Professional Passport has launched Fortis First, a new service designed to give recruitment agencies confidence that their umbrella company partners are calculating payroll correctly and paying the right amount of PAYE and National Insurance to HMRC.
Fortis First builds on the established Fortis platform, providing agencies and MSPs with an additional option for managing their Joint and Several Liability (JSL) exposure. It uses the relevant party’s original data to run a controlled payroll process through HMRC-recognised software, reducing the risks associated with relying solely on information supplied by an umbrella provider. Importantly, agencies can retain their existing payment arrangements, without having to make a separate payment directly to HMRC and can trust the umbrella to make the correct payment.
Recent reports have highlighted the continued use of questionable practices, including hidden PAYE references and fake payslips concealing incorrect deductions. Fortis First is designed to prevent these practices by bringing payroll calculations under a controlled process using HMRC-recognised software, with reporting managed through a dedicated RTI feed directly to HMRC.
The development reflects the feedback Professional Passport has received from providers, recruitment agencies and MSPs about the challenges facing the market and the different levels of control and reassurance they require.
While Fortis First provides greater transparency and control over payroll calculations, it does not offer the same level of protection as the full Fortis solution, where the agency takes direct control of the PAYE payment to HMRC. Instead, it provides a more straightforward approach for supply chains where there is an established level of trust between the agency and umbrella provider.
Crawford Temple, CEO of Professional Passport Fortis, said: “Under JSL, agencies need to know that the tax due in respect of their workers is reaching HMRC. But how can they confidently trust an umbrella’s payment if they have no independent control over the calculations behind it?
“Fortis First changes that. It uses the agency’s own data to establish the correct payroll figures, removing reliance on the umbrella’s calculations as the sole source of truth. Agencies can retain their existing payment arrangements while having greater confidence that the numbers add up.
“Some agencies will want to go further and take direct control of the tax payment to HMRC. If they do, they can opt for the full Fortis solution.”
