Contractor payroll is where most agency owners lose margin without noticing. A rate gets keyed wrong, a timesheet lands after the cut off, holiday pay is calculated on the wrong basis, and nobody ties the pay run back to the sales invoices. Each error is small. Across a contract book of twenty or thirty temps, every week, it adds up to real money.
We run contractor payroll as part of your finance function, not as a separate bureau service. That means the person running your pay run is the same team producing your management accounts, so the payroll and the margin reporting agree with each other every month.
What is included
- Weekly or fortnightly pay runs for temps on your own PAYE payroll, with RTI submissions to HMRC on time, every time.
- Timesheet to payslip control. Every approved timesheet is matched to a pay line and a sales invoice line, so nothing is paid that was not billed and nothing is billed that was not paid.
- Rate checks. Pay rates and charge rates are checked against the placement record each week, so margin leaks show up in days, not at year end.
- Holiday pay. Calculated and accrued on the correct basis for each worker, with the liability shown in your monthly figures rather than surprising you later.
- Pension auto enrolment. Assessment, enrolment and contributions handled as part of each pay run.
- Employer costs shown per placement. Employer National Insurance, holiday pay and pension are allocated back to the placement, so the margin you see is the margin you actually make.
Umbrella and limited company contractors
Not every worker sits on your own payroll. For contractors paid through an umbrella company or their own limited company, we reconcile the supplier invoices against your timesheets and your sales invoices in the same way.
Since 6 April 2026, agencies can be held jointly and severally liable for PAYE and National Insurance that a non-compliant umbrella company fails to pay. We keep clean records of who you paid, what you paid and on what evidence, so your position is documented if a question ever lands. Our guide to umbrella company liability explains the rules.
Status and contract terms are your decision. We keep the paperwork straight and flag what looks wrong in the numbers. Employment status, off payroll determinations and contract wording are legal questions, and we will tell you when one needs a specialist.
Why it sits with your accountant, not a payroll bureau
A standalone payroll bureau runs the pay run and stops there. The bureau never sees your sales invoices, so it cannot tell you that a temp has been paid for 42 hours when the client was invoiced for 40. Your accountant then receives a payroll journal at month end and has to take it on trust.
When the same team runs both, the reconciliation happens every week as a matter of course. Your gross margin per placement is right, your margin per desk reporting is right, and your cash flow forecast knows exactly what the next pay run will cost.
Pricing
Internal payroll for your own staff is included in every tier: up to two people on Core, five on Growth and fifteen on Scale. Contractor payroll is priced per payslip on top of your tier, at £6 a payslip, so you only pay for the volume you actually run. All prices exclude VAT and are confirmed in writing before we start.
Want to see what your current rates really leave you after employer costs? Try the temp margin calculator.