Why you shouldn't go live on UK payroll in April
John Eckersley
Payroll Systems | HRIS Systems | Ex-Workday | Workday UK Payroll | Workday Absence | HRIS Manager | HRIS Director | Product Manager | Payroll Systems Lead | Agile | JIRA | Azure Devops | Hands-on Workday config
I don't know who started this - but they need a good talking to.
Thinking back to the 1990s, at Peterborough Software we were a bit like I imagine a lawnmower or fireworks manufacturer - the vast majority of our business was crammed into a mad rush to go live in April.
For anyone who doesn't know - April is the end of the UK tax year and people who don't think things through imagine that starting to run a new payroll system at the start of a new tax year will make it easier. This is nonsense for the following reasons (amongst many others) -
It's already the busiest time for Payroll departments - there is extra workload associated with the year end. It's like asking a DJ to run two parties on New Years Eve at the same time, in same place, only harder.
If you wish to do a parallel run or runs, you aren't gaining anything by starting in April as you'll have to load year to date data anyway.
If your plan to go live in April hinges on the fact it's the start/end of the tax year, any slippage is going to be more disruptive than if you picked a more sensible time.
If you insist on April, you'll be competing for resources (what we used to call people) at the busiest time of the year.