---
title: HRHive for accountants
canonical_url: https://hrhive.co.uk/advisers/accountants/
content_type: adviser
summary: "Starters, leavers, salary data and payroll are already yours. HRHive gives each client a tidy place for everything around them: details, contracts, documents, holiday and deadlines. HRHive is not payroll software. You are invited into each client's organisation and see all of them together in one portfolio view."
audiences:
  - adviser
  - accountant
jurisdiction: uk
status: published
last_updated: 2026-10-05
---

# You already look after payroll. Help clients organise everything around it.

> Starters, leavers, salary data and payroll are already yours. HRHive gives each client a tidy place for everything around them: details, contracts, documents, holiday and deadlines. HRHive is not payroll software. You are invited into each client's organisation and see all of them together in one portfolio view.

## How you work with clients

Each client has its own organisation in HRHive. You are invited into it with a role that fits the work, and one login covers every client. HRHive is not payroll software, so pay is still worked out in yours.

1. **Your client invites you.** Their owner or an administrator invites you by email and chooses your role. Payroll is the usual choice for payroll work. HR suits contracts, onboarding and policies. An auditor can look but cannot change anything.
2. **You sign in.** With a one-time link, an emailed code or a passkey. There are no passwords.
3. **You see every client together.** The portfolio view shows what needs attention across all your clients.
4. **You open a client to deal with it.** The organisation switcher takes you into one client, with your role in it. Home shows what needs attention there. Nothing from another client appears in it.

What you see depends on the role. The payroll role shows bank details, salary and National Insurance numbers, and other roles see sensitive details only where they need to. Date of birth, National Insurance number and bank details are encrypted individually, with a separate key for each organisation. Each client's data is kept apart from every other organisation's, and important activity is recorded in an audit log that shows who acted and what changed.

## Starters, leavers and everything around payroll

- **Starters.** A new starter gives their details, emergency contact, bank details and P45 or starter information through one emailed link, and signs their contract and acknowledges policies there. With the HR role you can send the link and see how far they have got.
- **Leavers.** Setting a leaving date creates an offboarding checklist and tells payroll, HR and the manager. The checklist includes informing payroll and reviewing outstanding holiday.
- **Employee details.** One record per person: details, address history, emergency contacts, employment history and a timeline. When an employee changes their own bank details, payroll, owners and administrators are asked to confirm the change before the next pay run.
- **Contract records.** Build contracts and written statements from plain questions and sign them online. Every signer gets a sealed copy with an audit certificate, so the signed contract sits with the person's record.
- **Holiday and sickness.** Holiday requests, approvals, balances and carry-forward are recorded, and sickness absence is recorded as leave. HRHive does not calculate sick pay, and it does not run payroll.
- **Workforce documents.** Qualifications, driving licences, insurance certificates and other documents can carry issue, expiry and review dates, and those dates feed reminders.
- **Subcontractors.** Record individual subcontractors and the suppliers your client uses. HRHive records employment-status and off-payroll (IR35) assessments that a person makes, including the small-company test and the 45-day clock for responding to a disagreement. It does not decide anyone's status.
- **Pay that looks low.** HRHive flags pay entered on a person's record that appears to fall below the national minimum wage for their age band. It checks the salary held in HRHive. It does not run payroll.
- **Compliance actions.** The compliance overview ranks what needs attention across right to work, supply chain, contracts, data protection and status, and shows what is up to date.
- **Reports.** Seventeen reports export to CSV, Excel and PDF, including starters and leavers.

This is a new starter's record once payroll has confirmed their bank details.

**Tomasz Kowalski** — Bricklayer, worker [Active]

- Started: 1 October 2026
- Employment type: Worker
- Contract: Signed on 2 October 2026
- Bank details: Confirmed by payroll

Timeline:
- 1 Oct 2026: Onboarding sent (Construction Worker)
- 2 Oct 2026: Employment contract signed by employee
- 2 Oct 2026: Bank details changed
- 5 Oct 2026: Bank details confirmed by payroll

## Right to work: what an accountant can and cannot do

If you also look after part of a client's HR administration, you are in the same position as any other adviser.

> **What the guidance says**
>
> A check carried out independently by an external third party, such as an adviser, recruiter or bureau, does not give the employer a statutory excuse, which is the protection a properly made check gives. The employer can delegate the check to someone acting under its control and direction who is accountable to it. The employer stays responsible for it.

> **In HRHive**
>
> You can see where each check stands, ask your client for documents and information, chase what is outstanding and assign the check to the person who should complete it.
>
> The check itself is completed by someone your client has authorised, acting under the client's control. HRHive records who made it, when and how, and locks the record when it is complete.
>
> HRHive records the check. It does not perform it, and it does not contact the Home Office or an identity provider for anyone.

Right to work checks by third parties explains the rule in plain English.

## Records and workflows, not employment advice

HRHive helps you administer workflows and keep records. It does not make an accountancy practice an employment-law adviser, and nothing on this page or anywhere on this site is legal advice. If a client needs advice about a contract term, a dismissal or a right to work question, it should come from someone qualified to give it.

## Across all your clients

- **Payroll handoffs, webhooks and a public API.** Changes reach your payroll software without being keyed in again.
- **A portfolio view across your clients.** Actions, expiries and urgent items from every client together on one screen.
- **Wholesale arrangements.** For practices that want to bundle HRHive into their own fees. See the [partner programme](https://hrhive.co.uk/advisers/partner-programme/).
- **Your own branding.** Your name on the documents your clients see, with Adviser Pro and white label.

## Who this is for

HRHive suits accountancy practices that run payroll or bookkeeping for small employers and want their clients' people records in order before the details reach payroll.

It is a good fit if your clients are happy to keep their people records in their own HRHive organisation and invite you in with the right role.

HRHive does not run payroll, and it does not do Construction Industry Scheme verification or returns. Those stay in your payroll or accounting software.

## What it costs

The adviser account is free. Each client organisation is priced on its own active workforce, not on how many advisers work in it. [Adviser pricing](https://hrhive.co.uk/advisers/pricing/) has the detail.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is HRHive payroll software?

No. HRHive does not run payroll, calculate pay or send anything to HMRC. It keeps the records and deadlines around payroll, and you keep using your own payroll software.

### Can HRHive send starter and leaver details to my payroll software?

Yes. The payroll role is told about leavers, address changes and bank detail changes, and reports export to CSV, Excel and PDF. Payroll handoffs, webhooks and a public API carry the changes to your payroll software, so they are not keyed in again.

### Does HRHive handle the Construction Industry Scheme?

No. HRHive does not do Construction Industry Scheme verification or returns. Your payroll or accounting software does that.

### Can I carry out a right to work check for a client?

No. A check carried out independently by an adviser does not give your client a statutory excuse. You can see where each check stands, ask for documents, chase and assign the check. Someone your client has authorised completes it, and HRHive records who, when and how.

### Does HRHive make an accountancy practice an HR adviser?

No. HRHive helps you administer workflows and keep records. It is not employment-law advice, and nothing on this site is legal advice. If a client needs advice, it should come from someone qualified to give it.

### Can I see all my clients on one screen?

Yes. The portfolio view shows the actions, expiries and urgent items from every client together. Open any client from it to deal with what needs attention.

## About this page

- Last updated: 5 October 2026

## Related

**In HRHive**

- [Onboarding new starters with one link](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/onboarding/)
- [Offboarding, a tidy finish for every leaver](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/offboarding/)
- [Employee records and personnel files](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/employee-records/)
- [Contracts, written statements and signing](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/contracts/)
- [Reports and exports](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/reporting/)
- [Subcontractors and workers](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/subcontractors/)

**Related reading**

- [HRHive for payroll bureaux](https://hrhive.co.uk/advisers/payroll-bureaux/)
- [HRHive for HR consultants](https://hrhive.co.uk/advisers/hr-consultants/)
- [Adviser pricing](https://hrhive.co.uk/advisers/pricing/)

Canonical URL: https://hrhive.co.uk/advisers/accountants/
Start with HRHive: https://app.hrhive.co.uk/sign-in?next=%2Fnew%3Fhh_funnel%3Dadviser_accountant%26hh_route%3Daccountant%26hh_goal%3Dfirst_client_created%26hh_page%3Dadvisers%252Faccountants