The Independent Homecare Team

The Independent Homecare Team is a new business providing homecare support to customers throughout the Sidcup area. The agency, which was launched earlier this year, helps its clients to live as independently as possible in their own homes. The company operates in small teams, helping with customers’ day to day needs, to maintain and improve quality of life.

Owner and manager Fiona Duffy leads a team of trained friendly staff providing domiciliary care and support to regular customers as well as those recently discharged from hospital or recovering from serious illness.

Fiona started using IRIS Payroll Basics, a free programme suitable for small organisations. But as her business grew she felt she needed a system that provided her with the support she needed to make her business a success. She now uses IRIS Payroll Business.

She explained: “As a manager your job should be concerned with policies and procedures. You have to make sure that the foundations are firm before you can start to build on them. When I began the agency I knew I needed to get a payroll system in place. I looked around online. It can take days of searching to find the right product. IRIS Payroll Basics was recognised by the HMRC so I decided to go for it. It is a simple programme and it’s free. It was alright to start off with and did the job but I felt that I needed more support with it.

“Now I use IRIS Payroll Business and so far I am very pleased with it. It was easy to pick up. I used the online web training which was great. You teach yourself. I am not very IT minded and usually I haven’t got a clue about these things but it was very simple and I haven’t experienced any great problems yet.

“It is easy to enter new data, for example if you have a new employee. It is very quick to use. I like the reports that you can get off it. You can look at holidays overall and know who has had time off and when, which ties in to the payroll. The big thing now will be the year end but I am hoping that this won’t be too much of a headache.

“The biggest advantage is that you get the support with IRIS. I’ve had to email them about a couple of things and they have been very helpful and promptly dealt with my query and it is the same when I ring them.

“And the fact that you make a reasonable one off annual payment for it, means it is sorted. You don’t have to worry about budgeting for it every month. It’s done. I am very pleased with it. I would definitely recommend it.”