7 Reasons Recruitment Agencies Choose Pay & Bill Services

Accurate, timely and consistent management of the payroll process is a key objective of all recruitment companies. But how often is your agency able to achieve this? Increasing complexity in payroll requirements is leading to costly investment by recruitment agencies with the need for more staff, upgraded technology and in-house expertise on HMRC legislation.

Payroll errors, high DSOs and impeded cashflow are problems that Finance Directors and Finance Managers in agencies often worry about. There’s no doubt the finance team provides a vital service to recruitment business – paying contractors, sending invoices, managing credit control and many other tasks that help the agency keep on the top of the business’s finances. The key question is: what is the best way to deliver this service?

In-house payroll team vs outsourcing to a specialist service provider

While the pay & bill process is of prime importance to your agency, it is often the most tedious and time-consuming too. In this scenario, a specialist payroll outsourcing service provider can often be a better choice – we know this first hand.

For over 14 years, we have partnered with leading recruitment agencies, helping them improve process efficiency, increase accuracy and reduce operating costs. Some of the key benefits your recruitment agency can expect from recruitment pay & bill service companies are:

1) Access to experienced staff: Finding payroll specialists with experience in Pay & Bill for agencies is not easy – the demand outstrips supply in the UK. When you work with a provider that has hundreds of employees serving the recruitment sector, it is a lot easier to find experienced, qualified and talented staff for your projects.

2) Access to technology and infrastructure: In addition to keeping on top HMRC legislation and regulations, the pay & bill team requires special software for processing timesheets. Over time, new software systems appear in the market, helping to reduce manual tasks via digitisation or automation. Purchasing and implementing such software may be prohibitively expensive for an agency, owing to the cost and time investment required.
On the other hand, recruitment pay & bill companies that handle large volumes have a commercial incentive to invest in such systems. By partnering with such a company, your agency can benefit from the latest technology without worrying about the overheads.

3) Improved compliance management: Staying on top of legislative changes by the HMRC is not an easy task. It places a heavy burden on in-house teams that are forced to maintain expertise on legislation and ensure compliance at every step. Using the services of an outsourced payroll provider with experience in the recruitment industry, you can mitigate compliance risks and reduce the associated costs.

4) Easily manage volume spikes: Fast growing recruitment agencies can see a high spike in the volume of candidates and timesheets over a period of months. Finding talent, implementing technology and managing the increase in volume can often be a major roadblock to further growth. Companies providing specialist payroll services for recruitment agencies have the people, processes and technology to absorb such spikes without reducing the quality. For example, QX processes over 1 million timesheets annually and our clients know that their team in India can successfully process high volumes.

5) Improve accuracy, minimise problems arising out of errors: A payroll team with expertise in the recruitment industry can help you achieve high levels of accuracy; for instance. at QX we consistently deliver over 99.8% accuracy in payroll processing for all of our clients. As a result, the time spent on dealing with incorrect payments, missed payments and payment delays is minimised.

6) Deliver a better experience to candidates and clients: With a highly efficient operation, your candidates are paid on time and the clients receive correct bills on time. The result is a smoother process and better experience for all the stakeholders.

7) Up to 50% reduction in F&A and payroll costs: Last but not the least, outsourcing to offshore locations can help agencies reduce the accounting & payroll processing costs by up to 50% and improve efficiency by up to 25%. At the same time, not having to worry about the pay & bill processes, the managers and senior accounting team members can focus on formulating strategies to drive business growth.

Learn more about pay & bill outsourcing

Our clients in the recruitment sector are able to access all of the above benefits by using our pay & bill services. To find out how exactly our services can benefit your agency, please get in touch with us.

Originally published Jun 21, 2018 11:06:33, updated Jul 24 2024

Topics: Finance & Accounting Outsourcing