What Do Umbrella Companies Do?

Springboard Umbrella Company– what we do.

Umbrella companies provide an employment service for contractors, freelancers, consultants, interims and other flexible workers who want to enjoy the benefits of a flexible work life and increased take-home pay, but who don’t want the hassle, liabilities and risk of running a limited company or becoming a sole trader.

Full employment contract and professional support

That means we employ you on a full, permanent overarching contract of employment with a minimum of 336 hours at the national minimum wage in force over a 12-month period. You benefit from all statutory benefits plus full ongoing support from our professionally qualified human resources team.

Rapid start-up and compliance from day one

When you sign up with either an existing or a new contract, we will process the contract with your agency or client using our online contract management system. We check your identity and right to work in the UK, and confirm with your agency or client that your client workplace is temporary, allowing you to legitimately claim travel and subsistence expenses.

Online control when and where you need it

When you sign up, we will create an online account for you in our contractor portal . You are in complete control with your ‘open anytime’ online account. It allows you to input your bank details, timesheets and expenses, and check when you will be paid.

Invoicing and late payment chasing – we do all that

Once you have recorded your timesheet online, we generate an invoice and send it to your agency or client. We take on all the hassle of chasing late payers. By using professional debt recovery and factoring services, we maximise the return on bad debts, ensuring that our contractor and freelance employees are paid as soon as the agency or client pays.

We keep you tax compliant

Because you are our employee, we operate a payroll that automatically deducts the correct amount of income tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs) from your earnings under the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) scheme. We provide weekly or monthly electronic pay slips and preparation of your P60, P11D and P14 documents is all included.

You can claim legitimate expenses and increase take-home pay

You can legitimately maximise your earnings by claiming travel and subsistence expenses. We use HMRC’s scale rates for expenses. This means that, as long as you incurred your expenses legitimately and you keep all your receipts for travel and subsistence, you can enjoy increased take-home pay without worrying about being chased by the taxman in the future for unpaid tax.

Insurance cover is automatically included for all contractors

We provide comprehensive insurance policies for all our contractors. Professional Indemnity to £10m, Public Liability to £10m and Employers’ Liability to £10m are all included in our service for no extra charge.

We are a PAYE Umbrella Company registered in the UK and at no time does your cash move offshore

We are a limited company registered in the UK. We are not a subsidiary of a large company, nor are we owned by shareholders domiciled offshore. We do not operate any offshore tax solutions, nor do we move any money outside of our UK business bank accounts once it has been paid by your client or agency.

What does it cost?

Nothing. Springboard currently offer this service completely free of charge.

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.

Limited Company v Umbrella Company comparison

Running your own Limited company will entail a much higher level of commitment. The Limited company model of contracting may be attractive if you are working multiple contracts and have received specific advice from an accountant.  You may be able to achieve higher levels of income via your own Limited Company however you will have greater responsibilities when if comes to reporting and will need to keep detailed records of all of your affairs as well as employing the services of a Chartered Accountant.