Cutting the Admin from Salary Sacrifice EV Charging

Turning complex EV benefits into one simple process

Salary sacrifice EV schemes have taken off - and with good reason. They save employees money, help employers meet sustainability goals, and make electric driving accessible to thousands.

But there’s one snag HR, payroll and finance teams keep mentioning: the admin.

Managing car leases is fine. Home charging allowances can be handled. Yet the moment public charging enters the picture, things get messy.

Dozens of receipts. Unclear VAT. Endless reconciliation.

That’s why Paua built Paua Solo - the salary sacrifice charging solution that removes the administrative drag and gives you one clear view of everything.

1. The public-charging admin trap

Without a unified system, public charging creates chaos for payroll and finance:

• Employees pay out of pocket and file expense claims.

• Receipts arrive in every format imaginable.

• Finance can’t tell which sessions are business vs personal.

• VAT recovery becomes a guessing game.

Multiply that across hundreds of employees and the admin overhead wipes out much of the efficiency you hoped to gain from salary sacrifice in the first place.

The result? HR teams groan, finance teams panic, and drivers quietly stop using the scheme.

Paua Solo solves that with one card, one invoice, one dashboard.

2. One card for every charge

Each driver receives a Paua EV charge card and access to the Paua app. That single card works across 69 000+ public connectors on 50+ UK networks.

No receipts. No expense forms. No network-specific accounts.

When employees charge, the cost automatically deducts from their pre-tax monthly allowance - usually £25, £50, £75 or £100

All activity flows straight into Paua’s central reporting system, ready for reconciliation.

The result: no employee expense claims, ever.

3. One invoice instead of hundreds

Finance teams no longer have to process a forest of receipts. Paua consolidates every driver’s activity into one monthly invoice for the employer or salary sacrifice provider.

Each invoice clearly lists:

• Driver names and cost centres.

• Allowance amount per employee.

• Total VAT and service fee (15%)

• Any overspend charged directly to the driver (kept separate).

That means one payment, one ledger entry, and one set of numbers that perfectly align with payroll deductions.

Reconciliation that used to take hours now takes minutes.

4. VAT headaches removed

VAT has long been the Achilles’ heel of EV charging administration. Different networks apply different VAT rates; some include it in the price, others don’t; receipts are inconsistent; and reclaiming becomes a nightmare.

Paua Solo standardises everything:

• VAT is charged consistently at 20 % on the service fee.

• VAT is reclaimable where applicable.

• Employers and providers receive itemised VAT data automatically.

No manual calculation. No missing invoices. No fear of an HMRC query.

It’s the VAT treatment accountants actually like.

5. Automatic data, not manual entry

Gone are the days of typing numbers into spreadsheets.

Paua’s dashboard gives HR, payroll and finance teams real-time data on:

• Driver participation and usage.

• Monthly allowances and roll-overs.

• Spend per driver, cost centre or network.

• VAT breakdowns and audit-ready summaries.

All downloadable in CSV or directly exportable to payroll systems and accounting software.

You’re not chasing information - you’re managing it.

6. Predictable payroll deductions

Every employee’s charging allowance is fixed and agreed in advance - e.g. £50 per month.

That value appears as a consistent gross-pay deduction, so payroll has nothing to recalculate.

At month-end, Paua’s invoice matches exactly what payroll deducted. The alignment is perfect, every time.

Predictable deductions = fewer errors = fewer emails titled “query on deduction.”

7. No more expense claims

Expense claims are the silent productivity killer in HR. Every one needs approving, checking, and coding.

With Paua Solo, there are none.

Drivers charge directly via their allowance. HR no longer has to police what’s business, what’s personal, or what qualifies for VAT.

Every kilowatt-hour is accounted for automatically.

That’s not just time saved - that’s risk removed.

8. Real-time oversight

Managers can log into the Paua dashboard to view live data:

• Active drivers and allowance balances.

• Charging frequency.

• Estimated CO₂ savings (for ESG reporting).

You can instantly answer the CFO’s favourite questions:

“How many people are using it?”
“How much is it costing?”
“Are we compliant?”

Yes, yes and yes.

9. Simplifying audit and governance

Auditors love traceability - and Paua provides it automatically.

Every allowance, deduction and charge is digitally linked. You can show, line-by-line, how a pre-tax salary deduction funded a defined employee benefit.

This means:

• Zero ambiguity about whether payments were pre- or post-tax.

• Clean VAT reconciliation with matching documents.

• Ready-made evidence for ESG and sustainability reporting.

Governance is no longer a chore - it’s built in.

10. Scaling without scaling the admin

Admin problems multiply with size. A 20-driver scheme might be manageable; a 2 000-driver scheme can overwhelm an HR department.

Because Paua Solo automates every key process - from payroll alignment to invoicing - administration doesn’t grow as participation does.

Whether you have 10 or 10 000 drivers, the workload stays almost the same.

That’s the definition of scalability.

11. Savings in time and cost

From Paua’s partner data:

• Up to 60 % reduction in HR and payroll processing time.

• Elimination of manual expense processing for public charging.

• Near-zero payroll errors thanks to fixed deductions.

When HR time is worth roughly £35/hour, that’s serious value.

And because Paua Solo runs on a fixed 15 % service fee built into the allowance, there are no hidden admin costs.

Simple pricing, predictable workload, cleaner books.

12. The compliance comfort blanket

Admin efficiency is great - but compliance is greater.

Paua’s model is fully HMRC-aligned because:

• The deduction is pre-tax (gross pay).

• The benefit is contractually defined.

• The audit trail is complete.

So while others juggle spreadsheets and risk letters from accountants, you can sleep soundly knowing it all lines up.

13. The experience employees notice

Employees might never see the dashboards or invoices, but they feel the simplicity.

They see one allowance on their payslip.
They use one card at any charger.
They get one email per month summarising their usage.

They don’t chase reimbursements, and you don’t chase them.

That clarity builds confidence in your EV benefit - and that confidence drives adoption.

14. The admin-free future

Salary sacrifice has already proven it can make EVs affordable. Now it’s proving it can be effortless too.

By integrating Paua Solo, employers eliminate the noise of receipts, spreadsheets, and VAT guesswork.

They gain a benefit that’s:

• Fair - every employee can charge affordably.

• Simple - one deduction, one invoice, one dashboard.

• Compliant - pre-tax, transparent, and auditable.

Less admin means more adoption. More adoption means faster decarbonisation.

That’s what clean mobility should look like.

15. In summary

Challenge

Traditional Approach

With Paua Solo

Expense claims

Manual, inconsistent

None required

VAT

Complicated, unclear

Standardised, itemised

Payroll reconciliation

Variable deductions

Fixed, automated

Reporting

Manual spreadsheets

Live dashboard

Audit

Fragmented

Fully traceable

The final word

Electric vehicles are meant to simplify our future, not complicate our paperwork.

With Paua Solo, you can give employees a smarter, greener way to drive - and give your HR and finance teams their time back.

No forms. No receipts. No headaches. Just progress.

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