Payroll is deceptive. It looks like a half-hour job because the numbers are small, and it behaves like a compliance function because a wrong effective rate or a late return has consequences that arrive months later. For most Jersey employers under about thirty staff it is not worth the in-house time, and it is not worth the risk of assuming UK habits transfer.
Jersey payroll is not UK payroll
Employers who have run staff in the UK expect tax codes, National Insurance and RTI submissions. Jersey has none of those. Income tax comes out through the Income Tax Instalment System, where Revenue Jersey issues each employee a personal effective rate, so two people on the same salary can carry different percentages. Contributions are Jersey Class 1 Social Security, roughly 6.5% employer and 6% employee on earnings up to a monthly ceiling, with the rates and the ceiling reset annually. Both are reported together on the Combined Employer Return, a single monthly filing.
The trap is not complexity, it is confidence. Mainland software will happily produce a payslip that looks perfect and is wrong in every deduction. Our complete Jersey payroll guide for employers works through the mechanics in full if you want to understand them before deciding who runs it.
Rates, thresholds and the Social Security ceiling change every year. Anything quoted here as a percentage is the current order of magnitude, not a promise — confirm live figures on gov.je, or let us track them.
What the service covers
| Included | What we actually do |
|---|---|
| Payslips | Produced for every employee each pay run and issued directly to them if you prefer. |
| ITIS deductions | Effective rates applied per employee and updated as Revenue Jersey reissues them. |
| Social Security | Employee and employer Class 1 contributions calculated and reconciled monthly. |
| Combined Employer Return | Prepared, checked against the ledger and filed with Revenue Jersey each month. |
| Starters and leavers | New employees set up correctly and leavers processed with final pay calculated. |
| Holiday and statutory pay | Accruals tracked and applied under Jersey employment law, not the UK equivalent. |
| Employer cost reporting | A monthly figure for the true cost of your staff, wages plus contributions, for the accounts. |
| Pension contributions | Employee and employer contributions deducted, applied and reported through the pay run to your scheme provider. |
| Bonuses and statutory leave | One-off payments, bonuses and statutory leave processed in the right period so the deductions land correctly. |
| Onboarding paperwork | Starter and leaver documentation prepared so each employee's record stands up at year end. |
| Year-end | Annual reconciliation and employee figures tied off and filed. |
Weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly or monthly pay cycles are all fine, and mixed cycles in the same business are common in hospitality and construction. We work to your existing pay dates rather than asking you to move them.
What a pay run looks like from your side
Three touchpoints a month, all of them short.
- You send the changes. Hours, overtime, new starters, leavers, sick or holiday. An email or a spreadsheet is fine; there is no portal to learn.
- We prepare and send a draft. Gross to net for every employee, plus the total cost to you including the employer contribution, before anything is paid.
- You approve, we file. Payslips go out, you make the payments, and the Combined Employer Return goes to Revenue Jersey with the ITIS and Social Security figures reconciled to the pay run.
If a month is quiet and nothing has changed, step one is a one-word reply.
Tell us your headcount and pay frequency and we will price it. That is genuinely all we need to quote.
Three ways to run Jersey payroll
Outsourcing is not automatically right. Here is the honest comparison, including where doing it yourself wins.
| Route | Suits | Cost | Who does the work | Where it goes wrong |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheet | One or two employees, stable pay, an owner who has read the ITIS rules | Free | You. Every month, forever. | Effective rate changes get missed; the monthly return slips when you are busy |
| Jersey-capable payroll software | Growing teams with someone in-house who owns the process | Monthly licence | You, with the software checking arithmetic | The software is only as current as the rates you enter and the return still needs filing |
| Outsourced to us | Employers who would rather approve a pay run than build one | Fixed monthly fee, quoted upfront | Us, with your approval on each run | You need to get us the changes before the run, and that is the whole job |
A rough rule from experience: below three stable salaried employees, a careful owner with a spreadsheet manages. Above that, or with variable hours, the monthly return is where it starts costing more time than it saves money. Our write-up of payroll software options for Jersey covers the middle route in more detail.
Who we run payroll for
- First-time employers who have just hired somebody and would rather not learn ITIS on the job
- Hospitality and retail with variable hours, casual staff and weekly runs
- Construction and trades managing a mix of employees and subcontractors
- Professional firms and agencies with salaried staff and occasional bonuses
- Businesses whose bookkeeper or office manager has left and taken the process with them
- Non-resident owners running a Jersey entity with staff on the island
Whether someone should be on the payroll at all is a question worth settling first. Getting it wrong is expensive in both directions, and our note on contractors versus employees in Jersey sets out the tests.
Switching to us mid-year
Most handovers happen in the middle of a tax year and it is routine. We need the year-to-date figures for each employee, the current ITIS effective rates Revenue Jersey has issued, copies of the returns already filed for the year, and the pay dates you work to. We reconcile all of it before the first run so nothing is double counted and year-end ties out.
If previous months are wrong or missing rather than simply elsewhere, that is a backlog rather than a handover, and it is priced as one under catch up bookkeeping. Payroll also sits naturally with monthly bookkeeping, which is how most clients take it, because the wage journal then posts itself.
Fees
A fixed monthly fee based on headcount and pay frequency, quoted upfront and held until your headcount changes. No per-payslip charge, no separate year-end invoice, and no extra for a question.
Where we work
Employers across all twelve Jersey parishes: St. Helier, St. Saviour, St. Clement, Grouville, St. Martin, Trinity, St. John, St. Mary, St. Ouen, St. Peter, St. Brelade and St. Lawrence. Payroll runs remotely, so location on the island is irrelevant to the service.
What we do not do
Worth stating plainly, because larger payroll bureaux bundle these in and the difference matters when you are comparing quotes.
- We do not make the payments. We produce the pay run and the figures; the transfers leave your own bank account. Handling client money is a regulated activity and we are not set up for it.
- No Employer of Record. We will not act as the legal employer of your staff. If you need to hire in Jersey without an entity here, that is a licensed provider's job.
- Jersey only. We run Jersey payroll properly rather than eleven jurisdictions adequately. Staff elsewhere need a payroll provider in that jurisdiction.
- Pension advice. We process contributions through payroll; choosing or advising on a scheme is regulated financial advice and sits with a qualified adviser.
Employer questions
Can I use UK payroll software for Jersey employees?
Not safely. Jersey uses ITIS effective rates rather than tax codes, Social Security rather than National Insurance, and one monthly Combined Employer Return rather than RTI. UK software will produce a confident payslip with the wrong deductions on it.
What does an employee actually cost me?
The gross wage plus the employer's Class 1 Social Security on top, in the region of 6.5% of earnings up to a monthly ceiling. ITIS and the employee's own contribution come out of the gross, not on top of it. Rates change annually, so check the current figures on gov.je.
Can you take over part way through the year?
Yes, and most handovers do. We take year-to-date figures, the issued ITIS effective rates and the returns already filed, then reconcile before the first pay run so year-end still ties out.
Do I need payroll for a single employee?
Yes. One employee carries the same obligations as fifty: ITIS at their effective rate, Social Security both sides, a payslip and a monthly return. Single-employee payrolls are the ones most often filed late, because no routine ever forms around them.
Hand the pay run over
Send us your headcount, how often you pay and whether anyone is on variable hours. You will get a fixed monthly figure and a start date, usually in time for your next run.
Request a payroll quote — one business day for a reply.
General guidance only. Jersey Social Security rates, the contribution ceiling and ITIS rates are set annually. Confirm current figures with Revenue Jersey and Social Security on gov.je.