HR & payroll
Payroll just got easier. Education payroll software for schools, academies & MATs.
Discover our market-leading, education-specific managed payroll service or in-house payroll offering.
With a 99.9% pay accuracy score, over 25 years' experience of payroll processing and an experienced payroll team on hand to ensure your school’s requirements are met, you can be sure you’re making the educated choice when it comes to your payroll.
Offering in-house education payroll software or a fully-managed service
We are confident we can save you money, increase your payroll accuracy and work with you to cover all the payroll and pension requirements across your school, academy or trust, all for as little as £3.50 per payslip.
Our payroll offering can be adapted to your needs or requirements and can seamlessly integrate with Access Education People, giving you a full HR and Payroll solution.
Why choose our payroll solution?
Payment processing
Process, balance and reconcile all month and year end figures and payments (including country-specific payments e.g. HMRC and IRS)
Occupational and statutory payments
Calculate all occupational and statutory payments, inc maternity, Alabaster and redundancy
Country-specific processing
Processing of all country-specific checks, files & documentation including HMRC, IRS, P60, P45, SEPA
Expert support on hand
Dedicated telephone, account management and online support from an experienced, dedicated payroll team – including monthly telephone service review
Improved reporting
Produce all reports, inc standard payslips, check reports, monthly payments and 3rd party payments
Teacher pensions
Our fully comprehensive service includes all teacher pension requirements
A complete, single solution
Our payroll software can be used for a small single primary school through to a large multi-academy trust
Reduced payroll admin
We process everything from your BACS run to your teacher pensions
Increase your payroll accuracy
payslips processed every month
accuracy rating
with the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) Payroll Assurance Scheme (PAS)
pass mark
with the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) Payroll Assurance Scheme (PAS)
Our payroll options for schools and academies
Managed payroll services for the education sector
Our managed (or outsourced) service means that we take on the responsibility of running and delivering your payroll. With a 99.9% accuracy rating and a 100% pass mark from the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals’ Payroll Assurance Scheme, your payroll needs couldn’t be in safer hands.
We will provide you with a portal for staff to access their payslips and your dedicated payroll executive will look after everything from sending BACS, producing electronic pay slips, meeting RTI obligations, managing your pension processing and much more. This is our most commonly selected option and we process more than 50,000 education payslips every month for schools and trusts across the UK.
In-house payroll software for the education sector
More than 90% of our customers choose to outsource their payroll management to our service team; however, we also realise that schools, academies and MATs expand over time and need software that will adapt and grow alongside them. For those who have a dedicated, certified payroll person or team in place across their school or trust, we have an in-house payroll option which allows you to manage your payroll centrally, allowing you more control and responsibility over your payroll and pensions.
Payroll that scales to support your school, academy or MAT without disruption
At Access our mantra is that payroll is a profession, not a process. Getting your payroll right is crucial. But it should also be part of business as usual. It should exist in the background but always be right.
Having a payroll provider who understands the education space and takes into account all of your payroll and teacher pension complexities is crucial.
Whichever payroll option is best for you, our payroll solutions will ensure your people are paid accurately, on time, every time with total compliance and peace of mind.
Have questions about payroll software? Dive into our education payroll resources to get your questions answered
Why customers love our payroll software
Choose the right solution for your school, academy or multi-academy trust
HR software
Designed exclusively for educational institutions, our cloud-based HR software optimises and consolidates HR functions in schools, academies multi-academy trusts across the UK.
HR & payroll
Find out why many of our customers choose to integrate their HR functions with Access Education People and our Payroll offerings. Giving them ultimate visibility and control from start to finish.
Payroll resources
Your guide to payroll for schools, academies and MATs
This guide takes you through...
- Why do you need a business case?
- Why invest now?
- Why choose our HR & payroll software?
What to include in your tender document
Procuring operational education software but don’t know where to begin? In this guide, we cover everything you need to create the perfect tender document.
Teacher retention: Build your education tech stack
Whether you’re grappling with retaining your teachers, overall efficiency or seeking a more streamlined solution to reduce the workload on your staff, this infographic will illustrate how our education tech stack can transform your institution.
Building a business case for a school HR and payroll system
This guide takes you through...
- Why do you need a business case?
- Why invest now?
- Why choose our HR & payroll software?
Benefits of having your payroll work with your HR system
This guide covers..
- How to streamline your school operations
- How to choose the right HR & payroll software
- Future-proofing your HR& payroll systems
- How our software can help
The cost of payroll software
This guide covers...
- Understanding the cost of payroll software
- Comparing the costs of different payroll software
- Maximising your payroll software investment
- How our software can help
Your education payroll questions answered
Working together with payroll experts we've created an insightful video, where we dive deep into the world of payroll management for educational institutions. Addressing common questions and challenges faced by payroll professionals and HR managers in the education sector.
How a school payroll system can help your organisation
This guide covers...
- The benefits of school payroll system
- The importance of choosing the right school payroll system
- Comparing school payroll providers
- Why you should consider Access Payroll for your needs
FAQs
What is the Access Education Payroll service?
At Access we offer a choice of a managed or in-house payroll service. Our managed (or outsourced) service means that we take on the responsibility of running and delivering your payroll. This is our most commonly selected option and we process more than 50,000 education payslips every month for schools and trusts across the UK.
For those who have a dedicated, certified payroll person or team in place across their school or trust, we have an in-house payroll option which allows you to manage your payroll centrally, allowing you more control and responsibility over your payroll and pensions.
There are pros and cons to both options. If you’re undecided and want to find out more about your options, take a look at our Payroll guide for schools
What’s involved in the Access Managed Payroll service?
Your dedicated Access Education payroll executive will look after everything from sending BACS, producing electronic pay slips, meeting RTI obligations, managing your pension processing and much more. We have a 99.9% accuracy rating and a 100% pass mark from the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals’ Payroll Assurance Scheme, so your payroll needs couldn’t be in safer hands.
This is a summary of everything we manage on your behalf…
- Agree Annual Processing Timetable
- Balance Year End figures to HMRC / IRS / country specific payments made
- Calculate Alabaster
- Calculate occupational payments
- Calculate statutory payments
- Carry out standard exception checks
- Create & submit authorised BACs/SEPA for employees,
- HMRC / IRS / country specific files
- Distribute P60s / country specific documents
- Gross To Net Process
- HMRC / IRS / DWP / other country specific bodies
- Import all data changes
- Maintenance of other payroll background tables
- Maintenance of statutory payroll tables
- Monthly telephone Service Review with payroll exec
- Process in month HMRC / IRS /country specific files
- Process redundancy payments
- Process Year End and P60s / country specific documents
- Processing attachments and other documents
- Produce P45s / country specific documents
- Produce payroll check reports
- Produce report for standard 3rd party payments
- Produce standard monthly payroll reports
- Produce standard payslips
- Queries from agreed customer representative via email or telephone
- Reconcile statutory month end figures
- Scheduled employee payments & period HMRC / IRS / Country specific payment
- Tax Year End clear down and roll forward
- Terminate period and roll payroll forward
What are the timescales involved in moving to this service?
We have a range of implementation options (or flightpaths as we call them) depending on your needs. We require 2 parallel runs with your existing service provider to ensure your data is migrated successfully and there is no interruption to your service. It’s worth thinking about this when making your decision.
What support do I get?
Access provides telephone support, account management and online support. You can pick up the phone and speak with your dedicated payroll executive or another member of our team when you need assistance. We also offer a monthly telephone service review with your payroll exec and any queries you have are responded to from an agreed customer representative via email or telephone.
What is the cost of this service?
At Access our costs are split into one off (implementation) fees and annual (subscription fees). Our one-off fees cover all your implementation and support needs plus two parallel pay runs which is required to ensure a smooth transition (inc data migration) from your existing provider. The cost for this depends on your requirements but we would be happy to discuss this with you.
Our annual fees operate on the basis of a price per employee per month and will depend on the number of employees you have in your school or MAT, which will typically be between.
Do I get access to a HR system?
We do have an integrated HR system called Access Education People. This can work alongside your payroll service or you can just take our payroll service on its own, it’s up to you. If you decide to take the latter, we provide a version of our HR solution for your staff to access their payslips. You can always upgrade your HR system at a later date if you choose to.
What is your contract length?
Our contracts are 36 months
