How UK Accounting Firms Can Handle The New Payroll Workload Without Hiring More Staff

(MENAFN- Market Press Release) November 5, 2026 11:10 am - MYCPE ONE sets out offshore payroll support for UK accountancy practices across six payroll roles, six UK payroll platforms and four defined task areas, following the reforms that took effect on 6 April 2026

LONDON, United Kingdom, [Month Day, 2026] – MYCPE ONE has detailed the offshore payroll support now available to UK accountancy practices, covering six named payroll roles, six UK payroll platforms and four defined task areas. The move follows the two reforms that took effect on 6 April 2026 and precedes the next Employment Rights Act phase in January 2027. It is aimed at practices running payroll bureaus for employer clients, which have absorbed most of this year's additional administration without a matching increase in available payroll staff.

What Changed on 6 April 2026

Two reforms took effect on the same date, with a third phase of employment law due in January 2027:
. Payrolling benefits in kind became mandatory for most employers, with employment-related loans and living accommodation carved out. This retires the full P11D process and turns an annual exercise into a monthly one.
. Statutory sick pay reform removed the lower earnings limit and the three-day waiting period. SSP is now payable from day one, and low-paid and part-time workers previously out of scope are now in it.
. Day-one paternity and unpaid parental leave rights took effect and the Fair Work Agency was established. The six-month qualifying period for unfair dismissal applies from January 2027, with guaranteed-hours provisions later that year.

For practices, the effect is cumulative. Benefit values must now be collected and reported in every pay run, more absence episodes trigger an SSP calculation, and exception handling is spread across the year rather than concentrated at year end. Volume peaks several times a year instead of once, and employer clients are asking more questions about what has changed.

The Roles, Platforms and Tasks Covered

Six offshore payroll roles are available to UK practices: Payroll Administrator, Payroll Specialist, Payroll Compliance Analyst, Payroll Manager, Payroll Reporting Analyst and Payroll Tax Specialist. Staff are tested on six UK payroll platforms: BrightPay, Sage Payroll, Xero Payroll, IRIS Payroll Professional, Moneysoft and QuickBooks Payroll.

Work is grouped into four task areas:

. Payroll processing and administration, including gross-to-net calculation, PAYE, employee NIC and student loan deductions, BACS scheduling, and weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly and monthly pay runs
. HMRC compliance and RTI submissions, including Full Payment Submissions on or before pay day, Employer Payment Summaries for month-end NIC adjustments, Employment Allowance tracking and support for PAYE compliance reviews
. Year-end processing, including P60s by the 31 May deadline, P45s for leavers, reconciliation of year-end totals to HMRC records, and support for P11D and P11D(b) preparation
. Reporting and reconciliation, including monthly reconciliation of payroll control accounts to the nominal ledger, labour cost reports by department or cost centre, and holiday pay, statutory leave and overtime tracking

Delivery, Security and What Stays With the UK Firm

Teams are based across MYCPE ONE's three talent hubs in India, Mexico and the Philippines, part of 40+ offices in five countries and more than 3,000 staff. Infrastructure is SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001:2022 certified, with UK GDPR controls applied to employee payroll data. Onboarding runs in three stages: an introductory call with interview and testing, IT set-up and staff orientation, then initial training and continuous review.

Approval, client advice and final sign-off remain with UK payroll managers. The split is deliberate: preparation work moves, professional responsibility does not. Practices are advised to standardise workflows, document client-specific rules and benefit arrangements, and agree review checkpoints before transferring volume. Data processing agreements and access controls should be settled before the first pay run.

Recruitment remains difficult in the meantime. Qualified payroll administrators and payroll tax specialists are in short supply, salary expectations have risen, and new hires need months before running client files unsupervised, while the April and January deadlines do not move.

Full role descriptions and task coverage are available for practices looking to hire offshore accountants for UK accounting firms. Firms are advised to begin by mapping which parts of the payroll process are standardised enough to transfer, and which require judgement that must stay in the UK.

About MYCPE ONE

MYCPE ONE is a global platform supporting accounting professionals and firms through continuing professional education and offshore staffing solutions. The company helps accountancy practices in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada build dedicated offshore teams across payroll, bookkeeping, accounting, tax and audit support, enabling firms to scale capacity, manage peak periods and keep onshore talent focused on review and advisory work. Learn more at

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