Freelancers: How to find the best umbrella company?
Statistics show that over 57% of freelancers say they don’t make enough money to support themselves, and 54% say they don’t get paid on time.
Certainly, self-employment status remains attractive in terms of flexibility and self-management, but it does not enjoy the same benefits as an employee.
However, there is a solution that combines the advantages of both statuses: salary.
This allows you to work professionally as a freelancer while enjoying the benefits of an employee.
Otherwise, the self-employed person is paid in the form of a salary, not a salary.
But this solution necessarily involves an employment contract with a salary portage structure. And given the abundance of portage boxes in France, choosing the latter can be more complicated than expected for a freelancer.
What criteria should be considered to find the right partner? We tell you everything.
1/ Services offered by the ideal umbrella company
As part of your search best salary company, it is important that you inform yourself well about the services offered by the service you are considering. In fact, most of the moving companies offer the same services. These include in particular:
Services common to all EPS that comply with their legal obligations:
- Management of service contracts with customers. (Reference and management of customer documents, contract compliance, approval of contracts, etc.)
- Sales administration (Management of activity reports, invoices, receipts)
- Management social and tax (recruitment formalities, employment contract creation, IR source deduction, occupational medicine, security insurance, mutual insurance, contract termination formalities, etc.)
- Employee activity account management and communication (CA, FG, contributions, awards, professional expenses, reserves, etc.)
- Creating a payroll
- Payment of the minimum monthly wage and payment of related fees and charges.
- Vocational training (Funding of vocational training for supported workers)
Additional or special services:
- A monthly advance of the full premium (minimum salary + additional salary + expenses) regardless of the customer’s payment terms.
- Management of professional expenses (verification of URSSAF compliance; compensation with exemption from social security payments and tax within the amount available after payment of the legal minimum wage)
- Financial benefits (Meal vouchers, CESU, gift vouchers, employee savings, etc.)
- Contractual and legal assistance in the context of missions.
- Human support (special, experienced interlocutors are available for the employee and his clients)
- The management of outstanding customer collections.
- Special management (international benefits and insurances, salary smoothing, financial advances, multi-client activities, activity subcontracting, etc.)
- Transportation of foreign citizens.
If you are interested in these services, you should first check whether they are systematically included in the offer or whether they are options that incur additional costs.
2/ Delivery costs offered by the company
Shipping costs are nothing more than commissions that the shipping company takes out of your turnover. We are talking about management fees. In general, their value is expressed as a percentage of your turnover, which means that on average it is between 3-10% of the total turnover. carried out by the employee. Some umbrella companies may sometimes offer a limited monthly amount, which can be an advantage for high ADRs.
Finally, note that there are some portage companies that offer a sliding fee schedule. The higher your turnover, the lower the applicable rate.
A self-employed person who wants to choose a salary portage should therefore pay close attention to these points before making a commitment.
3/ Warranties offered by the shipping box
Transparency is the first guarantee factor in the transportation of wages. You can get an idea of the financial health of an umbrella company by consulting the annual accounts published on Infogreffe, but if you are not an expert in financial analysis, the easiest way is to ask the umbrella company to provide you with the information. proof of the legal guarantees required to carry out this regulated activity, namely:
- Financial guarantee certificate from payroll companies with valid date. (Labor Code L 1254-26)
- Certificate of Professional Civil Liability insurance with validity date. (Labor Code L 1254-15/23)
It should be noted that these guarantees are mandatory in order to legally carry out salary portage activities and to be able to conclude an employment contract. (Labor Code L 1254-24)
4/ Support offered by Portage company
Portage’s quality of service also requires effective and responsive support. Often contractors get stuck with an administrative question or don’t use the tools provided by the umbrella company properly. These are especially frustrating situations when it comes to key points of operations, such as managing payroll or paying professional expenses.
To save yourself from this unnecessary waste of time, use the various means at your disposal to contact the portage company, i.e. email, phone, instant messaging, etc. Finally, also find out if the umbrella company is willing to respond within a certain time frame.
