The Friday Test — built for recruitment payroll
Get a straight payroll answer:
Stay, Fix or Move.
Tell us how your weekly workforce is paid, what payroll costs and where Friday is exposed. You receive one verdict, one defensible annual comparison where your figures support it, and the provider changes most likely to improve the position.
Three short sections. See the initial result before entering an email. Nothing is sent to Kingsway until you choose.
What comes back
One verdict, a supported figure where the data allows it, and what would change
Built from the figures and operating answers you enter. Where the information does not support a number, the Friday Test says so instead of inventing one.
One decisive verdict
Stay when the current route holds up. Fix when there is a weakness but no case to move. Move when the cost or Friday controls justify taking payroll to market.
A supported annual figure, where the data allows
Current agency-borne payroll cost against the same worker population on an illustrative matched route, produced only where you supply enough like-for-like information. Where you do not, the result names the gap instead of inventing a number. Funding cost, umbrella margin and risk scenarios never masquerade as a payroll saving.
What a provider changes
The strongest three red or amber issues, followed by the practical provider response: reprice the route, remove rekeying, add recovery cover or tighten worker support.
Compare like with like
The headline fee is only useful when the model matches
A bureau fee, provider-employment fee and umbrella margin do not hit the agency in the same way. The Friday Test separates them before it makes a cost comparison.
- No single payroll model fits every agency. Volume, sectors, engagement mix, systems, client contracts and Friday cover all change the answer.
- Cost is only one reason to move. Repeated failures, manual work, weak recovery and slow worker support can outweigh a small fee difference.
- We will tell you when you are already fine. A Stay result is a real answer, not a failed sales opportunity.
Bureau processing
You employ, a bureau processes
The agency remains the employer while a specialist processes payroll. Compare the fee with the internal approvals, controls, employment responsibilities and recovery cover that remain with the agency.
Provider-employed route
A provider becomes the employer
Useful where the agency wants to outsource employment administration and payroll delivery. Compare total cost, service scope, worker experience and the agency’s remaining contractual and PAYE responsibilities.
Umbrella route
An accredited umbrella
Can support worker choice and recognised client requirements. The umbrella margin is normally carried in assignment income rather than treated as agency profit, and the contractual chain still needs evidence.
Who is on the other end
Your result goes to a payroll team, not a lead auction
Kingsway uses the result to direct a commercial conversation. We validate the cost population, pressure-test the red and amber issues, then identify the provider route most likely to improve them.
Where a move is justified, you receive one primary match and one reserve, not a swarm of calls from a panel. No provider receives your information without your separate permission.
How we are paid, before you ask
The provider pays us, not you. There is no fee to you at any point, and there never will be.
That means you should know we have an interest in an introduction. We disclose what we may be paid and by whom before you approve one, say plainly when the answer is to stay where you are, and leave the final provider decision with you.
We are a commercial broker and introducer, not whole-of-market. We recommend from providers we know and hold terms with, and we say who pays us before you decide anything.
You can keep the on-screen result or request the written Friday memo without approving a provider introduction.
Review again when
A verdict has a shelf life
A Stay from last year is not a Stay today if the book has moved. Run the Friday Test again when any of these changes:
- The workforce volume moves materially. Growth and contraction both change which route fits and what it should cost.
- The pay mix changes. PAYE, umbrella, CIS or PSC proportions shifting changes the cost and the exposure at the same time.
- Provider terms change. A new fee schedule, margin or contract is exactly the moment to re-run the comparison.
- Service slips. A late or failed pay run, or rising queries, is evidence, and the test turns evidence into a position.
Three short sections
Start with your workforce and weekly pay
Add the current payroll cost if you want the annual saving quantified. The result appears before we ask who you are.