What is SmarterPay?
​SmarterPay Overview
​How to Set up Automated BACS Payments with PayFit
​Frequently Asked Questions
​

PayFit have partnered with SmarterPay to take over your payment duties when you pay your employees through BACs. By using SmarterPay, you're able to further automate and streamline your monthly payroll duties.

SmarterPay is a BACS bureau, which automates BACS payments. It takes over your payment duties and pays your employees within 3 working days of payroll running.

After you've run payroll with PayFit, a file will be generated and PayFit will upload it to our partner BACS bureau: SmarterPay. This will make employee salary payments from your company bank account to all employees without you needing to do anything in-house.

What is a BACS payment?

This is an electronic system to make payments directly from one bank account to another. They're mainly used for Direct Debits and direct credits from organisations. The payments take 3 working days to clear. E.g. money paid into your account on Monday will clear on Wednesday.

✅ Once the SmarterPay account is set up, you can run payroll in PayFit and SmarterPay will process the BACS payment on your behalf.

✅ HMRC payments can also be processed via SmarterPay.

✅ SmarterPay set up can usually be completed within 2 weeks (though this may be extended if you need to request information from your bank.

❌ SmarterPay cannot ensure your account has enough funds in it before attempting payment. This is the company's responsibility.

❌ You're not eligible to utilise SmarterPay if you currently have fewer than 25 employees.

❌ It is your responsibility to ensure that the total value of payments does not exceed the limit negotiated with your BACs sponsor. Files limits are not SmarterPay's responsibility and should be managed through your sponsoring bank to avoid a failed upload.

In order to set up SmarterPay, you will need to take the following steps:

1️⃣ Notify your customer care manager that you'd like to utilise SmarterPay so that they're able to discuss pricing with you and help you commence set up.

2️⃣ Find your Service User Number. For SmarterPay Cloud services, you will need the details associated with your SUN (Service User Number) for set up. If you don't have a SUN number you will need to request one from your bank.

3️⃣ Inform your Bank. You will need to inform your bank that you will be using our BACS Bureau service. The bank will need to know our Bureau number which is B61043. This will be used to link your Service User Number (SUN) to our Bureau so that BACs know that we are authorised to submit payment instructions on your behalf.

4️⃣ Once the SUN number is organised, an admin will need to input bank info, SUN number, building society roll number and IBAN into this PayFit link: https://app.payfit.com/company/102. Please notify PayFit once this is complete so that our team can test the information and ensure that payments can be processed.

5️⃣ PayFit will carry out a penny test before we do a real transfer to ensure everything is set up correctly. The PayFit team will reach out to confirm recipients of the test.

6️⃣ PayFit will confirm that set up has been successful ahead of your payroll date to ensure that alternative plans can be made in case of any set-up delays.

7️⃣ Change your payment method in PayFit. Go to Company Settings > Payroll Set Up > Edit Payments > Change Bank File Name to BACS - SmarterPay > click Save.

SmarterPay set up will usually take around 2 weeks. Therefore, if you're onboarding in the current month, SmarterPay may not be enabled until month 2.

If you have any concerns about this, please speak to your on-boarder or reach out to PayFit Support.

What is the deadline to submit a payment on the input day ?

BACs operate on a 3 days cycle. Day 1 submit, Day 2 process, Day 3 funds change banks.

E.g if your payroll is the last Friday of the month, your payroll would need to be run by Tuesday night.

What happens if there is a problem with our BACs payment?

Please contact PayFit as soon as you are aware of any problems with your BACs file or payments. PayFit will liaise with SmarterPay on your behalf. If a file needs to be recalled there will be a charge of £45 from SmarterPay.

What happens if there is not enough money in the company bank account?

It is down to the owner of the SUN to make sure funds are available. This will be set out in the terms between the SUN sponsor (bank) and the SUN owner. It is not anything SmarterPay has any control over. The bank may impose limits on files as a condition of the SUN provision. Any failures will be reported back via BACs reports.

Is there any Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations?

Yes the KYC obligation sits with the SUN owner when they set up payments or Direct Debits. Conditions will be laid out by the sponsoring bank.

Are there any limits on the value that can be sent to an employee?

There are technically no limits unless there are any set out by the sponsoring bank, as above.

If there is incorrect bank account information for an employee, how quickly will PayFit notify the admin?

All of our solutions include “modulus checking” , which validates the account number and sort code. It will be identified when the file is uploaded and if anything is wrong, we will notify the admin to retrieve the correct information. We will then need to create a new file with the correct details. We also validate the processing date of the file to ensure it meets a banking day.

How long does it take for banks to link SUN numbers once you have made the request?

Some banks will do it same day, although be prepared for others to take a few days.