Mark Webster Furniture And Upholstery Administers Seamless Payroll With Rutherford Webb’s Payroll Solution Payrite
Flexible payroll solution enables central administration of payroll for Group furniture and upholstery maker with three specialist companies.
Based in Nottinghamshire, Mark Webster Furniture Group is renowned for providing high quality furniture and upholstery services to stockists around the UK. The company prides itself on quality and craftsmanship for its upholstery, cabinet, bedroom and dining furniture.
Mark Webster Furniture Group has recently restructured to become three separate companies, each with its own specialist expertise – manufacture and import of upholstery, retail upholstery services and cabinet furniture.
A new focus
The change in the structure has enabled each company to provide a more focused service to customers, while head office administration functions such as payroll are maintained centrally. Mark Webster Furniture Group prides itself on recruiting and training staff with genuine interest in the business and ensures that it has the right systems in place to manage its operations.
Since the restructure, the group’s payroll department now administers six payrolls – three monthly and three weekly, paying over 130 personnel. The payroll team uses Payrite, the payroll solution from Rutherford Webb, chosen for its ease of use and flexibility to manage the diverse payroll requirements.
According to Tracey Rymell, Payroll Administrator for the Mark Webster Furniture Group,
“With the recent change to form three companies from the original one, we now have different PAYE references and I have found the facility within Payrite to copy the main payroll to new payrolls invaluable, as I haven’t had to set any up from scratch.”
Change made easy with Payrite
Tracey has also found the ability to transfer personnel data from one PAYE reference to another and changing personnel from weekly to monthly payrolls a straightforward process with Payrite. Security options within Payrite enable access levels to be set, enabling operators to administer payroll within their responsibilities.
“Using Payrite has saved so much time – we can make changes easily, transferring data with just a click of a button. We also use the quick entry in the pay run extensively, saving time on data input.” said Tracey.
Managing Absence
The payroll department uses the Absence Management module within Payrite extensively. With the advent of new legislation Working Time Directive and National Minimum Wage, it is important for Mark Webster Furniture Group – like all companies – that all relevant information is recorded for staff.
The module enables calculations for company sick and maternity pay. Absence codes enable patterned absences to be indicated and reason messages for the absence can be noted on the system. Holiday entitlement can also be recorded and time taken, as well as weeks indicated that have been worked during certain time periods.
Payrite also calculates SSP entitlement for any qualifying week – it can work out whether an employee should be excluded and why. The attendance module enables the set up of company sick pay rules which can then automatically calculate sick pay entitlement.
All aspects of SMP can be managed, from calculation to recovery figures, and company maternity pay policies can be set up for companies that wish to pay employees in addition to statutory amounts. At Mark Webster, the payroll team use the Report Writer within Payrite to produce management reports on absence on a regular basis.
“We have found using Payrite to calculate Statutory payments so easy. We just key in the details and Payrite calculates everything for us – average earnings, 90% of earnings and flat rates.”
“The Report Writer is very intuitive and straightforward to use – I regularly produce management reports, both using the standard formats and ones that we have created specifically,” said Tracey.
Tracey also uses the Ready Reckoner facility to run ‘what-if’ calculations, providing additional valuable information for possible issue management reports.
For Tracey the Attachment of Earnings (AEO) deduction facility has also made the payroll department’s life easier. Payments are deducted at source for court orders, unpaid council tax or CSA payments, multiple orders are dealt with in priority order, all of which are calculated automatically by Payrite, once entered on the system.
Time saving online
Since using Payrite time saving has been a major benefit to the payroll team. The e-filing facility to submit year end forms to Inland Revenue has significantly speeded up processes. Tracey is also considering In-Year filing to submit P45/46 forms.
Tracey finds the Online Pay History saves significant amounts of time when completing forms for external organizations where full wage details are required for specific numbers of weeks.
“Payrite is a great payroll software – it really does save us lots of time on many routine processes. I also feel that there is a lot more untapped potential that we could benefit from. It is straightforward to run reports and administer the payroll and unlike many systems, the back-up and restore procedures are very easy to do.”
“There are not many instances when we need to call upon the customer helpdesk, but when we do they are always very helpful and knowledgeable,” Tracey added.