Give your finance team more time
Take processing, reporting and payroll administration off your team’s desk so they can focus on the wider finance function.
Outsourced payroll for recruitment agencies
Your employee payroll, managed by recruitment finance specialists
Running payroll in-house takes time away from your finance team and creates another critical process to manage as your agency grows.
Sapphire manages your employee payroll from end to end, giving you accurate processing, specialist support and clear visibility of your payroll costs, all from a team that understands recruitment.
Employee payroll managed from start to finish
Payroll processing
We manage your regular employee pay runs, ensuring salaries and deductions are calculated accurately and your people are paid correctly and on time.
PAYE and National Insurance
We calculate PAYE and National Insurance and manage the required payroll reporting, helping keep your agency compliant with HMRC requirements.
Pension processing
Keep workplace pension contributions and payroll deductions accurate, without adding more administration to your internal team.
RTI submissions and year-end reporting
We manage Real Time Information submissions and the payroll reporting required throughout the tax year, including year-end processes.
Payslips and employee payroll queries
Give your employees clear payroll information and responsive support when questions arise, without every query landing with your finance team.
Payroll reporting
Get clear reporting on payroll costs, helping you understand what you’re spending on your people and how those costs are changing as the agency grows.
Reduce payroll errors
Specialist processing and checks help keep every pay run accurate, reducing corrections and avoidable employee queries.
Scale without building a bigger payroll function
As your headcount grows, Sapphire’s support grows with you, without requiring you to add payroll resource internally.
Understand your true people costs
Connect payroll with your wider financial reporting to get a clearer view of what your team costs and how that affects agency performance.
One partner for everything your agency needs
Because Sapphire supports the wider operation behind recruitment businesses, your finance team can connect into specialist support across contractor services, global workforce and operational technology.
Contractor Services
Compliant contractor engagement, payroll and supply-chain support.
Global Workforce
EOR, AOR and international workforce support for overseas placements.
Operational Technology
Recruitment technology that connects timesheets, pay and bill, invoicing and reporting.
Trusted by agencies
Trusted by 500+ recruitment agencies, with eight years of FCSA accreditation and an Excellent Trustpilot rating from 5,000+ reviews.
12+Years supporting recruitment businesses
500+Agencies across the UK
£700m+Annual turnover
10,000+Contractor payments processed each week
100,000+Contractors supported
102+Countries supported
£1m+Paid in contractor bonuses since 2024
20%Year-on-year contractor growth
Top 5UK Umbrella/CIS market share
Sapphire is a trusted, compliance-first partner. Alex is always on hand, respectful of our preferred ways of working and quick to resolve queries and payment issues. As umbrella legislation changes, their audit-ready approach and clear, timely communication give us and our contractors real confidence.
Sophie Anderson, Associate Director, Venn Group
I have worked with Sapphire for a number of years and have consistently found their service and attention to detail in account management to be exceptional. Marcus, in particular, stands out — he resolves any issues quickly and, no matter how busy he is, always takes the time to personally speak with customers and clients. That level of dedication goes a long way. I would highly recommend Sapphire.
Jim Fleming, Director, Buildforce Solutions
I’ve worked with Sapphire for years and brought the relationship over to my own agency. They register temps quickly, keep us updated throughout and make sure they’re paid reliably each week. Any issues are resolved swiftly, allowing me to focus on placing temps with complete confidence. Jake’s guidance was also invaluable when launching my business, and the whole team consistently goes the extra mile. I see Sapphire as an extension of my accounts department and couldn’t recommend them highly enough.
Luke Lysandrou, Director, LLC Recruitment
We’ve worked with Sapphire for over a year and have found them an excellent company to deal with. The Quartz system is easy to use, but what really stands out is their proactive customer support and willingness to listen, adapt and accommodate the specific requirements of our business. Ray, Shauna and the wider team are responsive, practical and genuinely great people to work with. I’d have no hesitation in recommending them.
Steve Gearing, Managing Director, Gearing Recruitment Solutions
Accreditations
Frequently asked questions
What is outsourced payroll for recruitment agencies?
Outsourced payroll is when a recruitment agency hands its internal payroll function to a specialist provider who runs it on the agency’s behalf. This covers your own staff and, where relevant, your workers, including pay calculations, tax, National Insurance, pension contributions and payslips.
It’s different from contractor payroll or umbrella services, which pay the contractors you place. Outsourced payroll supports the running of your agency itself, removing the admin, cost and compliance risk of managing payroll in-house.
Can recruitment agencies outsource their payroll?
Yes. Recruitment agencies can outsource all or part of their payroll to a specialist provider, and many do to save time and reduce risk. You keep control of decisions while a dedicated team handles the processing, calculations and reporting each pay run.
For agencies scaling quickly or expanding into new markets, outsourcing removes a growing administrative burden. That gives you back time to focus on winning work and building margin, rather than managing payroll deadlines and legislative change.
What are the benefits of outsourcing payroll?
Outsourcing payroll saves time, reduces cost and lowers your exposure to compliance risk. Instead of building and maintaining an in-house function, you get a specialist team who keep every pay run accurate and on schedule.
The main benefits for your agency are:
- Less time spent on payroll admin, freeing your people for higher-value work
- Fewer errors and missed deadlines through specialist processing
- Lower risk of penalties from PAYE, National Insurance or pension mistakes
- Clearer visibility of payroll costs as you grow
- Capacity that scales with you, without new internal hires
This matters because payroll errors are expensive and time-consuming to fix. Getting it right first time protects both your margin and your reputation.
What payroll responsibilities can be outsourced?
Almost every part of the payroll process can be outsourced, from routine calculations through to statutory reporting. That lets you choose between handing over the whole function or keeping some tasks in-house.
Responsibilities Sapphire can manage for your agency include:
- Pay and deduction calculations for each pay run
- PAYE, National Insurance and pension processing
- Payslip production and distribution
- Real-time information (RTI) submissions to HMRC
- Year-end reporting and documentation
- Handling payroll queries from your staff
You decide how much to hand over. Whether that’s full outsourcing or support for specific tasks, the process is built around how your agency works.
How does Sapphire's outsourced payroll service work?
Sapphire runs your agency’s payroll as an extension of your team, managing each pay run from start to finish while you keep control of the decisions. We handle the processing, compliance and reporting, then give you clear visibility of what’s been done.
Getting started is straightforward:
- We review your current payroll setup and requirements
- We agree what you hand over and what stays in-house
- We manage each pay run, including calculations, submissions and payslips
- We keep you updated with clear reporting and responsive support
Backed by eight years of FCSA accreditation and SafeRec auditing, the service is built to save you time and protect your agency as it grows.
Speak to the Sapphire team about outsourcing your payroll.
