3 types of nightmare payroll clients to look out for

With ghosts and ghouls roaming about this Halloween, the last thing you need to be worrying about is payroll. However, when clients are making demands, or even worse, ignoring you when deadlines are soon approaching, it can be a difficult situation to turn away from. Let’s look at some common ‘nightmare’ payroll clients and the how you can best approach them.

Vampire clients

Vampire clients are demanding. They send emails and make phone calls exceptionally late at night (do they even sleep?). They seem to be always looking for ways to lure you into doing more work for them than you originally signed up for and can just generally be a bit of a pain in the neck to deal with.

How do you approach a vampire?

First, you’ll need a lot of garlic. Secondly, you’ll need some clever automation tools to give them more responsibility around their payroll. One of these tools, for example, could be a system that lets them enter updated employee payroll information themselves. This means that they can update their payroll data at their own leisure, rather than sending you emails in the middle of the night to do it for them. Once they’ve entered the details, you’ll be notified to accept the changes, which will automatically sync to your payroll software. Imagine how much time you could save per client, each pay period.

Another way to instantly ward off vampires is to offer them an annual leave management system that automates the tedious admin work associated with annual leave. Employees can access an employee app where they can submit leave requests with a tap on their smartphone. The client will then be notified and can accept or reject the request from any device. This gives vampires fewer opportunities to hassle you and lightens your workload.

Ghost clients

Ghost clients are the ones who constantly ignore you. Whether you need signatures or documents from them, they tend to leave messages unopened until the last minute. Being left in the dark is never fun, especially when it’s your responsibility to process their employees’ payroll.

How do you approach a ghost?

Ghost clients aren’t the most interactive of the bunch and it can sometimes seem impossible to get hold of them, so it’s important to have some tools up your sleeve to make communication as simple as possible. One way to minimise your points of contact with them is to send them a summary of their payroll information, before the payslips are finalised. This saves you from sending them email after email, only to be ignored. This summary can be sent through an online portal, from which they can approve or reject the request and leave any comments. This simplifies communication for your clients and frees up some time for you to focus on higher value services.

Another tool you can use, depending on your payroll software, is to set up automated HMRC payment reminders. This will automatically send reminder emails to your clients on the 15th of every month, letting them know that a HMRC payment is due. This gives you peace of mind that you’re providing the same level of service, without wasting any of your precious time in the week.

Mummy clients

Mummies are clients that move at a slower than average pace. They tend use a lot of paper and more traditional payroll methods. They often loose employee payslips and look to you for help, wasting valuable time in your week. All in all, they just take longer to sift through than your average client.

How do you approach a mummy?

Mummies can be exhausting to work with, especially when it comes to payslip distribution. They most likely still use paper-based payslips and leave them around the office for employees to collect. However, these payslips can get lost and sometimes given to wrong employee.

As their accountant, you can show them a more efficient way to distribute payslips. When you use a cloud-extension, such as BrightPay Connect, payslips can be sent to employees directly from the payroll software, once the payslips are finalised. There’s no manual work needed from your or the client. Employees just need to download an app on their smartphone, which gives them instant access to their payslips. From here, they have access to a history of their payslips, so if they’re applying for a mortgage, or need a loan for a new crypt, they can just download the payslips straight from the app – no middleman required. This removes tedious communication between you and your clients and leave them happier by reducing their overhead costs and saving them time.

How can payroll software help?

BrightPay Connect is an award-winning payroll and HR software that makes processing payroll and HR tasks quick and easy. It offers all of the features mentioned above and more. Why not sign up for a quick 15-minute demo of BrightPay Connect today to see the software in action. For all the latest payroll news, subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

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This content may have been developed with the assistance of AI tools. Content is reviewed by a member of the Bright team before publication. Guidance on legislation can be obtained from your industry body.