MJB Avanti Case Study – Furlough

MJB Avanti Director, Victoria Sharp tells Suffolkwire how they have recently supported their clients with the furlough scheme.

The Coronavirus pandemic has seen businesses having to adapt to new ways of working; from remote working, to ensuring that they take advantage of the Government help schemes so that once lockdown is over, they have a business to return to.

At MJB Avanti we have always taken pride in our proactive approach to the way we work for our clients, this was well and truly tested amid the wave of client enquiries and Government announcements made in the first couple of weeks of lockdown. Not only were we as a team adjusting to working remotely, we also had to unpick the help measures and understand how they would help our clients.

One area that we saw a high level of enquiries on was the Furlough scheme aka Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – enquiries covered everything from “what does Furlough mean” to “How do I apply” and most importantly “Can you help me to apply”?

As a team we kept an eye on the announcements, updated our clients every step of the way in a fluid situation and crucially within 2 days we implemented the infrastructure and trained the team to help our clients complete the furlough application.

So far we have completed the furlough of 268 employees across our clients, and even stepped in to help those clients who usually run their own payroll. This was done alongside all of our regular work and keeping on top of the changing situation.

How Did  We Help?

Client  A has multiple sites employing 40 staff, and the payroll is varied, incorporating various commissions, different hourly rates and hours, different rules for weekend and bank holiday work, as well as their regular salary. The payroll for this client is our most complicated with many unique intricacies .

Our client was looking to complete the furlough themselves however as we complete the payroll on a 4 weekly and monthly basis for all 40 employees across both companies, they decided it would be less time consuming and less chance of errors for us to complete the furlough claim.

For this particular client we had to firstly be sure the commissions were treated correctly, were they non-discretionary or not? We advised the client to check the employment contracts and they informed us these were indeed non-discretionary and can be included when calculating the 80% of wages able to be claimed

We then calculated the average for all the employees over the March 2019/20 Tax year as most of the employees had wages that differ each month, we then use the information and divide by days worked in that year (using start date if employed after 6^th April 2019) and multiplied by days in the month Furloughed.

Once this was completed and authorised by the client, we sent this claim to HMRC on the same day and the client received the allowed amount back from HMRC within 6 days to aid cashflow for the business.

How Did This Benefit The Client?

Outsourcing the furlough of the staff gave the client confidence that this would be completed in good time, the furlough would be correct and not only provided them with much needed cashflow at a time when they have been forced by the Government to close, but also peace of mind that it was one less area of their business they had to worry about during a crisis. Successful completion of this particular furlough, meant the client received approx. £30,000 back.

Why Choose MJB Avanti?

• During the Coronavirus pandemic we have been inundated with phone calls and emails from clients needing to know information at the drop of a hat – when not even released to us from HMRC yet – as of course, they are worried.  We have had to be sympathetic whilst keeping a cool head and dealing in what is a crisis situation.
• We have completed daily updates on Covid-19 – ensuring clients are kept fully up to date from a trusted source and continue to do so.
• Our proactive approach continues to set us apart, giving our clients solutions to their problems and being the valuable support that gives them comfort in the face of business challenges

If you have a business problem that needs a proactive solution, provided by a trusted source, why not give MJB Avanti a call (08000) 388 799  to see how they can help you and your business.