With compliance being, or what should be a priority for any agency or end client when it comes to reviewing their payroll providers, it would appear that many are getting confused with the accreditations that play a vital part in governing the outsourced payroll sector.
The most well-known names of accreditations for outsourced payroll in the UK are the FCSA (The Freelancer & Contractor Services Association) and PP (Professional Passport).
The FCSA is not the FCA. The FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) is the conduct regulator for tens of thousands financial company’s and financial markets in the UK. In non-technical language, they are accountable for regulating those offering finance and financial services to the general public.
To save any confusion between the FCA and the FCSA, we recommend not using the abbreviations and instead, refer to these bodies by their full names. We have seen first hand how some companies are getting confused by the two accreditations and this, in turn, results in end clients stipulating that any contractors completing assignments through them, must be paid via an FCSA provider as they are wrongly led to believe they are the FCA!
We at ePayMe choose to hold our accreditation with Professional Passport over the FCSA because:
• Auditors are in-house and not outsourced and these are conducted regularly.
• There is a better understanding of the client and allows for more regular updates and changes, in line with legislative alterations.
• They carry out periodical checks on the financial standings of providers.
• They are more on-hand and know what they are looking for as they only deal with the umbrella sector.