Case Study – eSlip Payroll Services and Euroway

Euroway  Group of Companies are a supplier of specialist transport services to the road transport industry.  The Group’s primary activities include: • Contract Hire of Trucks and Trailers • Fleet Management Solutions • Vehicle Rental • Commercial Vehicle Workshops The company operates out of locations around the UK with its Head Offices based at Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.

Euroway  has developed its successful business through recommendations, integrity and hard work and by continually living up to its strap line: “Big enough to cope yet small enough to care”. Business Issues Euroway  was running its payroll on an in-house system. As the business grew this was putting a growing demand on the time of the senior personnel responsible. Overall the high number of variable pay elements utilised within the company made the payroll process complex in itself.

In addition much of the business expansion required weekly pay runs and this together with confidentiality issues which made it difficult to delegate, exacerbated the time problem. Another issue was the need for detailed supporting information regarding the make-up of the gross pay. On the monthly payrolls this meant that four weeks worth of detail about shifts worked, pay rates, overtime etc had to be produced to support the monthly gross pay amount. This was being produced on a separate spreadsheet, outside of the payroll system, and included in an envelope with the payslip, with a number of attendant control issues. It was fundamental that the service provider was able to provide this supporting data in respect of Euroway maintaining good staff morale and limiting employee queries.

Why eSlip Payroll Services:?

eSlip Payroll Services was chosen by Euroway for a number of reasons. Initially eSlip ensured that they fully understood Euroway’s requirements before proposing a solution. The eSlip service was flexible enough to cope with the Euroway requirement and in particular they demonstrated their ability to tailor the service specifically for Euroway. eSlip Payroll Services was also innovative in defining a much improved way for providing the supporting detail required and previously supplied on a separate spreadsheet. Finally the eSlip pricing structure was competitive, simple and all inclusive without hidden extras. Many suppliers, particularly those serving the SME market, have a relatively rigid service and the adaptation required for a specific customer requirement is often left with the customer. Also late changes and reruns can often result in extra charges, which is not the case with the eSlip service.

Solution Provided by eSlip

eSlip designed the weekly/monthly update file to incorporate the full range of pay elements, such as various shift allowances; overtime rates; callout rates; different hourly rates etc. Using email the Euroway specific update sheet is sent each week/month to Euroway and returned to eSlip Payroll Services after any variable pay information has been added.

It Pays to Outsource Payroll with eSlip Payroll Services

Specialist support services to the road transport industry eSlip redeveloped the payslip print program to incorporate detailed analysis by week (even for monthly paid) on the payslip itself. This sometimes requires a second payslip to be produced with the additional supporting detail on it. This is done with no interruption to the output run. The payslips including the detailed analysis are now provided as security laser printed documents, which are then posted to either the Euroway head office in Bedfordshire, one of the depots and in some case direct to home addresses.

A range of reports providing the required management information is provided, again utilising email, and the service includes a BACS transfer of funds into all employee bank accounts. Extensive use of email has improved confidentiality and speeded up the input process. This is always time critical for weekly runs, and for monthly runs helps ensure that time is available for late changes and other unforeseen problems. By being as efficient as possible with the input process time can be available for dealing with problems and for payrolls to be rerun if necessary whilst maintaining the all important timescales for payment to the employee.

Benefits to Euroway

Significant time is freed up for the Group Financial Controller enabling him to utilise his own time addressing more business critical issues. Utilising an email-based service improves and speeds up the data input process. Payroll information is provided quickly allowing prompt live run authorisation. Often by early/mid afternoon on the Monday of each week Euroway can put the payroll to bed, knowing that everything will now progress to correct and on time payment to all employees. Mistakes or errors at the input stage are identified and there is time to correct and rerun payrolls and to provide all affected reports with updated content.

Payslips contain the full analysis required, which is always consistent with the payslip thus minimising employee queries Flexibility is built into the process such that reruns are no problem, and even enquiries in advance of a payroll run concerning for example employee queries about the impact of a change in tax coding can be requested and answered by eSlip. Confidentiality of sensitive payroll data is increased with use of email for data input, payslips incorporating detailed analysis and security payslips.

An additional benefit found by Euroway is the fact that the content and format of the data update file can be utilised to answer many HR type questions asked by senior management about the structure of their employee costs for example. The person most affected by the decision to outsource the Euroway payroll to eSlip is Mark Scott, the Group Financial Controller, who is quoted as follows: “eSlip have been able to provide Euroway with a flexible solution to their payroll needs, which not only is cost effective, but also ensures that payroll payments are always made in a timely manner. Utilising the benefits of email, information and reports are also provided in a timely manner.”