Christmas and New Year Payroll

With Christmas around the corner, we at Sterling have decided to share a few useful tips to make things run smoothly.

As Payroll Manager I feel its best if I primarily stick to Payroll matters. For example, a useful tip may be that Christmas dinner is more enjoyable if you are not one day into a two-day hangover or another useful tip about not burning the roast potatoes!

For your Payroll to run smoothly, the most important thing is to check timesheet deadlines with your agency and adhere to them. I can’t stress the importance of sticking to these deadlines enough. Your agency will most likely be processing your Payroll early and you don’t want to miss this.?

Some contractors allow Sterling to accrue holiday pay for you and Christmas is a good time to receive this. Tax wise it’s best to receive it when you are not being paid. This is because with a standard tax code you won’t pay tax on the first ￡242 each week. This is the same with National Insurance.?So, if your site closes between Christmas and New Year the most tax efficient time to receive payment would be the payday after New Year. If you need the holiday pay for a last-minute Christmas shopping spree you could receive your holiday pay before Christmas, go shopping and buy everyone some vouchers, hit the town, and hopefully have enough money left over for fun. Just remember if you are receiving pay then the full amount will be taxable.

Finally, we will be fitting five days’ work into three days for the period between Christmas and New Year. Don’t be alarmed if your payment is processed a little later in the day than normal. Some staff will have time off over Christmas, and we will have less time to do everything, but I can assure you we won’t be finishing Payroll until everybody that should be paid is paid. The App is a fantastic way of keeping track of your payments with Sterling. If it comes to pay day and you can see hours to process for you on the App, it’s unlikely you have anything to worry about.

We at Sterling would like to wish everybody a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. Have a great time and try not to ruin your Christmas dinner with a two-day hangover or burnt potatoes.