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Access Education People

Payroll software services for schools

Discover our market-leading, payroll software for schools and education organisations, including education-specific managed payroll service.

Our education payroll services can save you money, increase your payroll accuracy and work with you to cover all the payroll and pension requirements across your school, academy or trust, all for as little as £3.50 per payslip. 

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Trusted by 9,000+ learning institutions

Why choose our education payroll services?

Payroll payment processing

Process, balance and reconcile all month and year end figures and payments (including country-specific payments e.g. HMRC and IRS)

Occupational and statutory payments

Calculate all occupational and statutory payments, inc maternity, Alabaster and redundancy

Country-specific processing

Processing of all country-specific checks, files & documentation including HMRC, IRS, P60, P45, SEPA

Expert support on hand

Dedicated telephone, account management and online support from an experienced, dedicated payroll team – including monthly telephone service review

Improved reporting

Produce all reports, inc standard payslips, check reports, monthly payments and 3rd party payments

Teacher pensions

Our fully comprehensive service includes all teacher pension requirements

A complete, single solution

Our payroll software can be used for a small single primary school through to a large multi-academy trust

Reduced payroll admin

We process everything from your BACS run to your teacher pensions

Our payroll services for schools and academies

Increase your school's payroll accuracy

payslips processed every month

.9%

accuracy rating

with the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) Payroll Assurance Scheme (PAS)

%

pass mark

with the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) Payroll Assurance Scheme (PAS)

years

payroll processing

Seamlessly integrate with our school HR software

Our payroll offering can be adapted to the needs or requirements of your school and can seamlessly integrate with Access Education People, giving you a full HR & payroll solution.

Find out more about school HR & payroll software

Why customers love our education payroll software

Whenever I call Access Payroll requiring support, I am speaking to somebody within minutes

I’ve had bad experiences before where support helplines end up costing a fortune, but Access have a proper system where my queries get answered almost immediately.

Read customer story

Rick van Driel - Director of Finance and Operations All Saints’ Academy, Cheltenham

Your education payroll questions answered

Watch FAQs video

Payroll that scales to support your school, academy or MAT without disruption

At Access Education our mantra is that payroll is a profession, not a process. Getting your payroll right is crucial. But it should also be part of business as usual. It should exist in the background but always be right.

Having a payroll provider who understands the education space and takes into account all of your payroll and teacher pension complexities is crucial.

Whichever payroll option is best for you, our education payroll services will ensure your people are paid accurately, on time, every time with total compliance and peace of mind.

Unparallelled security & HMRC compliant

We understand that security and compliance is at the forefront of your mind in education institutions. Schools can rely on our platform for secure data handling, safeguarding against breaches and unauthorised access.

Our payroll software for schools offers unparalleled security, ensuring that your sensitive data is protected with advanced encryption and regular security audits. We are also fully compliant with HMRC regulations, guaranteeing that all payroll processes meet the highest standards of legal and financial accuracy.

Payroll education resources

01 08

Payroll for schools: What are your options?

This article will provide a detailed overview of your options, helping you make an informed decision on what best fits your school's unique needs. The guide covers:

  • Benefits & considerations of in-house and outsourced payroll
  • How to choose the best one for your needs
Read guide
02 08

Your guide to payroll for schools, academies and MATs

This guide takes you through...

  • Why do you need a business case?
  • Why invest now?
  • Why choose our HR & payroll software?
Read guide
03 08

What to include in your tender document

Procuring operational education software but don’t know where to begin? In this guide, we cover everything you need to create the perfect tender document. 

Read guide
04 08

Teacher retention: Build your education tech stack

Whether you’re grappling with retaining your teachers, overall efficiency or seeking a more streamlined solution to reduce the workload on your staff, this infographic will illustrate how our education tech stack can transform your institution.

Read infographic
05 08

Building a business case for a school HR and payroll system

This guide takes you through...

  • Why do you need a business case?
  • Why invest now?
  • Why choose our HR & payroll software?
Read guide
06 08

Benefits of having your payroll work with your HR system

This guide covers..

  • How to streamline your school operations
  • How to choose the right HR & payroll software
  • Future-proofing your HR& payroll systems
  • How our software can help
Read guide
07 08

The cost of payroll software

This guide covers...

  • Understanding the cost of payroll software
  • Comparing the costs of different payroll software
  • Maximising your payroll software investment
  • How our software can help 
Read guide
08 08

How a school payroll system can help your organisation

This guide covers...

  • The benefits of school payroll system
  • The importance of choosing the right school payroll system
  • Comparing school payroll providers
  • Why you should consider Access Payroll for your needs
Read guide

FAQs

What is the Access Education Payroll service?

At Access Education we offer a choice of a managed or in-house payroll service. Our managed (or outsourced) service means that we take on the responsibility of running and delivering your payroll. This is our most commonly selected option and we process more than 50,000 education payslips every month for schools and trusts across the UK.

For those who have a dedicated, certified payroll person or team in place across their school or trust, we have an in-house payroll option which allows you to manage your payroll centrally, allowing you more control and responsibility over your payroll and pensions.

There are pros and cons to both options. If you’re undecided and want to find out more about your options, take a look at our payroll guide for schools.

What’s involved in the Access Managed Payroll service?

Your dedicated Access Education payroll executive will look after everything from sending BACS, producing electronic pay slips, meeting RTI obligations, managing your pension processing and much more. We have a 99.9% accuracy rating and a 100% pass mark from the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals’ Payroll Assurance Scheme, so your payroll needs couldn’t be in safer hands.

This is a summary of everything we manage on your behalf…

  • Agree Annual Processing Timetable
  • Balance Year End figures to HMRC / IRS / country specific payments made
  • Calculate Alabaster
  • Calculate occupational payments
  • Calculate statutory payments
  • Carry out standard exception checks
  • Create & submit authorised BACs/SEPA for employees,
  • HMRC / IRS / country specific files
  • Distribute P60s / country specific documents
  • Gross To Net Process
  • HMRC / IRS / DWP / other country specific bodies
  • Import all data changes
  • Maintenance of other payroll background tables
  • Maintenance of statutory payroll tables
  • Monthly telephone Service Review with payroll exec
  • Process in month HMRC / IRS /country specific files
  • Process redundancy payments
  • Process Year End and P60s / country specific documents
  • Processing attachments and other documents
  • Produce P45s / country specific documents
  • Produce payroll check reports
  • Produce report for standard 3rd party payments
  • Produce standard monthly payroll reports
  • Produce standard payslips
  • Queries from agreed customer representative via email or telephone
  • Reconcile statutory month end figures
  • Scheduled employee payments & period HMRC / IRS / Country specific payment
  • Tax Year End clear down and roll forward
  • Terminate period and roll payroll forward

What are the timescales involved in moving to this service?

We have a range of implementation options depending on your needs. We require 2 parallel runs with your existing service provider to ensure your data is migrated successfully and there is no interruption to your service. It’s worth thinking about this when making your decision.

What support do I get?

At Access we provide telephone support, account management and online support. You can pick up the phone and speak with your dedicated payroll executive or another member of our team when you need assistance. We also offer a monthly telephone service review with your payroll executive and any queries you have are responded to from an agreed customer representative via email or telephone.

What is the cost of this service?

At Access Education our payroll service costs are split into one off (implementation) fees and annual (subscription fees). Our one-off fees cover all your implementation and support needs plus two parallel pay runs which are required to ensure a smooth transition from your existing provider. The cost for this depends on your requirements but we would be happy to discuss this with you.

Our annual fees operate on the basis of a price per employee per month and will depend on the number of employees you have in your school or MAT.

Do I get access to a HR system?

We do have an integrated HR system called Access Education People. This can work alongside your payroll service or you can just take our payroll service on its own, it’s up to you. If you decide to take the latter, we provide a version of our HR solution for your staff to access their payslips. You can always upgrade your HR system at a later date if you choose to.

What is your contract length?

Our contracts are 36 months