’Tis the season to be looking at your festive Bacs dates

• Pay people on time and, if possible
• Pay them accurately.

It is a shame that employers do not always appreciate the huge amount of work that fulfilling these two fundamental tasks involves. Don’t think I don’t know the work that we all do – I have been around long enough!

If we boil our role down to these two roles though, which is the most important? I would say that paying people late probably has more consequences for an organisation than paying people incorrectly. After all, it is unlikely that we will process the whole of the payroll inaccurately, but lack of attention to the Bacs calendar may mean that we pay the whole payroll late.

With regard to Bacs, we are approaching that time of year when payrolls change because of bank holidays, are bought forward or doubled-up (maybe for weekly payrolls). So, it is good to be reminded of the English bank holidays that govern the UK-wide Bacs processing schedule:

• Monday 25 December 2017
• Tuesday 26 December 2017 and
• Monday 01 January 2018

Have a look at the Bacs 2017 and 2018 processing calendars just to ensure you do not end up having the most miserable and stressful festive season knowing you have paid everyone late.