Home and Electronics: admin and client guide

This article covers the key information about the Home and Electronics scheme – how it works, how to manage it, and what to expect as an employer.

Home and Electronics is a workplace benefit that helps employees access essential home and tech items – from laptops to washing machines – and spread the cost through monthly payroll instalments. There are no upfront costs, no credit checks and no interest.

Employees browse and order directly through the Perkbox app, choosing from thousands of products from trusted retailers. Items are delivered straight to their door. Payments are then spread through payroll instalments, with all orders subject to your approval.

The benefit is designed to support employee financial wellbeing – helping your people manage life's essential costs without the burden of upfront payment or traditional credit.

Home and Electronics can be offered through salary sacrifice or Net Pay – or both, to support wider access across your workforce. Both options run on the same platform and require no deposit or credit check.

Salary sacrifice applies reductions before tax and National Insurance, so NI savings may apply for employees and employers. Because Home and Electronics is treated as a Benefit-in-Kind by HMRC, income tax savings do not apply as they are offset by the BiK tax – but the cost is still spread manageably through payroll. P11D reporting or payrolling of benefits is required.

Net pay deduction is an employer-provided loan, deducted from take-home pay after tax and NI. There are no tax or NI savings, but there is no minimum wage constraint, making the benefit accessible to employees who cannot participate in salary sacrifice. Ownership of the item transfers to the employee upon delivery.

Note: NHS and LGPS pension scheme members should be aware that salary sacrifice reduces pensionable earnings and may affect contributions.

For further detail on how tax works for Home and Electronics salary sacrifice, read this article.

You can learn more about the differences between salary sacrifice and Net Pay here.

Employees browse and choose home and tech essentials directly through the Perkbox app. They select the items they want, review the monthly repayment amount and term before committing, and submit their order for your approval. Once approved, products are delivered straight to their home address.

Learn more about the user journey here.

Once an employee submits an order, it appears in Order Management in your Perkbox admin portal. By default you'll see pending orders, and you can filter by approval status, order status or search for a specific person.

The platform includes a built-in limitation calculator to check whether an order would take an employee below National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage, and tools to verify employee and order details before you approve or reject. You can also bulk approve or reject orders via CSV upload.

Find more information on approving orders here.

Home and Electronics can be offered year-round or during set ordering windows – it's your choice. Ordering windows allow you to open the benefit during specific periods, giving you more control over the volume and timing of orders placed.

This can be particularly useful for managing payroll admin, aligning the benefit with key periods in the year, or limiting exposure at any one time. Outside of an ordering window, employees will see the benefit in Perkbox but will not be able to place an order.

Both year-round access and ordering windows are configured during setup and managed in the platform.

Access controls (eligibility) determine who can access the scheme – by job grade, probation period, or both. Spend controls (limitations) decide how much employees can order. Both are configured in the platform and apply automatically – employees only see what’s relevant to them, and the right deduction type is applied without manual intervention.

If you offer both salary sacrifice and Net Pay, eligibility rules automatically route employees to the correct scheme. Employee data (job grade, probation end date) is uploaded via the same CSV process as adding new employees, so no separate data entry is needed.

Useful links on access and spend controls:

Home and Electronics salary sacrifice is a Benefit-in-Kind. Tax on the benefit is collected in one of two ways, depending on how your organisation has set things up:

Payrolling of benefits: Tax is deducted monthly from the employee's salary and shown on their payslip. Deductions are spread across the remaining months of the tax year from when the benefit starts.

P11D: If your organisation has not opted into payrolling, the benefit is reported to HMRC via a P11D form submitted in July after the tax year ends. Tax is then collected by adjusting the employee's tax code the following year.

The prices shown on the platform already factor in the Benefit-in-Kind calculations.

Find more details on how tax works for employees here.

You can view an employee's agreement at any time by opening the relevant order and selecting the Documents tab.

Employees can choose from thousands of home and tech essentials across a wide product catalogue, including:

Products are available from trusted retailers including John Lewis & Partners, Currys and Decathlon. All ordered through the app and delivered straight to the employee's door.

We have a range of communications materials available to help you promote Home and Electronics to your employees.

​Useful links: