Now the shape of post-coronavirus landscape is beginning to look a little clearer, there are signs that businesses are coming out of their lockdown holding patterns.

At the same time, business is sluggish across the board, the Chancellor says we’re in the middle of a significant recession and it’s obvious government support schemes won’t last forever.

It’s only natural, therefore, that they’re also beginning to think about how to cut costs and operate more efficiently.

While accountants are giving their clients strategic advice on crisis recovery and cashflow management, there’s an opportunity to double down on pitching the value of outsourced finance functions.

We’ve all been saying it for years: outsourcing payroll takes a repeatable process off the hands of people whose time might be better spent on more profitable tasks.

And if you don’t already offer payroll outsourcing, there’s never been an easier time to add this service to your offer at minimal cost and little risk.

Capium offers a cloud-based payroll function including applications to handle coronavirus job retention scheme applications at a cost to you of around £1.04 per SME client per year.

Need convincing? Here are those ten reasons.

1. Reinforce your expertise

Payroll is in the spotlight right now with new concepts, such as furloughing, to deal with. If you can say to clients, don’t worry, we can handle this, it takes a weight off their minds and proves the value you can add to their business.

2. Open up a new revenue stream today

You could be set up to manage payroll and be signing up clients, or upselling to existing clients, within 24 hours. That could work wonders for your immediate cashflow situation.

3. Better monthly recurring revenue, higher valuation on exit

Payroll services are a tempting add-on for clients and can quickly boost both monthly fees and the lifetime value of each client.

4. An opportunity to connect

Even if clients don’t want to buy payroll services, launching a new product is  a great excuse to get in touch with clients and potential clients. Who knows – a conversation that starts being about payroll might easily turn into one about high-value business advisory services.

5. Makes tax year-end easier to process

The more hands-on you are with your clients’ business processes, the easier it is to manage tax returns. You’re not working with the numbers their systems spit out but ones you’ve controlled from the start.

6. Improves your practice’s image

For most accountants, the broader the offer, the better. Or, to put that another way, might clients ask why you don’t offer a payroll service in 2020?

7. Insight into your clients

Managing payroll gives you a  nuts-and-bolts view of how your clients operate. It helps you identify potential improvements and efficiencies. And the better you understand what they do, the more likely it is that you’ll spot tax reliefs and allowances they might be able to claim.

8. The best time of year to launch a payroll service

The easiest time to implement a payroll system and transfer client data is right now, early into a new tax year, before anyone else has had a chance to muddle or complicate the data.

9. Efficient clients thrive, so you thrive too

It’s very much in your interest to help your clients find more time to focus on doing what they do best because if they’re doing well, and their business is growing, then so will yours.

10. Compliance is easy with cloud payroll software

These days, you don’t even need to be a super-specialist to handle payroll, because applications can handle the bulk of the work with flexibility and automatic compliance checking. We keep Capium updated with all the key thresholds, dates and calculators so you don’t have to.

Talk to us now about getting your practice set up to deliver payroll services through Capium cloud software.