• Replies 27 replies
  • Subscribers 14 subscribers
  • Views 9984 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related

Payroll beginner - training and advice?

Gemma

Hi all,

I recently took on a new role as HR Manager (UK) for a tech sector employer with 100+ employees in the UK and a HQ in NL. Although there was no mention of payroll in the job description, and even at offer stage, it became clear when I took on the role that I was expected to take on payroll responsibilities for the UK.

We have two payrolls, one for 2 staff and one for everyone else.  Prior to this role, I've never operated Payroll before and was clear at interview that I had no Payroll experience.  I have taken over from an HR Director who had Payroll experience and ran the Payroll through an outsourced bureau for a few months.  

The main duties are putting together a big salary spreadsheet with all the starters, leavers, overtime, commission, and any changes and then checking the reports which are returned from the bureau.  We don't have an HR database so I have to use a range of different documents and data to ensure the data I am inputting is correct. I also have to check my own work when the reports are returned from the bureau and forward on reports to various other people such as our Finance team and pension provider.  On a personal level, I find this to be a very time-consuming task (it takes me about a day a month to do the processing and about another day or so a month to check the files and deal with any queries out of 20 available days) with the attention to detail it needs a really poor fit for my skills.  Additionally, I have a major concern about the risks inherent in allowing an essentially untrained person to carry out an important task with no checks and balances in place.

I have a couple of questions I'd appreciate an objective view on from you, my lovely Community colleagues:

1.  Is this normal or am I making a fuss over nothing?

2. Is there some training I could do which would help me in this task?

3.  How typical is it for a small employer with an HR team of 0.8 and a Finance team of 6 to delegate this task to HR?

4. Is there any other advice you can offer me to help me feel less stressed about this task?  Every month I have an absolute horror that I will make a mistake.  The first month I did it, I had a horrendous night's sleep as I was so worried about it.  I have made a few minor errors and I am constantly discovering new aspects to Payroll that I knew nothing about.

Thanks for your time in reading this post and please be gentle, this is probably the first time in my HR career I have taken on a new task which has made me feel so vulnerable and inexperienced!

Kind regards,

Gemma

Parents
  • Hi Gemma

    I took on payroll responsibility in my Company, a HR team of 1 and finance team of 4. I actually enjoyed it as I like working with numbers, but only had training on it for one month from a finance colleague who then left. It was a huge learning curve but one that I enjoyed.

    In terms of training, there are lots of providers, a quick google search should find something useful, which will give you a good understanding and basic knowledge, but even a year into doing payroll, I was still learning new things that hadn't cropped up before.

    As others have said, we are only human so mistakes are bound to happen, but it is odd that there isn't someone else performing an additional check on the numbers. I would suggest implementing that, not only to give you peace of mind, but it is good practice to not have the process and approvals solely on one person.

    It is a time consuming process and one that can't be rushed, so I would block out time in your diary for getting it completed. I found that if I explained to colleagues that I was in the process of completing payroll, they were more than happy to leave me to get on with it rather than chasing me for other things!

    Thanks
    Hollie
  • in reply to Hollie Gibson
    Hi Hollie,
    Thanks for sharing your experiences with me and I'm glad you enjoy it. I actually like working with numbers too (one of my A-Levels is Maths and Statistics) but I am more interested in finding patterns in data than in inputting stacks of figures. I think my lowest point in the processing so far was the first month I did it - I had to manually input 100+ salary changes and bonus amounts. I was so worried about getting it wrong I checked and double-checked and it took me a few hours. On that occasion one of my Finance colleagues did an extra check and I was surprised I had only made three errors!
    I think if our systems were more straightforward and there were better checks in place I would feel more comfortable. Because so much of the work is manual as we have neither an HR nor a Payroll database and the spreadsheet I used is not very sophisticated (so I am manually calculating and inputting fields like overtime amounts) I am aware of the huge potential for error and also the impact that mistakes can have on people. So yes, I will be pushing for someone else to check the work and for some training. My manager has approved for myself and the HR Administrator to attend that 2 day training course but I think some further training or qualifications down the line would help secure a depth of knowledge that is currently lacking. One of our Tech-y Managers also suggested embedding some macros in the Excel sheet so it could check some simple formulae - I thought that was a brilliant idea and there are also probably some other simple formulae we could add to take out some of the manual calculations.
    I'm always so appreciative of everyone who contributes to these communities for their support and ideas so thanks to everyone who took the time to reply, it has made me feel less alone.
    Kind regards,
    Gemma
  • in reply to Gemma
    I'm glad to hear your training request has been approved. Another valuable tool for me is the Payroll World magazine. This provides updates and legislation changes and is useful for keeping knowledge up to date. It obviously won't overcome issues around checking the data, but should make you feel more confident as you broaden your knowledge.

    Good luck with the role : )

    Hollie
  • in reply to Gemma
    Gemma - I think people responded to your openness from the 'off'. Nice one... and good luck :)
Reply Children
No Data