A week in the life of... A week in the life of...
Rona Betts, Payroll manager at Aster Group
Monday
off, real time information returns are generated and submitted. Payments for forthcoming HMRC deadlines are created and processed in advance. On reviewing all the notes from meetings I’ve attended recently I plan my actions. Today is usually when I work on reports and review processes with a view to improving any of the services we provide to our customers. With the forthcoming minimum workplace pension contributions increase I start working on a governing body report to submit to the board for approval, to determine how we are going to implement the increases in April. My report highlights options for Aster, based on what we have done previously as a company. To give a complete picture, I provide analysis on what we pay now for both employee and employer and match this to the costs involved if we were to make the forthcoming contributions equal. I also include the same proposal for 2019 when the contributions will rise again. After many interruptions from phone calls from HMRC and employees to urgent emails requiring information or advice based on current legislation, I submit the report and request approval for the change. I point out that we need this approving quickly so that a communication can go out to all our employees in plenty of time before the change occurs. I put together a communications piece which goes to the whole company and is uploaded to the company portal. This highlights that all taxable benefits will be processed via the payroll from the new tax year. I review next week’s diary and start planning. I love the assiduous world of payroll. o Friday
an issue. I log the payroll system anomaly and ask the system provider to come back to me. In the meantime, I review the incorrect information and amend to what it should be so the team can continue to process the payroll. On generating postings for the finance team for the payrolls processed so far, one of the payrolls does not balance. I review this and amend anything which is incorrect. I am passed unusual queries from other areas of the Group which the team are unable to deal with. A query is passed to me regarding maternity and redundancy, and I confirm the regulations for processing. As we reach the deadline for cut off with the outstanding payrolls, my hope is that by the end of the day I will have reviewed all the remaining payrolls. I investigate details surrounding the few anomalies, and once happy run my exception reports again, and send the final payroll to the financial director for approval to release the BACS files. A late notification of an employee leaving with immediate effect is received. I manually calculate the difference in net pay because the leave date has not been entered into the system and re-run the reports to reflect the decrease in pay. I work closely with the financial reporting team supplying any additional information for budgetary purposes, any historical anomalies with postings and payments and start to collate data for audit as I receive an urgent email regarding information required for our forthcoming external audit. Wednesday
I am already thinking of the priorities ahead for the week, but no two weeks are ever the same. I receive the usual barrage of meeting requests for the day and future dates. The requests to attend meetings range from pension working group to General Data Protection Regulation, system updates and review of processes. We have a payroll team meeting which we hold monthly. This gives everybody an opportunity to raise concerns about forthcoming pressures and deadlines. The rest of my day is spent reviewing the payrolls which the team have processed so far. We have staggered pay dates across eight different payrolls. I run exception checks and look at comparisons between this and last month’s payrolls. Any hike/decrease (over a certain amount) in net pay is scrutinised and I add comments to my report for the finance director to then authorise the release of the BACS files. This work is constantly disturbed with queries from the team and from external customers. The queries cover all sorts of topics, ranging from questions about current legislation to checking payslips to confirm the ‘oddities’ are correct. The day starts with a sense that it is going to be non-stop hectic. I receive an email from an ex-employee who has concerns with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the details it holds on her for historical tax years. I recall speaking to her several months ago so dig out the letter I sent to HMRC confirming her year-to-date figures. As the problem has not been resolved I inform her I will write again confirming all figures for all the tax years she worked for us and send her the updated information. The processing of the payrolls has hit Tuesday
Thursday
With all the payrolls finalised and signed
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | April 2018 | Issue 39 46
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