Businesses urged to submit payroll data in good time

Date: 25th March 2008

Business owners are being advised to deal with their end-of-year payroll data early this year, in case there is a repeat of last year's computer problems.

Problems with the Bacs network in 2007 left 400,000 workers without pay at the end of March - forcing business owners to hand out cash to help staff until the glitch was resolved, the Financial Times reports.

Harry Hornby, managing director of Bacscontingency, a company that works with Bacs to develop standby plans, claims it is bad business practice to leave payroll issues until the last minute.

"Financial directors have a duty and responsibility to refine their practices to avoid a re-occurence of last year's events … Go a day early and be safe," he said.

Last year's computer problem affected around 1.6 per cent of Bacs payments.

The company currently processes around 5.5 billion financial transactions annually.