Accurate payroll is expected. Provable payroll is Precision.
Every payroll platform can produce a payslip and file an FPS. Far fewer can show, on demand, what was checked before the run proceeded, what the checks found, and what HMRC said back - for a pay run that closed three months ago.
Running payroll is a calculation exercise. Proving it is an evidence exercise.
Those are different problems, and most systems were built to solve only the first.
A payroll system that records outcomes but not the work behind them can tell you what a worker was paid. It cannot tell you which checks ran before the run proceeded, what those checks found and which workers they affected, or which imported rows were rejected on the way in and for what reason.
Reconstructing that afterwards means spreadsheets, exports and email threads. It is slow, it is expensive, and it is exactly the position joint and several liability makes untenable.
Reconstructed afterwards
Recorded as it happens
Four layers, in order.
Precision doesn’t just process payroll. It proves what should be paid, validates what has been calculated, and creates the evidence that it was handled correctly.
Calculate
PAYE, NIC, Apprenticeship Levy, holiday pay, pensions, statutory payments and configurable umbrella margins.
Validate
Pre-payroll checks detect inconsistencies, prohibited treatments, missing information and calculation errors before the run is posted.
Evidence
Imported data, control outcomes, run events, FPS submissions, liabilities and payroll outputs - recorded as they happen.
Protect
Precision calculates the liability. Fortis verifies and protects the payment - where included in the product model.
The difference shows up on the day somebody asks.
An agency exposed to your PAYE liability under JSL will eventually ask a question it has never had to ask before. This is what answering it looks like.
All twelve, with the outcome of each recorded against the run.
Each failure and warning, named, with every worker it affected.
The FPS submission, its correlation ID and the response, kept against the run that produced it.
Yes - scoped to the workers that agency supplied, and nothing else.
| Question | Answer | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Controls run | 12 of 12 | Complete |
| Warnings raised | 2, workers named | Recorded |
| FPS submitted | 21 May 11:06 | Accepted |
| PAYE & NIC due | £312,840.58 | Calculated |
| Agency visibility | Scoped, permissioned | Available |
Built from the compliance side.
Precision has been shaped by Professional Passport’s experience of examining umbrella operations, payroll processes and compliance risks across the contractor supply chain.
Most payroll platforms are built by software companies that then learn about compliance. The distinction matters because the controls in Precision are not a feature list - they are the things that actually go wrong, seen repeatedly, in real operations.
A note on independence. Professional Passport is also an independent compliance assessor. Purchasing Precision does not confer, influence or accelerate accreditation, and assessment outcomes are never affected by a software purchase. We state this plainly rather than leaving a competitor to raise it.