Payroll expert joins Thomas Westcott

Debbie Cole joins independent accountancy firm ahead of important changes affecting employers

Leading independent accountancy firm Thomas Westcott has strengthened its payroll team in readiness for legislation changes affecting every employer.

Experienced payroll expert Debbie Cole has joined the firm ahead of the Government's changes to pensions, holiday entitlement and parental leave.

Debbie, who has more than a decade's experience helping clients' payroll issues, described joining Thomas Westcott as "an exciting new challenge".

She continued: "New legislation and changes to existing rules mean employers are facing some very challenging times indeed."

Those challenges include compliance with pension auto enrolment, revised requirements for providing holiday entitlement and a new initiative which provides shared parental leave.

"I am looking forward to working with the partners and payroll team at Thomas Westcott to keep our clients abreast of those changes and fully compliant," Debbie added.

Auto-enrolment, the Government initiative to encourage people to save earlier for retirement, requires employers to contribute a minimum amount to its employees' pension scheme.

Debbie explained: "Pension auto enrolment has been in place since 2012, affecting the largest of employers first, and all smaller employers are required to be part of auto enrolment from now onwards.

"Any employers unsure when they need to start contributing to auto enrolment can just call us with their employers' PAYE reference and we can tell them."

Shona Godefroy, partner and head of audit andf assurance at Thomas Westcott, said: "Our experienced team takes great pride in knowing its clients' needs intimately and our payroll software has been enhanced ready for the new processes being introduced.

Debbie is very welcome addition to that team and her recruitment underlines our commitment to keeping Thomas Westcott's clients compliant and ready for the coming changes."

To find out more about Thomas Westcott visit www.thomaswestcott.co.uk