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The top 5 benefits of

using the cloud for


automatic enrolment
Learn how online payroll solutions can
streamline the transition and solve complex
automatic enrolment challenges for your
business.
Call 0843 357 1801, or visit iris.co.uk/autoenrolment to see how we can help you
Background to automatic
enrolment
Automatic enrolment, part of the governments workplace pension
reforms, is being introduced to combat the issue that people are living
longer and healthier lives but are saving less for their retirement. As the
ratio of workers to those of a pensionable age continues to fall, the
government has estimated that as many as seven million people are
currently not saving enough for an adequate retirement income.
Legal information
This information doesnt constitute financial, investment or professional
advice and shouldnt be relied on as such.
IRIS do not make any personal recommendation or give advice to
employers and their workers on how to make investment decisions. If you
are seeking this kind of advice we would suggest speaking with a qualified
financial adviser.
As state pensions will be unable to bear the
increasing numbers of retirees, The Pensions Act
2008 established new duties to redress this
imbalance. Automatic enrolment as part of these
changes, began to be rolled out amongst
businesses in October 2012.
The changes brought about by the new legislation are complex and
require early education and preparation to allow businesses to gain a full
understanding of how to capitalise, adapt, and ensure compliance.
With 32,000 businesses staging during the 2014-2015 financial year, the
numbers seeking support and advice about the legislative transition will
increase considerably.
The cloud, payroll and automatic
enrolment
In recent years more businesses have begun catering to the cloud. Google
Drive, the Apple iCloud and the ever increasing social networks like Facebook
and Instagramall exist in the cloud.
The cloud itself, is another way of referring to online capabilities, programmes
and storage. Online services, such as the ones mentioned above, offer
increasing flexibility for people and businesses in the 21st century.
Now reaching much further than just online storage facilities, businesses are
able to utilise solutions developed and expanded into the cloud confidently
running integral parts of their businesses through these new and easily
accessible means.
In a recent IRIS survey, 58% of
respondents identified payroll as
having primary responsibility for the
management of automatic
enrolment.
For efficient and successful
automatic enrolment to be carried
out, payroll holds a vital role with
access to PAYE information and
salary calculations at each pay
period which must be evaluated
prior to employee assessment.
Recognising the important role
payroll has in automatic enrolment
and the benefits of cloud solutions,
some parts of the new legislation
can be carried out using online
enabled software.
Call 0843 357 1801, or visit iris.co.uk/autoenrolment to see how we can help you
With ever increasing services provided online, many businesses are able to improve
efficiency and productivity, whilst reducing costs and overheads.
Payroll and finance departments havent been left behind; the take up of online
solutions for a range of businesses in this area has been positive and continues to
rise.
The top 5 benefits of using the cloud
for automatic enrolment
Automatic enrolment is full of complexities, but new online software can help
business to manage these changes in a number of ways.
1) Compliance confidence
Keeping up to date with the latest software releases can be difficult, especially
when there is more than one computer or user to update within your business.
As payroll and tax legislation is always being updated, waiting for disks in the
post to arrive or downloading updates can take up valuable time for your
workforce late updates can be costly - automatic enrolment non-compliance
fines can be up to 10,000 per day.
Whether using complete online solutions to help
eradicate these challenges by updating your software
automatically, or by choosing options that work with
desktop payroll software to provide a complete end-to-
end solution, you can relax in the knowledge that it will
all be taken care of in the cloud.
2) Efficient communications
Communicating to your employees about automatic
enrolment is legally required. Not only must you notify
all eligible employees prior to your staging date,
communications must be sent out as new employees or
current employees become eligible. This is an ongoing
process.
Online solutions can help ease the pressures of sending legal communications,
by dispatching these notifications directly to the recipient via the cloud at the
touch of a button.
Dramatically reducing printing and postage costs, the cloud will not only help you
stay green, but also help minimise those overheads.
3) Increased security
As more and more data is captured and stored online, cloud solutions are able to offer
much more rigorous security that is able to respond quickly to ever-changing
capabilities online.
Security levels offered by many business solutions in the cloud can provide customers
with high level protection which is paramount to an organisations operations.
Call 0843 357 1801, or visit iris.co.uk/autoenrolment to see how we can help you
The top 5 benefits of using the cloud
for automatic enrolment
4) Mobile access 24/7
Mobile devices and apps have risen in popularity over the last few years, and its
a trend that appears to continue to climb with no signs of stopping. With more
people gaining access to smartphones with app capabilities and add-ons,
business and data management has become easier for everyone, not just the
average office worker.
Accessing information via specific apps on a phone, from legitimate sources
allows a worker to interact more efficiently and easily with company resources.
The cloud is a vital component of app uptake and usage, and many businesses
can help engage more effectively and directly with their workforce, by publishing
payslips straight to an app profile, for example.
5) Flexibility for your workforce
As all businesses are required to prepare for eligible
employees, this will mean a huge variety of organisations
will have to consider the best way to move forward with
automatic enrolment roll outs for their company.
Not only are businesses different to each other, workforces could comprise of multiple
job roles and styles. For example, field representatives for a business may only visit
their office location once a month.
Just as cloud solutions have offered great opportunities for people to maintain
connections with friends and family around the world whilst travelling, utilising online
solutions from businesses is a great way to streamline communications from company
to employee.
Call 0843 357 1801, or visit iris.co.uk/autoenrolment to see how we can help you
What are my automatic
enrolment choices software
versus middleware?
The complexities of automatic enrolment are well documented and the
costs associated with finding a solution to carry out all the required tasks
have been debated. Businesses looking to minimise costs by employing
middleware and manual solutions risk leaving themselves open to non-
compliance and delays in submissions.
With the frequency of assessments, the volume of
communications and changing work status for
employees, both eligible and non-eligible, payroll
teams and finance departments can find
themselves stretched and left with limited time to
focus on business priorities.
You may also be paying numerous license fees per employee for each
solution you employ. A single source solution will eliminate the multiple
charges, leaving you with a clear understanding of how much your
solution costs. Also, with such a disjointed solution, the likelihood of
additional manual processing is to be expected, adding further strain on
your company and internal resources.
The benefits of having a whole software solution offered by one source
can actually minimise your business overall costs, and allows you to
complete the tasks required to achieve automatic enrolment compliance.
Although set up costs in the first instance may seem high, the long term
benefits of a complete solution can not only save your company money
but also time and employee resources.
Call 0843 357 1801, or visit iris.co.uk/autoenrolment to see how we can help you
Having a variety of companies, with multiple
solutions, completing different tasks makes
auditing your automatic enrolment process difficult
and expensive.
Payroll providers can offer fully compliant and complete automatic
enrolment solutions. Using multiple 3
rd
parties to complete your solution
can increase the risk of non-compliance due to the opportunity for
multiple points of failure.
IRIS Automatic Enrolment Solutions
Early preparation and planning is essential for a smooth transition to a compliant
automatic enrolment solution, and with potential fines of up to 10,000 a day it will
be costly to move forward with a system or solution inappropriate for your
business. All IRIS Automatic Enrolment solutions work together to achieve
compliance for your company by helping to simplify the process.
Compliant payroll software
The introduction of automatic enrolment is well underway
and will affect employers across the UK over the coming
months and years. When you reach your staging date
you are required by law to automatically enrol any
eligible jobholders into a workplace pension scheme when running your payroll.
Just like with Real Time Information, each piece of IRIS desktop payroll software has
an optional module to make automatic enrolment well, entirely automatic.
Assessment made easy
The IRIS AE Suite works with your IRIS payroll software and
gives you the ability to: create a nominated automatic
enrolment scheme, define qualifying earnings and
pensionable pay, assess your workforce, automatically enrol
workers in a pension scheme, produce remittance files and
produce automatic enrolment files.
Communication to your workforce
Employees have to be informed at key stages in the automatic
enrolment process. The communications required will be set
by their worker status and what stage they are at in the process,
and the triggers behind this are complex.
The IRIS AE Suite takes care of the communications element, so you don't have to.
IRIS has worked closely with The Pensions Regulator to ensure your workers receive
the right communications at the right time.
Understanding automatic enrolment
IRIS is holding training courses across the country, as well as online, to help educate
you on the legislation surrounding automatic enrolment and what impact these
changes will have your payroll and your company.
Call 0843 357 1801, or visit iris.co.uk/autoenrolment to see how we can help you
About IRIS
With 30 years' experience, IRIS provides business critical software and
services to the UK SME sector and accountants in practice. Over 53,500 small
and medium-sized companies including 15,500 accountancy practices rely on
IRIS every day to run their business and collaborate, with around 82,000 end-
users subscribing to IRIS cloud solutions.
IRIS Software Group is the number one solution provider for RTI and its
software pays 14 percent of UK businesses that operate under PAYE. All
customers receive the greatest choice of RTI payroll software and services
managed under the brands IRIS and Earnie.
IRIS has developed a complete solution to help businesses prepare for
automatic enrolment. This includes compliant payroll software, the IRIS
Automatic Enrolment Module to handle your employee assessment, IRIS
OpenEnrol to handle your communications, pension output files, training
courses, free guides and more.
Get in touch today to see how IRIS can help you
prepare for automatic enrolment.
Call us: 0843 357 1801
Email us: sales@iris.co.uk
Visit us: iris.co.uk/autoenrolment
Follow us on Twitter: @IRISPayroll
Call 0843 357 1801, or visit iris.co.uk/autoenrolment to see how we can help you

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