3 August 2021, London — Zellis, the UK and Ireland’s leading provider of payroll and HR solutions, today announces it is working with Income Group, powered by its strategic partner Mastercard, to bring Faster Payments for payroll to its UK customers. Zellis’ customers, which include a third of FTSE 100 companies, and who process pay for tens of thousands of employees, will now have a quicker alternative to the traditional Bankers Automated Clearing Services (Bacs) payroll transfers, made possible with IGsend, Income Group’s FCA-regulated payment technology platform.
While consumers have become accustomed to near instantaneous money transfers through Faster Payments, most company payrolls still operate using the traditional Bacs, which takes up to three business days to complete. In the case of shift workers, faster payments can mean the difference in receiving payment faster from taking on extra work.
Zellis’ Faster Payments service gives organisations the ability to process these payments in seconds, 24 hours a day, every day of the week. This gives busy payroll teams much greater flexibility in processing payrolls, in addition to freeing time for more strategic work. The service can be easily integrated alongside existing payroll processes, including large organisations with complex and diverse payroll requirements.
With Bacs, organisations must lock in their payroll information well in advance of payday to ensure salaries are paid on time. Businesses may also need to use the Clearing House Automated Payment System (CHAPS) and pay fees to rectify payroll errors identified during processing windows, or when making other supplementary payments, adding significant extra administrative and banking cost. This can be reduced by up to 80% by using Zellis and Income Group’s integrated Faster Payments platform.
The introduction of Zellis’ Faster Payments service illustrates the company’s ambition to offer the most innovative and effective solutions to its customers, most of whom have the most sophisticated and complex payroll structures required to accurately pay thousands of employees. It also reflects an overall trend towards the growing use of real time payments including for payroll processing. The latest data from Pay.uk shows a 25% increase in the volume of single immediate payments through Faster Payments compared to last year (link).
“We are very excited to be introducing customers to the speed and efficiencies Faster Payments can bring. Companies like PayPal and Revolut have shown the power of Faster Payments in our daily lives. It’s time for employees to enjoy the same speed, flexibility and accuracy in their payroll – whether they are paid monthly, weekly, or – in the future – even daily” said John Petter, CEO, Zellis.
“We are delighted to be working with Mastercard and Income Group on this exciting innovation. Faster payments offer real cost savings, management time efficiencies and real risk mitigation benefits. We also see faster payments as the foundation of more flexible approach to pay, and a step on the journey to delivering the ability to pay in real time. This is an emerging vision of a way of paying people that will deliver real financial well-being benefits and a better experience to employees.”
Ian Wheeler, CEO & Founder at Income Group said: “We are thrilled to be collaborating with Zellis to help expand the footprint of Faster Payments, using our innovative platform to bring positive disruption to payroll. Payroll is the most critical payment a business can make with trust between employer and employee paramount. Zellis is a forward looking organisations leading the charge, embracing the bright future of Faster Payments, supporting the case for ‘not if, but when’ for businesses.”
“Payroll is a time critical process and a key user case for how real-time payments can make a valuable difference, not only on businesses, but also their employees, when it comes to paying salaries and getting paid. At this challenging time, enabling businesses with more control over their cash flow is a significant benefit,” said Gregor Dobbie CEO of Vocalink, a Mastercard Company.
– Ends –
For more about Zellis Faster Payments, see https://www.zellis.com/payroll-software/faster-payments/
About Zellis
Zellis is the largest provider of payroll and HR software, and Managed Services, to UK and Ireland-based companies with thousands of employees. With over 50 years’ experience we count a third of the FTSE 100 as customers and over five million employees’ payrolls are processed by us each year. We are also the people behind ResourceLink, now part of Zellis HCM Cloud, which won the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professional’s (CIPP) Payroll Software of the Year Award for 2020. www.zellis.com
About Income Group
Income Group (IG) is transforming the payments experience for payroll. Founded in 2017, IG formed its strategic partnership with Mastercard to power payroll innovation and improve employee wellbeing by offering real-time payments and open banking. IG’s product, IGsend, is positively disrupting the UK payroll market enabling payroll teams access to the UK’s Faster Payments network ensuring employees can be paid anytime, on any day of the week. Income Group is owned and operated by experienced payments and finance leaders and is an FCA approved and regulated payment services provider.
About Mastercard
Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.
