Springboard Umbrella Companies FAQ's

Yes. Our Basic service will always be free and currently our LITE service is free as well. In the future the LITE service will cost £4.99 net* but we guarantee that at least your first contract will be free in any event. There are no catches, hidden charges or other conditions and you are free to leave Springboard Umbrella at any time without penalty.

Yes. We have been audited by Lawspeed under the SPA Scheme, and Springboard is an APSCo-approved umbrella company. In addition, we are Professional Passport approved.

Yes. Check your contract for any notice period, as unless you get agreement not to, you must serve this out. Speak to your client or agency to make sure they know that they will have to issue a new contract with a new umbrella company. This is usually a matter of routine, but, should you have any issues, just contact us and we'll do our best to help.

Yes. Your client or agency may grumble at the necessity to issue a new contract mid-way through a contract, so ideally you should make the switch at renewal or extension time, or when starting a new contract. Sometimes you may encounter resistance from your agency because they receive a reward from some service providers for referring contractors (ultimately it is the contractors who pay for this), but there is rarely any legal reason preventing you from switching. Any problems, just give us a call.

You could be up and running within 24 hours if everyone in the chain, including your agency and/or client, does their bit. You should register online now, and, as we process most contracts electronically, your first payment from us will arrive quickly after submitting your timesheet. We will also check your identity, that you are allowed to work in the UK, and if your workplace is temporary, which will enable you to claim expenses.

Yes. All of our contractor customers receive an overarching employment contract that provides for a minimum of 336 hours over a 12-month period at the national minimum wage. You will enjoy all the benefits you would expect from any employer and are supported by our professional human resources team.

Yes. Springboard Umbrella Company does have an HMRC expenses dispensation. But please note that, despite what you might hear elsewhere, this is not a ‘get out of jail free' card for expenses. It simply means we don't have to complete a P11D for each individual contractor. You can only claim legitimate expenses and must keep the receipts for any expense claimed.

Yes and yes. We provide comprehensive insurance policies for all our contractors. This comprises Professional Indemnity to £10m, Public Liability to £5m and Employers' Liability to £10m. These are all included in our service; there is no additional cost.

As soon as you complete your timesheet, we invoice your agency or client. When we receive payment from your agency or client, we will pay you net of your income tax and National Insurance Contributions, allowing for any expenses you have claimed. We process your payment on the same day as we receive payment by the agency or client, which means you usually get paid within three days, although this is not guaranteed. We can do same day guaranteed transfers, but we do charge an additional fee for this service.

Yes. You will find a comprehensive list of FAQ's on this page or if you do not find the answer to your query, you can call us, email us or even write to us as often as you need to. Call us on 0845 602 7712 or email enquiries@springboardumbrella.co.uk. Our customer service, human resources and technical support teams will deal with your question or issue swiftly and professionally.

No. We do not charge any penalties for leaving at any time. You are an employee of Springboard Umbrella Company until you tender your resignation and work through your notice period (usually one week). As soon as you have served your notice period, you are no longer an employee. But we would welcome you back at any time!

We need a copy of your Passport (ideally certified), a copy of a recent Utility Bill, a P45 or P46, a contract and schedule of works from your agency, your Date of Birth, National Insurance number and bank details. Without all of these things we legally cannot release any money to you. All these documents can be emailed to admin@springboardumbrella.co.uk

If your P45 is not yet available we would recommend that you complete a P46. Please click here to download a P46 that you can then send to us.

Legally, we are bound to check your right to work status and proof of address and that's why we need a copy of your passport and a recent utility bill. Because it is unlikely that you will be able to visit our offices to show your ID in person, we require verified ID. This means that someone of a particular stature needs to sign the copy to say that it shows a true likeness of you. There is a list of approved 'verifiers' here.

When you are registered with us you should have received a "Welcome Email". This will have given instructions about what happens next and asked you to login to accept the terms. Your login details will have been included within the same email. If you have mislaid the email or forgotten your password, please click here to reset your account.

Once you have registered with us, we will contact your agency on your behalf to request a copy of your contract. Once this is received, we will post it to your online portal for you to view and check. You will receive an email from us when your contract is ready for viewing. Once you have digitally signed the contract online, we will physically sign the contract on your behalf and return to the agency / employer. You will then be able to add your time and expenses to your portal.

Yes, online. You need to record your time with us as well as your agency unless they state otherwise. Check with your agency to see how often they want you to record your time and mirror this on our portal to ensure that our invoice to the agency matches the time that the client has signed off. It is important that we do mirror weekly or monthly so please advise us of which is right for you before you start adding time to your portal.

Firstly you can only submit your time and expenses once we have received your contract from your agency / employer and added it to your portal. Once this is done you will receive an email from us asking you to login and sign it. Once signed, you can add a timesheet by clicking the icon in your portal. The form is designed to be easy to complete and you simply enter the hours/days that you worked. Once you are happy you can save the timesheet for later or submit it. Once submitted you will be taken to the expenses page where you can add your allowable expenses. If your expenses are the same each day, we can pre-authorise them and this will save you time. Please note that once your timesheet has been saved and submitted your agency will be automatically invoiced and you will be unable to amend your time yourself.

Please see above. If we have not yet emailed you to confirm that your contract is online, you will not be able to add time or expenses.

If you make an error just email us at support@springboardumbrella.co.uk and we will assist.

If you are on our basic service then you will be restricted to claiming travel and subsistence only. If you are trying to claim for other expenditure you will need to upgrade your package to enhanced and this will allow you to claim for more. If you are trying to claim rechargeable expenses please see FAQ below.

Please note that expenses are not fully reimbursed. For example if you have £200 of expenses on £1000 of billings, we remove the £200, then deduct tax, NI and ERSNI on the remaining £800, and then put the £200 expenses back on. The amount that you save in tax is dictated by what tax code you are on.

The expenses that you claim from Springboard Umbrella Company should not be confused with reimbursable expenses, which are expenses incurred whilst under the control of the client. Please see FAQ below.

We use what's known as a scale rate dispensation. This means that we use a standard rate to calculate subsistence payments. If you are out of your home for 10 hours or more you can claim £10 per day and if you are out for less than 10 hours you can claim £5 per day. Technically you do not need to show us receipts but the revenue may want to see them! Best advice is to send any receipts that you do have to us and we will keep them safe and ready if anyone wants to see them. By claiming any form of subsistence you are stating that you are not taking your food to work with you (sandwiches etc).

In the case of travel, we expect to see petrol VAT receipts on a regular basis to show that you are making the journey that you state. In the case of public transport we expect to see receipts before releasing the expense for offset. If you have an oyster card you can send us a statement or receipt for the top up.

The expenses that you claim from Springboard should not be confused with reimbursable expenses, which are expenses incurred whilst under the control of the client. In other words if you are sent abroad by the client they will usually pay you back the full amount that you spent. These can either be claimed back from the client directly or by Springboard Umbrella invoicing your agency. In order to do the latter, we require ideally an authorised client expense form, or an email from your agency confirming the amount, the reason and the date the expense was incurred. Springboard Umbrella will then raise an invoice to your agency on your behalf, and the full expense will be reimbursed once funds are received from the agency. For rechargeable expenses only, any related receipts should be given to your agency or end client as appropriate.

Once you have saved and submitted your time on your portal, our systems will automatically invoice the agency within 15 minutes no matter what time of day and no matter what day of the week. The status of the timesheet on your portal will read "submitted" initially and then "Invoiced" within 15 minutes. It's then over to your agency to pay us. Please note that agencies often pay by BACS and the money will take 3 days to clear with us once they have processed our invoice. When the money has cleared with Springboard the status will change to "matched". At this point we will process your pay. Please note that the money will clear the same day if you have opted for FASTPAY or 3 working days if you have opted for BACS. NB FASTPAY is not available for Building Society accounts.

We will invoice your agency within 15 minutes of you recording your time and expenses on your portal. Once your agency has paid us, we will process your payment usually on the same working day. If you have opted for our FASTPAY service then the money should clear on the same day. If you have not opted for FASTPAY, it will take three working days to clear into your account. Please note that different agencies work in different ways and some can take up to a month to pay us. We would advise that you familiarise yourself with your agency's deadlines, processes and methods of payment at the start of your contract. We would also advise that you check that your agency has paid, before chasing your pay from Springboard.

Some agencies pay us by BACS, others by CHAPS. We pay you when we receive your money from your agency. So if they have paid by BACS, it will take three working days to clear with us, if it's paid by CHAPS then it will clear with us on the same day. Check with your agency to see what method they use so you are clear on when you can expect payment from us.

When we process your pay, we will send you an email to confirm. Please note that the email is sent when we process your pay so if you have opted for FASTPAY you should receive it the same day. If you have not opted for FASTPAY it will take three working days to clear. Please note that payments can clear any time up to 11pm, so we would advise against chasing for payment during the morning on any given day as it is unlikely, especially for FASTPAY, that your money will show as cleared funds until the afternoon/evening.

When a contractor works through an umbrella company, they become an employee of that umbrella company. As an employee, they accept having to pay Employee's NI. So how does the deduction for Employer's NI end up on the contractor's pay slip? It starts with the umbrella company (as the employer) quite correctly paying, to HMRC, Employer's NI in relation to the contractor's (the employee's) payments. However, what the umbrella company does next, is to claw back exactly the same amount of money from the contractor, as they have had to pay to HMRC in respect of the Employer's NI. If the umbrella company is charged £150 in Employer's NI when they pay a contractor, the umbrella company will simply charge the contractor an extra £150, over and above the standard processing fee, to compensate and make sure they are not out of pocket. So, technically, the contractor does not pay Employer's NI - but they pay a 'top up' fee to the umbrella company, which is exactly the same amount as the umbrella company is charged by HMRC, in respect of Employer's NI.

See above regarding Employers National Insurance. ERSNI is shown separately on your payslip and if you add your gross pay to the NI pay you should get the figure you expected.

As an employee of Springboard Umbrella Company you are entitled to paid holiday. The agency or employer will usually include holiday pay in your gross rate of pay and it is a legal requirement that we show it separately on your payslip even though it is paid at the same time as the rest of your money. Some Umbrella Companies hold back your holiday pay to pay to you when you actually take holiday but we opt to pay it to you as you earn it.

The online calculator on our home page is designed to give a rough guide as to what you will take home. To make it simple to use, we make certain assumptions relating to your level of expenses and tax code. With this in mind the figure shown is likely to be fairly accurate but unlikely to be spot on. We always give a full personal illustration when you sign up with us and this will be an exact calculation based on your actual individual situation.

You are employed by us under what is known as an overarching employment contract. This means that you are entitled to full employment benefits including holiday, sickness, maternity and paternity pay. We also offer a contributory pension scheme and we plan to introduce further benefits including Accident and Illness cover, Critical Illness and Private Medical Insurance.

Under our basic service you can claim travel from home to work and back and subsistence (food and drink) expenses which are offset against your tax. This means that any expenses we claim become a tax free sum. Under our enhanced service you can claim for all other allowable expenses including capital expenditure and overnight stays, etc. As a rule you can claim expenses that are wholly and exclusively work related. So as an example, a hard hat is acceptable for a builder, but a suit is not allowable for a city trader as the suit could be worn outside of work. You can download our full expenses policy here.

If you are on our basic service then you will be restricted to claiming travel and subsistence only. If you are trying to claim for other expenditure you will need to upgrade your package to enhanced and this will allow you to claim for more. Please either call us or email us on support@springboardumbrella.co.uk for more details.

Legally we have to ensure that you are paid at least £5.80 per hour which is National Minimum Wage (NMW). We have to ensure that once we have deducted your expenses you are left with a basic pay of at least NMW. Therefore if your expenses are so great that the remaining amount would be under NMW then we look to roll over your expenses to a later date when you are either earning a higher rate or your expenses are less. If you leave us before all of your expenses are offset we will provide you with a letter for the revenue to enable you to claim it back.

Springboard Umbrella Company is free, at least until the end of your first contract with us. If your contract has been extended then an administration charge will have been automatically applied. Unlike other Umbrella Companies our charges are minimal. If you are claiming no expenses then you will not be charged at all, however if you are claiming basic travel and subsistence expenses then you will be charged £9.50 GROSS which is £4.99 NET after tax for a higher rate tax payer. Of course you are under no obligation to stay with us and can leave at any time without penalty, but we hope that you will feel that you have received a good service and will happy to pay the small fee.