Many schools are now converting to Academy status.

With Academy status comes greater freedom and often a move away from the Local Authority for support services. Payroll services fall firmly in that camp.

But what are the payroll considerations when you convert to an Academy? An Academy is a new entity and as such a new employer so there is plenty to do. This breaks down into 3 key areas

Employment 

Many schools are now converting to Academy status.

With Academy status comes greater freedom and often a move away from the Local Authority for support services. Payroll services fall firmly in that camp.

But what are the payroll considerations when you convert to an Academy? An Academy is a new entity and as such a new employer so there is plenty to do. This breaks down into 3 key areas

Employment 

• All of your employees will need to be processed as leavers from the existing school and P45s will need to be filed
• Then as a new entity you will need a new PAYE scheme setting up with HMRC. 
• Once created you can then add them as starters on your new PAYE scheme

Payment 

• All of those employees need paying so you will need to set up a BACS facility for your new bank accounts
• This is usually either a direct (paid by you) or indirect (paid by payroll outsourcer)
• A new BACS facility can take up to 6 weeks to setup, so you need to start this early

Pensions

• In the same way that your employees leave their “old employer” and need setting up with the new one to satisfy HMRC requirements, you need to consider the pension aspects
• For you teachers you will need to process the Teachers as leavers on TR8 forms with Teachers Pension
• Similarly you will need to add them on to your new Academy with the TR6.

If you are considering conversion to an Academy you need to plan for all of the above and at Dataplan Education we are well paced to help having hand held many schools through this process