blogs > Compliance

troncs and statutory payments

How tronc schemes affect statutory payments

Tronc schemes are a well-established way for hospitality businesses to distribute tips and service charges to their teams. When they’re set up correctly, they’re efficient, compliant, and genuinely better for employees’ take-home pay. But they do introduce a layer of...

Taxable expenses

The workplace question that decides every travel expense

One of the most common travel expense mistakes I see businesses make has nothing to do with the mileage rate or the meal allowance. It’s a much more fundamental error that they haven’t stopped to ask whether the workplace the...

Understanding UK employment status

Understanding UK Employment Status

Employment status is one of those areas that looks straightforward on the surface and turns out to be anything but. It affects millions of workers and businesses across the UK, and getting it wrong can be expensive – sometimes significantly...

Purchasing additional holiday pay

What to consider in payroll when employees want to buy extra holiday

Holiday purchase schemes are a popular employee benefit, and it’s easy to see why. Extra time off is something most people value, and giving employees the flexibility to buy additional leave can be a low-cost way to enhance your benefits...

R day and Fair Work Agency

Holiday pay compliance is changing – what the FWA and R-day mean for your business

April 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most significant moments for payroll compliance in recent years. Two changes are landing at the same time, and together they raise the stakes considerably for employers. The first is R-day...

Timeline for Plan to Make Work Pay

The Plan to Make Work Pay – what’s changing and when you need to act

The government released a critical update on 3 February 2026 about their Plan to Make Work Pay. This is the biggest change to employment law in a generation, and it’s going to affect every UK business over the next couple...

Payrolling of benefits April 27

Compulsory payrolling of benefits from April 2027 – what employers need to know

The landscape of benefits administration is set to change significantly. From April 2027, (it was to be April 2026 but the date when all employers were to comply was postponed until April 2027) the government will make payrolling of benefits...

Check your tax code

Why employees must check their HMRC tax code notices

Nobody wants a nasty surprise from HMRC. Yet every year, thousands of employees overpay tax or discover they owe money simply because they didn’t check their tax code was correct. Annually, around a third of all tax codes issued by...

Changes to statutory payments April 26

Don’t get caught out by changes to Statutory Payments from April 2026

The Government has announced the new statutory payments rates for April 2026, and if you’re thinking this is just another routine annual increase, think again. While most of the changes follow the expected CPI rise, there’s a fundamental shift happening...

ISO quality standards in payroll

Beyond the compliance checkbox – why Ascend holds three ISO standards

When you’re trusting someone with your payroll, you’re handing over some of the most sensitive data your business holds. Employee personal information, bank details, salaries, and National Insurance numbers. The works. Most payroll providers will tell you they take security...