9 things you should check when choosing a GP payroll provider

1. Check the potential new providers' records on Companies House.

You can’t take any risk when it comes to payroll. The impact on your practice by using an unreliable or financially unstable payroll provider could be catastrophic. Take a look for yourself before you make any decisions on the Companies House website.

You’ll see that our records with Companies House go back 35 years. Over this time we have built up a vast knowledge of the payroll and GP marketplace

2. Make sure you know who owns the payroll software.

Some smaller payroll companies don’t always own the software, they simply resell it for another company. If in doubt, ask the new potential provider to show you evidence that they actually own the software they are asking you to buy.

 IRIS designs and develops all of it’s own GP software. 

3. What market share do they have and how many customers do they have?

 Over 60% of GP practice have chosen to use IRIS, with over 6,000 practices using us to run their payroll nobody else comes close. In total we have over 180 members of staff dedicated to payroll. Reassuring isn't it?

4. Do they have a solid UK background?

Each country has different compliance issues for payroll. That’s why it’s so important to choose a payroll provider with a solid background in the country from which you operate.

IRIS is UK based, you’ll see no rogue Euro symbols in our software and you will feel safe in the knowledge that any data we hold on you is securely hosted in the UK.

5. Do they support auto enrolment?

The Pension Regulator recommend that you use your payroll provider to help you comply with auto enrolment. If you decide to use a payroll provider that doesn’t support auto enrolment then you could have to run your payroll twice or switch provider.

IRIS has already helped 2,700 businesses assess over 556,000 employees. We have invested £1million in software development to help with this massive legislation change and will continue to invest as legislation dictates and technology moves forward.

6. Do they advertise their support wait times?

Like the saying goes, ‘you get what you pay for’. Less expensive software usually means poorer service, with longer wait times and more bugs. Can you afford the wait? 

At IRIS, we received 158,000 calls last year and have increased our support team by 25% so our skilled colleagues can support you when you need it. We can handle an incredible 1,500 calls per day.

 7. What training do they offer?

 At IRIS we appreciate that practice managers are not always payroll experts and that’s why we offer a range of free and paid for training courses. We have specialist GP accounants with years of experience who work with us to provide high quality training. Over 1,000 GP Practices have attended GP specific training on accounts and reporting, VAT, automatic enrolment and year end. This number continues to grow as practices legislation changes and as they begin to reach their auto enrolment staging dates.

 8. Do they offer specific GP payroll and accountants software?

IRIS GP Payroll and IRIS GP Accounts software offer integration plus if it all gets too much you can outsource to us.

9. Is all their software recognised?

All IRIS software is HMRC Recognised and auto enrolment ready

Find out more about IRIS GP Payroll and Accounts.