Who is Every Payroll By IRIS for?

Every Payroll By IRIS is our payroll and pensions software that gives you complete control over your school or MAT’s pay run. We’ve slowly been introducing it to our customers over the last year, and we’re proud to hear how it’s giving HR and payroll teams peace of mind over their pay-related tasks. 

However, we know it’s difficult to decide whether you’re better off taking on all payroll and pensions responsibilities in-house or outsourcing them to an education payroll specialist. If you can relate, this blog is for you!  

Read on to learn about what’s involved when your school or MAT runs its own payroll. Plus: 

• How Every Payroll has been designed to meet the needs of education payroll teams
• Which schools, trusts, and MATs are suited to running payroll in-house
• The advantages of integrated HR and payroll 

What is Every Payroll By IRIS? 

First up, let’s get you properly acquainted with Every Payroll. It’s the system that lets you view and manage all your payroll activities from a single place. Whether that’s retrospective pay increases or pensions reporting (for the likes of the Teacher Pension Scheme (TPS) or Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)), you only need to log into one system to complete tasks on your to-do list. 

Every Payroll isn’t a generic, one-size-fits-all payroll system. We designed it with the needs and demands of school HR and payroll teams in mind, so it works with you. We know that every school is different, and so are the ways payroll managers and HR teams run payroll. So, Every Payroll can be customised to meet your team’s specific needs. 

For instance, if you’re responsible for running numerous payrolls within a MAT, you might want certain steps in the process to require manual approvals. Or, the reporting needs of each academy in your trust might be slightly different. Every Payroll lets you add and alter various controls within the system, so you can manage both general and niche needs of your school’s payroll with ease. 

Payroll activities you can complete within Every Payroll: 

• Get rid of the dread that comes with back pay calculations – Every Payroll sorts these for you!
• Feel peace of mind that legislation and compliance are adhered to, with automatic updates.
• Wave ‘goodbye’ to intimidating pension reporting – the system supports the TPS, LGPS, and other major pension schemes (e.g. NEST) and makes the appropriate post-level deductions. 

Which schools should run payroll in house? 

Local authorities (LAs) have long handled payroll for schools and trusts. However, recent years have seen LAs remove their payroll provisions, leaving many confused about whether they should – and could – run it in-house or use a specialist provider.  

The first step to figuring out if your organisation can run its own payroll is understanding if you have the right skills in your HR/payroll team to do so. If you already have education payroll professionals at your school/MAT, you need to make sure they: 

• Have the time and resources to run the entire process
• Are knowledgeable on all the relevant payroll legislation and compliance best practice – and have the means to stay up-to-date with it
• Have a payroll system that makes the process as straightforward and efficient as possible 

If you don’t yet have the right payroll staff, then it’s time to think about: 

• The cost of employing them, including the recruitment process
• How much you’ll need to invest in payroll software and equipment  

You can then compare the combined expenditure of this per employee with the price of outsourcing to understand the return on investment. 

Advantages of running payroll in-house 

It’s also important to consider the benefits that running your own payroll could bring to your school or MAT. After all, procuring a payroll system is an investment, and you need to feel confident that it’ll bring more streamlined pay activities – and more! 

Running payroll in-house with Every Payroll: 

• Has the potential to save you money – it could be cheaper per payslip
• Means you’re more able to adapt and flex to last-minute changes (compared to working with a Local Authority)
• Gives you control over staff, payroll and pensions data
• Strengthens links between HR and payroll activities, streamlining employment management while making time efficiencies for both teams 

Integrated school HR and payroll 

On this note, one of the biggest draws for MATs choosing payroll software is if – and how well – it integrates with their HR system. At Every By IRIS, we know you have tens of systems in play every day to keep your school running effectively. We also know that when systems work together, there are ample opportunities to make processes smoother. 

Every Payroll integrates with Every HR, our school HR software, through an open API. This means staff personal details (like addresses) can automatically pull into your pay run. Not duplicating data saves time, decreases the chance of mistakes, and minimises the risk of GDPR breaches. You can also set and adjust appropriate levels of control between HR and payroll functions, for added security.