Voluntary Action Rotherham

Voluntary Action Rotherham is the leading organisation for providing support, development and promotion of the voluntary and community sector in Rotherham and its surrounding areas.

The body has provided invaluable support and given a voice to all those organisations which have used it, since its transition in 1999 and its inception in the seventies.

Voluntary Action Rotherham (VAR) offers a whole range of advice and information including financial services like payroll and community accountancy, human resources, information technology, hire of meeting rooms at its Spectrum headquarters and photocopying.

Liz O’Hara is VAR’s Payroll Officer. She runs a payroll bureau for 66 organisations over the voluntary sector. The groups include, amongst others, charities, playgroups and churches and the payrolls range from large to very small.

Liz had used IRIS PAYEMaster since joining the organisation in 2006. She liked its simplicity and ease of use although as the number of clients grew she needed software that grew with them. She has been using IRIS Bureau Payroll since the end of August.

The new software is designed to allow those completing payroll for multiple organisations to process the information in a more efficient and selective way.

Liz explained:   “When I came here the organisation was running IRIS PAYEMaster and after using more complex software previously, I found it quite simple to pick up and process the monthly payrolls. Some aspects of the software needed developing, for example when you have employees having more than one pay rate, but I found ways around it. In other words I was working for the system rather than the system working for me.

“Being a payroll bureau for the voluntary and community sector, our clients can be quite diverse and they all have different requirements and analysis needs. We were intrigued by IRIS Bureau Payroll because it seemed to take into account the fact that every organisation is different. We liked the idea that when the payroll was completed we could click on reports and email them out to the groups. There was no need for photocopying, none of the expenses of printing, toner or paper and no postage costs. It all seemed much more cost efficient and better for the environment.

“Generally I have been very pleased with IRIS Bureau Payroll. It has been quite easy to pick up. If you have a number of different clients like we do there is a lot of groundwork in the set up of the system for example entering each company parameters’ employee pay details, making sure pay rates are added and correct. But if you do that groundwork thoroughly, get the paylines in and put a bit of extra thought into it all, it will all pay off at the processing data level.

“IRIS Bureau Payroll is much more visual. I was very enthusiastic about the dashboard and it has proved to be absolutely amazing. I like the flexibility of it. There are different criteria for different clients and this takes it all into account. I can search for a client, an employee name or a National Insurance number. The clients list shows all the organisation details on the right, the list of employees shows their surname, forename, national insurance number & letter, tax code and the group they work for. So if a sick note, for example lands on my desk with no covering information, I can find out at the touch of a button which organisation that person is from. No more trailing through lots of different payrolls and lists. The employee detail screen also shows their personal details on the right and a second tab their pay history and pay slips, that you can print off at the touch of a button, fantastic!

“The tax and the National Insurance are now linked onto one screen which makes life a bit easier. I will also have the benefit of being able to add in temporary data, for example mileage, more efficiently. Until now I have had to work it out separately. Now it will be automatically calculated. And you can see at a glance, before you print, whether the monthly data is correct, what information is entered and also what the end result is for each client which is great. I would definitely recommend IRIS Bureau Payroll.”