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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

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  • Hi Gemma

    When is your year end? I would think your auditors would pick up on the obvious risks in your current system, and they may get a more serious hearing from your FD than you are currently getting. If you are getting all the information together and sending it to be processed, then I would expect someone from Finance to check the payroll reports against what was sent over to see that instructions have been followed.

    Does your business have a risk register,and could you find out when and how it is up-dated? If this gets on the register and comes to board attention, that should get the FD moving.

    I completely agree with Ray that you need to divert your phone and shut your door when you're working on payroll. You might also think about bringing the deadline forward by a day or two so in case of problems occurring. It will also make your life easier you stick to the deadline - if managers know that you can squeeze in late changes at the checking stage, that will become the deadline they work to. I would also be clear to employees that a change has not been made because you didn't get it in time.

    If the payroll bureau you use is not very user-friendly, then I would look for another one. People on here will have recommendations.

    It's a few years since I did the payroll - same set-up as you with an external bureau - and although it always felt like a chore, as Ray says, you do get some interesting data and I miss that a bit.
  • in reply to Elizabeth Divver
    Hi Elizabeth,
    Thanks for your helpful advice and support.
    It surprised me that since reporting this element of my work as a high risk to both the our Security and Compliance Manager (who is compiling the first ever risk register for the Board) and my own manager, who reports directly to the CFO, that no one is taking it seriously. Also, our auditors were recently in (year end is March I think) and don't seem to have asked any questions about Payroll either. So far, the mistakes I have made have been pretty minor and easy to correct but they come from a lack of basic knowledge of Payroll principles and/or checking processes. Personally, I would far prefer that our Finance team did the inputting and I did the checking but they seem happy that the onus has passed to HR and reluctant to take back any kind of responsibility.
    In terms of compliance with providing data, I had already set the dates early (Outlook calendar reminders every month) and so far all of the managers have been very good with providing me with the information needed and understanding if they have missed the deadlines. Payroll day is definitely my least favourite day of the month and I feel pretty knackered after 6 hours straight of inputting data and calculations. In Belbin terms, I have very low Completer Finisher so I am really having to try hard to concentrate and keep motivating myself. It is really the fear and potential consequences of getting it wrong for staff that keeps me going.
    My manager seems happy for me to go on the course Ray kindly suggested so perhaps having a bit more knowledge will make me feel less anxious? I've taken on lots of new areas of work in the past and generally enjoy learning, but none so technical with so little instruction or hand-over.
    Kind regards,
    Gemma
  • in reply to Gemma
    If you can't get Finance to get involved in the process, could you get your manager to check the payroll reports? This isn't just about catching errors you might make but also checking that the payroll bureau has interpreted your instructions correctly and acted on them. They are only human too. We had an instance where we put someone down on the payroll summary as a leaver and the payroll bureau paid them again the following month.

    If things do go wrong, did you know there is a window after the BACS tape has gone when you can do a BACS recall? I am probably using hopelessly out of date terminology, but whoever is responsible for your bank account should be able to enlarge on this. I mention this because if your system works the same as ours, it is a safety net that you might not have been aware was there. Our payroll bureau sends or triggers the BACS but our Finance team can organise the recall.

    As you have a Compliance Manager, are you FCA regulated? I ask because I'm wondering about what levers you have to pull on.
  • in reply to Elizabeth Divver
    Hi Elizabeth,
    Thanks for your suggestion. My manager is based in the Netherlands as Group HR Director so whilst she could probably check for accuracy and obvious omissions, she has less awareness of UK Payroll quirks than I do. I will shortly have an HR Administrator join my team so I am planning to split the processing and checking between us, but my concern is that as she also has no Payroll experience there will still be technical gaps in our knowledge. I'm worried it will feel a bit like the blind leading the blind...

    We have undertaken a couple of reruns (at a small cost) but I wasn't aware of recalls so will discuss this with our Finance people and the Bureau.

    Lastly, no we aren't FCA regulated but as parking technology company have access to credit card data and have to abide by the Payment Card Industry regulations. I believe our Security and Compliance Manager will be raising my concerns as part of her presentation of the risk register to the Board, but as I've already been doing it for three months, I don't appreciate a rapid intervention...
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  • in reply to Elizabeth Divver
    Hi Elizabeth,
    Thanks for your suggestion. My manager is based in the Netherlands as Group HR Director so whilst she could probably check for accuracy and obvious omissions, she has less awareness of UK Payroll quirks than I do. I will shortly have an HR Administrator join my team so I am planning to split the processing and checking between us, but my concern is that as she also has no Payroll experience there will still be technical gaps in our knowledge. I'm worried it will feel a bit like the blind leading the blind...

    We have undertaken a couple of reruns (at a small cost) but I wasn't aware of recalls so will discuss this with our Finance people and the Bureau.

    Lastly, no we aren't FCA regulated but as parking technology company have access to credit card data and have to abide by the Payment Card Industry regulations. I believe our Security and Compliance Manager will be raising my concerns as part of her presentation of the risk register to the Board, but as I've already been doing it for three months, I don't appreciate a rapid intervention...
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