Legal
Running payroll and HR for several clients
Many different calendars, many deadlines, and data about people who are not yours.
Running payroll and HR for thirty companies is not doing the same thing thirty times: it is doing the same thing with thirty different calendars, thirty contacts and thirty ways of sending you things late. And with data about people who belong neither to you nor to your client: it is theirs.
What repeats every month
| What | Who it depends on | What happens if it is late |
|---|---|---|
| Payroll variables | The client | The whole chain slips |
| Hires and leavers | The client, with legal deadlines | The only thing that tolerates no delay |
| New employee documentation | The worker, via the client | You can start without it, but better not |
| Contract and amendment signatures | The worker | It blocks the hire if it does not arrive |
Important
Hires tolerate no margin and arrive latest, because the client tells you when the person is already working. A recurring request with reminders does not fix it entirely, but it turns "I found out on the 20th" into "I asked on the 1st and it is on record".
The data you handle is not your client's
Payslips, identity documents, sometimes health data. They belong to your client's workers, people who never engaged you. One team per client is not internal tidiness: it is what stops one company's adviser seeing another's payroll.
Watch out
When a client leaves, return their file and apply retention to the rest. Keeping the payslips of a former client's workers, with no obligation justifying it, is pure risk.
Worth knowing
A scheduled monthly request with reminders at days 3, 7 and 12 turns the first week of each month from a phone campaign into four calls.
›Can I give the client access to their own?
Yes, scoped to their company.
›What about the workers' signatures?
They sign from their phones; they need no account and need not know you.
›How long do I keep it after a client leaves?
Whatever your professional and employment rules require; check.
A real case
The situation
A payroll bureau with 34 clients spends the first week of each month chasing variables.
What you do
- Schedules the monthly request with reminders
- One team per client
What you get
The first week goes from thirty calls to four, and no adviser sees another client's payroll.
The situation
Each company sends its returns through a different channel.
What you do
- Agrees a single delivery channel
What you get
Deliveries stop getting lost.
The situation
An onboarding arrives on the day the person starts.
What you do
- Requests documentation in advance
What you get
Onboarding is prepared before day one.
The situation
A client asks what they are missing every month.
What you do
- Shows them their own outstanding list
What you get
They answer for themselves.
The situation
A worker's documentation expires.
What you do
- Records expiries per person
What you get
The warning arrives before it bites.
The situation
Every close chases the same things.
What you do
- Reuses the process from one month to the next
What you get
Follow-up stops being rebuilt.
This article answers
- payroll bureau client documentation
- hires and leavers for several clients
- client payroll document management
- employment deadlines across companies