Starting up own payroll business

Giving it a go

Hi,

I a thinking of starting up my own payroll business, in the west Dublin region and would like to hear from anyone who has done similar,

The things I would like to know are:

software used,
getting clients,
any insurance required,
problems faced,
I am a member of ICAI, do I have to tell them I am doing this if I am only providing payroll services,
Revenue registration, ie using ROS for obtaining tax credits of clients employees, was this difficult to create an account

Thanks, any help, guidance or information would be gratefully accepted.

billybunty

Giving it a go wrote: »

Hi,

I a thinking of starting up my own payroll business, in the west Dublin region and would like to hear from anyone who has done similar,

The things I would like to know are:

software used,
getting clients,
any insurance required,
problems faced,
I am a member of ICAI, do I have to tell them I am doing this if I am only providing payroll services,
Revenue registration, ie using ROS for obtaining tax credits of clients employees, was this difficult to create an account

Thanks, any help, guidance or information would be gratefully accepted.

You have quite a few questions there!
I think you should do a bit of market research first to see if it would be a runner.
Quickpay is a good payroll package from
Sage, free licence for up to 3 ee's, after that its multi co. up to 100 ee's, then you'd have to invest in micropay to cater for up to 1000 ee's, each company you do payroll for would require a licence.
In relation to ros, on the ok from employers you would have to apply for a digital cert for each company. You can view ee's tax credits in here & upload direct to payroll software. But, you woudlnt be able to ring revenue & ask them any details about ee's, they wont hand them out, only to the ee.

I think it would be difficult to make a buck, this is just my opinion as a lot of companies would already have payroll already sorted, but wish you luck anyway!

viztopia

Can I make an observation. If you are a member of icai then you are probably a qualified accountant. I would imagine the starting wage for a qualified accountant is on the region of €50k. Allowing for overheads do you know hoe many clients you would have to gain to make a decent living?

barneystinson

viztopia wrote: »

Can I make an observation. If you are a member of icai then you are probably a qualified accountant. I would imagine the starting wage for a qualified accountant is on the region of €50k. Allowing for overheads do you know hoe many clients you would have to gain to make a decent living?

€50k?! Maybe 6 years ago. Now you'd have qualified people biting your hand off for €40k...

But that's splitting hairs, the point you make is very valid, the OP would need to pick up a LOT of small payroll clients to generate a reasonable income...

dbran

Giving it a go wrote: »

Hi,

I a thinking of starting up my own payroll business, in the west Dublin region and would like to hear from anyone who has done similar,

The things I would like to know are:

software used,
getting clients,
any insurance required,
problems faced,
I am a member of ICAI, do I have to tell them I am doing this if I am only providing payroll services,
Revenue registration, ie using ROS for obtaining tax credits of clients employees, was this difficult to create an account

Thanks, any help, guidance or information would be gratefully accepted.

Hi

There is not a huge amount of money in payroll and it is an area in which there is a huge amount of competition from low fee providers.

Getting clients. Friends and family, networking, your own contacts etc. Basically anywhere and everywhere. If you are starting from scratch it is going to be very hard (but not impossible if you persevere). If you are lucky you may be able to partner up with an accountant who does not do payroll.

Insurance. As you dont need to have a practicing cert to do bookkeeping and payroll you may not need to get professional indemnity insurance. But I would still recommend it.

Problems faced. Plenty....But hey if it was easy everyone would be doing it

You are allowed to do bookkeeping and payroll without a cert so you do not need to tell the ICAI. You should check with them though.

Its simply enough to get set up as an agent with revenue. Contact revenue to get a TAIN. Getting a digital cert for each of you clients would be quite unworkable after a while.

Software. Go with the one that you are used to. SAGE is really expensive. I use Payback because it has unlimited clients and unlimited employees and reasonably priced. But there are others.

Why limited yourself to payroll?

Good luck with it anyway.

dbran

2moreMinutes

Even though you dont need a practising cert for bookkeeping work, do you need one to register as a tax agent with Revenue? I've been given conflicting answers on this myself.

dbran

2moreMinutes wrote: »

Even though you dont need a practising cert for bookkeeping work, do you need one to register as a tax agent with Revenue? I've been given conflicting answers on this myself.

I don't think so. Unless it has changed since I registered you just need to give the details of your firm and business name etc.

Giving it a go

Hi All,

Sorry for not responding sooner, just through a busy few weeks, sick baby hubby and finally me

Thanks for all the responses and advice.

The reason I want to do payroll (maybe bookkeeping later) is because I am a SAHM and am currently looking for a part time accounting job but alas they dont seem to be many (or maybe just many that dont want to employ me..)

So I decided to start working for myself... I dont expect to earn mega bucks but maybe more that job seekers benefit which is getting depressing...

Would love to hear from someone out there who has done this or something similar...

Thanks again

Fussy Eater

It's always been my ambition to have my own bookkeeping (and perhaps payroll) business earning enough to support me but I've never had the courage to go for it. I have an accounting degree and am AAT (IATI) qualified but always imagined without being a fully qualified accountant (I am ACCA registered) that I'd lack the professional credibility to be able to successfully attract clients. I wonder if this is actually the case? And yes, I've fairly recently relocated to Ireland from Luxembourg and am getting pretty desperate on the work front - so much so that I'm starting to wonder whether to turn my back on the profession and simply try something else entirely. As someone has already mention - the wages for a qualified accountant are pretty poor and I've even seen some Dublin companies offering around 30K. Hard times...