

Questions and Answers

Will I be able to process my year end?
Yes - if you continue to subscribe, the service will be available for the whole of the 2024/25 tax year and for you to process your year end, including P60s. We will then stop providing support and you will not be able to run any pay calculations with pay dates from 6th April 2025 onwards.

Can you suggest any similar cloud payroll software I could use?
Yes - we have looked into cloud software options and we suggest our customers try FreshPay. Their system is more modern than ours and works a little differently, so we recommend you take some time to try it out before April. As a customer of The Payroll Site, if you quote the referral code TPS50, FreshPay will give you 50% off for the first two months and they will pay us a commission. You can sign up for a free trial at freshpay.cloud or give them a call on 01403 599355.

Instead of cloud software, can I get someone to run it all for me?
Yes, our friends at Quartz Payroll offer a fully managed payroll service for small businesses. Their experts can run the payroll for you and provide unlimited advice. This all-encompassing service is more expensive than the cloud software we provide but, as a customer of The Payroll Site, Quartz Payroll will give you a 20% discount for the first year (as well as paying us a commission). You can read more about their service at www.quartzpayroll.co.uk or give them a call on 020 3137 4408. If you employ domestic staff, the same people also offer Nannytax and Stafftax services.

Why do you recommend waiting until April to switch systems?
This has always been easier because the new system needs various running totals for the tax year, which are all zero at the start of the tax year. With Real Time Information (RTI) reporting, this is now more important because of problems with HMRC's matching algorithm. This algorithm tries to match the employee details you submit each pay day with the data HMRC already holds. It normally works but, on the rare occasions it fails, you can be left with a problem that's very hard to solve, made even harder if your data spans two payroll systems.

Will my old data still be available?
After all support stops in April 2025, customers should still be able to log in and view their old payroll data for a further three years, without charge. If you would like your data deleted, you can do this at any time by closing your account via the Preferences page. Before doing so, you may wish to download the Summary Pack reports for each tax year, for your records.