{"id":1492,"date":"2016-08-18T09:10:42","date_gmt":"2016-08-18T08:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/liquidfriday.co.uk\/?p=1492"},"modified":"2016-08-18T09:10:42","modified_gmt":"2016-08-18T08:10:42","slug":"umbrella-companies-differentiators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liquidfriday.co.uk\/umbrella-companies-differentiators\/","title":{"rendered":"Not all Umbrella Companies are the same"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1496 \" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/article-images\/2016\/08\/pexels-photo-5.jpg\" alt=\"umbrella companies\" width=\"598\" height=\"381\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the past 10 years the demand for flexible workers has grown massively, and the subsequent increase in contract working has led to umbrella companies springing up all over the place. There are now an estimated 250 umbrella providers in the UK, and while this gives contractors a wealth of choice, it can be difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here we take look at key differentiators in the umbrella company sector, and what to base your decision on, whether you are a contractor or a recruitment agency. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>The essentials<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>These are features which are common to all legitimate Umbrella companies. If you are a contractor looking for a compliant payroll provider, or a recruiter seeking to add to your PSL, this should form your initial checklist:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UK owned and registered with no off-shore affiliations<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">VAT registered<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Carry out proper right to work and ID checks<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over-arching employment contracts with Umbrella employees <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Full PAYE tax and NIC (Employers and Employees) applied<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pay statutory payments, eg. SSP, where there is entitlement, and holiday pay<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Robust expenses procedures, in line with HMRC rules, including compliance with the 2016 legislation around<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/liquidfriday.co.uk\/news\/confused-about-travel-subsistence\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> travel and subsistence<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pay at least National Minimum Wage and expenses are only reimbursed above this<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Offer an approved workplace pension<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Provision of insurances &#8211; Public Liability, Professional Indemnity, Employers Liability, Drivers Negligence &amp; Personal Accident\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These prerequisites narrow the playing field and mean that you are only considering providers who are operating compliantly and won\u2019t land you in hot water with the tax man.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But how is one better than the other?<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Key differentiators<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><b>Service <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211; What emphasis do they put on the customer experience? Will you be treated as a person or a number?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Straight talking<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; Do they explain their services in clear, layman\u2019s terms? Or try to baffle you with jargon?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Efficiency <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211; How quickly can you register? Will they pay you on time, every time?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Price <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211; Is their pricing transparent? Are their margins reasonable? Beware of too low as well as too high.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Size <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211; Are they big enough to be able to work with the major players in UK recruitment but still able to give a friendly, personal service?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Flexibility <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211; Do they have experience in the sectors you operate in? Can they adjust their working practices to suit you?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Technology <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211; What tools do they provide to make your life easier? For example do they have an online portal for expenses?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Benefits <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211; What added value can they bring you? Do they run any promotions or have a member benefit scheme?<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/liquidfriday.co.uk\/news\/liquid-friday-looking-perky\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Find out about Liquid Perks<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<h3><b>The icing on the cake\u2026<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you want the best the industry has to offer, it is difficult to look further than full members of the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fcsa.org.uk\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Freelancer and Contractor Services Association (FCSA<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They set the highest of benchmarks for UK Umbrella companies, and so far only 15 providers have made the grade.\u00a0<\/span><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/liquidfriday.co.uk\/accreditations-awards\">Liquid Friday are proud to be one of them. <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/liquidfriday.co.uk\/\"><b>Let\u2019s talk<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past 10 years the demand for flexible workers has grown massively, and the subsequent increase in contract working has led to umbrella companies springing up all over the place. There are now an estimated 250 umbrella providers in the UK, and while this gives contractors a wealth of choice, it can be difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[24,15],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Not all Umbrella Companies are the same - Liquid Friday<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With an estimated 250 umbrella companies for UK contractors and recruiters to choose from, we look at how to pick the best providers in the industry\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liquidfriday.co.uk\/umbrella-companies-differentiators\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Not all Umbrella Companies are the same - 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