So You Want To Be Paid Do You ? (Sage Payroll)

Member Name: bandoo

Product:	Sage Payroll
Date:	04/03/01 (248 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap and very user friendly

Disadvantages: Quite alot of information

In my job as a book-keeper I also do the payroll for one or two of my customers and have been using Sage Payroll for the last year or so. Before I used this I used to sit with all the manuals laid out across the table trying to work out which week and which allowance I should be using. This was fine until you have to do this procedure every week for 20 or more employees and then fill in each record card and then write out a payslip. Laborious or what !! It got to the stage where I just didn't look forward to Thursday evening - WAGES DAY !!

Now, over the years I have come across all walks of people, some very sharp and some less so. It always seems strange to me that everybody appears to be on the ball when it comes to wages. You might have trouble recalling your 5 times table but you know whether you've been underpaid by 50 pence ! Bearing this in the mind the thought that - heaven forbid - you could make a mistake on the payroll is enough to push anyone towards a computerised package.

I have used other Sage products and decided to try their Instant Payroll , not least because their product was £100 compared to some far more expensive versions. I found the whole installation procedure extremely easy from inserting the C.D. (they will supply on floppy if required) to actually setting up the employee details. There is a step by step guide to putting on both new and existing personnel as well as information on what to do with those P45 figures.

I would recommend backing up after each payroll since the restore process is quite useful if needed. The data takes up quite a lot of space so you might need two disks to back up onto. It is also quite useful to purchase Sage Cover. This is a 12 month maintenance type of cover, it gives you access to the helpdesk as well as up to date payroll details sent to you after budget changes and tax year ends. This is currently £85 per year and being a Sage Cover member gives you a 10% reduction in t
he Sage shop for stationery etc.

When you have processed your payroll you can view the payslips on screen and then either print to plain or designed paper - it's best to print another copy for your records so that you can sort out those niggly little problems. The year-end is also straight forward, with a manual and disk sent to you in plenty of time with step by step instructions on how to produce those all important P60's. There are columns for student loan and tax credits so that you can fill in all the year-end paperwork effortlessly.

This excellent piece of software is a great bargain and can be found for around £100 but you can only use this particular product for one set of data. If you are trying to run payroll for more than one company there is a multi-user version available.

I have used other forms of payroll programs but find this to be by far the most user friendly. If you'd rather have a headache free pay day why not try this software - you'll be glad you did.

Summary: