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Completely messed up weekly payroll run in my first week in new job...

Lesley

I started a new role in HR last week but it has been hell.  Part of my new role has been to input weekly hours into SAP (I have never worked in payroll before).  During  my first week of doing this I had no one peer checking my work and the codes I have used were wrong.  I ended up paying people for absence when it should have been unpaid - this has now been rectified and now I worried I've also not used the correct coding for unauthorized absence - instead logging this as authorized unpaid (although we would have sent RTW forms out for these during the week because it was another team member actioning these).  I am just sitting tight and hoping that no further issues don't come to light when the staff get their payslips but i have found the whole experience really stressful.  I am determined to do next week's correctly but I am just worried about this week's mess as it was my first time and I look totally incompetent .

The General Manager even came to talk to me about it - should I just quit now?  I feel like total rubbish and the lady who trained me (we are the only 2 in the office) has told me not to worry because things can be rectified but I feel like a failure already - I nearly fell asleep at college last night cos I've been awake worrying all night, since I pressed the button to submit payroll.  

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  • Hi Lesley

    You poor thing - what a start to a new job! As Keith so rightly says, it isn't your fault. I would never let a new person input payroll and send it without going through it with them in detail and checking their work. Even if they had done payroll before, let alone if they hadn't. Absolutely you need to ask for more help and for someone to do some spot checks for your peace of mind next week to make sure it doesn't happen again. Equally make sure you ask, ask, ask about anything that is a little different or you're not quite sure about when you're inputting - if they're good people, they won't mind at all. You can't possibly learn everything about payroll in one or two weeks. I'm still asking my boss five months into my new job about things I haven't come across before in this organisation.

    Like you, I have no one checking what I submit for payroll (as no one else has any payroll knowledge here!) and I feel scared every month when I send the spreadsheet for processing and when payslips go out. That feeling does ease over time. I've had to ring employees and explain why our payroll bureau decided to take huge sums of money off them with no explanation and I was terrified that people would have a go at me, but actually they were really nice about it and grateful that I had told them about it before they saw their payslips and that I was trying to sort it out. It actually improved our team's reputation as they saw I was the sort of person who cared and would do whatever I could to fix a problem.

    Is there anyway you could checking the coding the absence now so you don't spend the time worrying about it - I've always found it easier to address a problem head on rather than worry about it as then at least you can get on the road to moving past it, which is always a relief. Can you sit down with your colleague and say 'I found last week's payroll situation absolutely awful; how can we make it easier for all of us this week and make sure we get things right?' Then you'll have a plan for coping rather than dreading it.

    And I know it doesn't seem like it now, but things will get easier as you learn more and that feeling of dread when you submit payroll will go away - I promise.

    Let us know how you are getting on - we're rooting for you!

    Jackie
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  • Hi Lesley

    You poor thing - what a start to a new job! As Keith so rightly says, it isn't your fault. I would never let a new person input payroll and send it without going through it with them in detail and checking their work. Even if they had done payroll before, let alone if they hadn't. Absolutely you need to ask for more help and for someone to do some spot checks for your peace of mind next week to make sure it doesn't happen again. Equally make sure you ask, ask, ask about anything that is a little different or you're not quite sure about when you're inputting - if they're good people, they won't mind at all. You can't possibly learn everything about payroll in one or two weeks. I'm still asking my boss five months into my new job about things I haven't come across before in this organisation.

    Like you, I have no one checking what I submit for payroll (as no one else has any payroll knowledge here!) and I feel scared every month when I send the spreadsheet for processing and when payslips go out. That feeling does ease over time. I've had to ring employees and explain why our payroll bureau decided to take huge sums of money off them with no explanation and I was terrified that people would have a go at me, but actually they were really nice about it and grateful that I had told them about it before they saw their payslips and that I was trying to sort it out. It actually improved our team's reputation as they saw I was the sort of person who cared and would do whatever I could to fix a problem.

    Is there anyway you could checking the coding the absence now so you don't spend the time worrying about it - I've always found it easier to address a problem head on rather than worry about it as then at least you can get on the road to moving past it, which is always a relief. Can you sit down with your colleague and say 'I found last week's payroll situation absolutely awful; how can we make it easier for all of us this week and make sure we get things right?' Then you'll have a plan for coping rather than dreading it.

    And I know it doesn't seem like it now, but things will get easier as you learn more and that feeling of dread when you submit payroll will go away - I promise.

    Let us know how you are getting on - we're rooting for you!

    Jackie
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