Software vs. outsourcing
If you manage finances for a school, academy, or Multi-Academy Trust, you know that budgets and time are tighter than ever.
Are you currently searching for the “best payroll software for educational institutions”? If so, you might want to pause and ask yourself a crucial question: do you actually want new software for payroll for education, or do you want the payroll headache taken off your desk entirely?
Many school business managers and finance directors begin their search looking for software, but quickly discover that plugging a complex school payroll into generalist payroll tools is a recipe for disaster. Before you commit to a long-term software contract, let’s explore some of the most frequently asked questions about outsourced payroll versus in-house software in the education sector.
What is the best payroll software for educational institutions?
The hard truth is that the “best” software won’t help you if your internal team lacks the time and expertise to run it. Education payroll is uniquely complex, requiring deep knowledge of Teachers’ pay spines, Teachers’ Pension and Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) deductions, and annual service returns. If you buy standard accounting or payroll software, your internal team still has to do all the heavy lifting, data entry, and compliance tracking.
The best solution is often not buying software at all, but partnering with a specialist managed payroll provider. At Ascend Education, our service is powered by our proprietary Elementary platform, which was designed by payroll pros to provide a seamless and secure interface that works with your existing processes and systems.
We don’t just hand you a software login, we process the data, manage the complex calculations, pay your staff and ensure total payroll compliance.
Where can I find payroll providers specialising in the education sector?
You need to look beyond the generalists. When evaluating providers, ask them directly. Do you have experience not only of education payroll but also education pensions?
At Ascend Education, education pensions is one of our core specialisms, and we offer a dedicated service that acts as the liaison between your school and the pension providers including Teachers’ Pensions and Local Government Pension Schemes. We handle auto-enrolment eligibility, process opt-ins and opt-outs, calculate service histories, and manage maternity and paternity reporting. We understand the specifics of UK school and academy payrolls, meaning we know exactly how to handle multiple staff roles within a single payroll or manage different terms and conditions for schools within a Multi-Academy Trust.
Are there affordable payroll solutions to schools and MATs?
Absolutely. Many schools assume that keeping payroll in-house is cheaper. But when you factor in the cost of software licenses, the salary of the payroll manager and team, ongoing training to keep up with changing legislation, and the hidden costs of fixing payroll errors, the cost of the in-house model starts to mount.
Outsourcing to Ascend Education offers a highly cost-effective alternative. The education payroll sector has long been driven by low per payslip costs, which with the complexity of education payrolls, just isn’t sustainable. The result is that schools often end up paying more as providers look to recoup costs for charging for things ‘in addition’, even when those things such as P45s, P60s and adding new members of staff, are basic parts of the payroll process.
We take a different route and our pricing is based on the complexity of your payroll, not a blanket charge. We include everything you need, and don’t charge for things you don’t.
Our pricing promise includes;
- Transparent pricing
- We won’t raise our prices higher than inflation (CPI)
- We can lock in your pricing for a fixed contract period
- No additional charges unless fully discussed and agreed with you
You get a premium, UK-based service that scales with you, giving you access to cutting-edge technology without the massive upfront software investment.
How does outsourcing improve the employee experience compared to basic software?
Standard off-the-shelf software often just spits out a basic PDF payslip. But education staff are rarely sitting at a desk. This is where our Elementary employee app changes the game.
It gives your staff 24/7 access to their payslips, pay and pension documents right on their mobile phones.
Furthermore, its modular approach allows it to act as a digital HR hub where you can store personal HR documents like contracts, distribute school policies, and handle communications seamlessly and communicate with your team through the app. It elevates your staff’s experience far beyond what basic software can provide.
Focus on education, let us handle the numbers
Managing a school or MAT brings enough challenges without payroll adding to the stress. If you are tired of struggling with systems that do not fit your needs, let’s have a chat. We provide the expertise, the technology, and the personal care required to make payday the easiest part of your month.
