This month, discover strategic payroll in action: from global migration and responsible AI to payroll’s critical role in M&A.
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THE AUDIT RISK YOU ALREADY CREATED
BLUEPRINT FOR GLOBAL PAYROLL MIGRATION A Structured Approach to Complex, Multi- Jurisdictional Moves
PROVING PAYROLL’S STRATEGIC VALUE Without Performance Data, Payroll Teams Can’t Demonstrate Their Value
PAYROLL’S HIDDEN ROLE IN MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS Payroll Decisions’ Influence on Business Outcomes is Often Overlooked
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Beyond the Jargon
on Empowering Global Payroll and HR to Lead Responsible AI Adoption . Tracee Bowles is Proving Payroll’s Strategic Value . And Stacey Kavanagh reveals Payroll’s Hidden Role in Mergers and Acquisitions , highlighting the often-overlooked influence payroll decisions can have on major business outcomes. Together, these articles demonstrate that strategic payroll work can combine knowledge, influence, and practical execution. Understanding where payroll fits in the broader business picture allows professionals to make decisions that drive real, meaningful impact rather than just ensure compliance. We hope such insights can inspire fresh approaches, reinforce your strategic perspective, and give you the tools to continue shaping payroll’s role in ways that leave a lasting impression.
I ’ve noticed that the word in this month’s magazine. It’s easy to roll our eyes when something starts to sound like industry jargon. But for global payroll professionals, this is a word that has genuine power and intention behind it. Being strategic means demonstrating how our work adds value, informs decision-making, and shapes outcomes across the wider organisation. It demands clarity, foresight and confidence. strategic has been appearing more frequently in recent issues, and it takes centre stage This issue sees strategic thinking in action. Joanne Foster shares her Blueprint for Global Payroll Migration , providing a structured approach to complex, multi-jurisdictional moves. Rick Hammell offers a nuanced take
Melanie Pizzey
Melanie Pizzey GPA CEO
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08 GLOBAL THE STRATEGIC PATH TO TRANSFORMATION: A BLUEPRINT FOR GLOBAL PAYROLL MIGRATION. Concerns regarding risk, data accuracy, and operational disruption keep payroll leaders PERSPECTIVE, NOT AGE An unspoken, quietly practised form of discrimination. Not the glass ceiling, but the silver ceiling 26 GLOBAL BETWEEN THE LINES LISA ORTON Lisa has built a long and varied career in global payroll and currently leads a UK payroll client services team awake at night 14 GLOBAL
44 AFRICA RAISING WAGES AND TAX THRESHOLDS IN AFRICA Governments are undertaking ambitious overhauls of their labour frameworks 56 APAC LAW IN REAL LIFE When payroll runs smoothly, no one notices. When one person isn’t paid, PAYROLL’S STRATEGIC VALUE Many executives couldn’t tell you what their payroll operation costs per employee 68 APAC MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS Payroll is one of the fastest ways an acquisition can inherit regulatory exposure, employee mistrust and unplanned financial liability everyone does 62 GLOBAL
THE AUDIT RISK YOU ALREADY CREATED To a non-payroller, most would think underpayment remediation ends when employees get their backpay. However, in payroll, that’s the moment the behind the scenes story starts revealing itself
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REGULARS
06 GLOBAL NEWS Interactive global payroll news 78 GLOBAL DIARY OF AN HR MANAGER 80 GLOBAL GPA TRAINING Join our experts through the process of running payrolls in different countries 82 APAC ASIA BRIEFING Overview on Asia news 84 GLOBAL GPA WEBINARS The latest global and in-country payroll topics and trends 86 GLOBAL FIND A VENDOR
20 GLOBAL EMPOWERING GLOBAL PAYROLL AND HR TO LEAD RESPONSIBLE AI ADOPTION A leadership perspective on where AI creates value and where accountability must remain human
50 EMEA PAY IT FORWARD WITH CLARITY A new spotlight on an old Swedish
taboo: Pay The EU Pay Transparency
Directive has put a spotlight on one of Sweden’s biggest taboos: asking, What do you earn?
A comprehensive list of suppliers to the global payroll industry
The GPA , 49 Greek St, Soho, London W1D 4EG. Tel: +44 (0)203 871 8870 Melanie Pizzey - CEO and 04:05 Executive Editor: melanie@gpa.net Rich Robins - 04:05 Designer: hello@megandmore.co.uk Hayleigh Blinkhorne - events/vendors/advertising: hayleigh@gpa.net General enquiries/mentor scheme/training : - info@gpa.net Michael Baer - US contributor: mike@gpa.net Nilufer Gul - GM APAC/Australia: nilufer@gpa.net Tel: +61 (0)413 749 714 CONTACTS
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Global Payroll News Stay updated with news on global payroll trends, automation, compliance, AI integration, financial wellness, accurate payments, addressing wage discrepancies and more.
UK
Canada
Spain
US
£104m bailout to cover Post Office’s historic IR35 breach Read more...
Report into Phoenix payroll disaster ten years on Read more...
Only half intend to modernise their payroll systems Read more...
Digital Nomad Visa income threshold rises Read more...
APAC
Oman
Saudi Arabia
Malaysia
Talent shortages prompt companies to rethink payroll Read more... South Africa
Tiered fee system and penalties for
Expats barred from key positions Read more...
Expat employment policy in force from June 1st Read more... South Africa
expat permits Read more... Global
VIEW OTHER NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD EMEA APAC AFRICA AMERICAS MIDDLE EAST GLOBAL
RemotePass launches corporate
North West Education’s ‘systemic collapse’ Read more...
Alleged payroll administrator’s R10.5m fraud Read more...
expense cards Read more...
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The Strategic Path to Transformation: My Blueprint for Global Payroll Migration For most organisations, switching payroll providers is often viewed with the same trepidation as open-heart surgery: everyone acknowledges it may be necessary for the health of the business, but nobody wants to be the one on the table. Concerns regarding risk, data accuracy, and operational disruption keep payroll leaders awake at night - often for years before a change finally occurs.
Author: Joanne Foster Joanne Foster is the Chief Operations Officer at Vistra Global Payroll . With over 20 years of experience in the HR and payroll industry, she holds global accountability for Professional Services and Payroll Operations, specializing in process improvement, system enhancements, and service excellence.
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I n my experience, however, migration should not be feared. It is not merely a “lift and shift” exercise; it is a transformation. With the right methodology and controls, the process becomes structured, predictable, and ultimately, a business enabler. Having spent over two decades transforming complex operations across multi-entity environments, I have seen almost every migration scenario imaginable. My goal is ISSUE 21 GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE
to move the conversation beyond mere survival and toward long- term strategic value. Why Organisations Delay the Inevitable I speak with leaders every week who know their legacy platforms are holding them back. Manual workarounds and inconsistent processes cost money and increase compliance risk. Yet, the hesitation to switch usually stems from a few core anxieties:
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on foresight. There will always be unknowns in any complex global project. The key is to plan meticulously for the “knowns” and high-probability scenarios. By mitigating those upfront, we create the capacity to handle the unexpected with ease. Successful migrations are not built on speed; they are built on sequencing. My team follows a proven seven-phase methodology that ensures stability across even the most complex global footprints. A Strategic Priority for the Modern Enterprise At Vistra, we believe migration has evolved from a technical upgrade to a vital business enabler. Today’s leaders migrate because they require global standardisation, better employee experiences, and connectivity across HR and Finance. My final advice to any leader considering this path is to choose the safest route, not necessarily the fastest. Migration is about partnership. Pick a provider who will protect and support you through the transition, not just one who promises the quickest launch. A good migration pays people on time. A great migration builds the global infrastructure you’ll need three years from now.
There will always be unknowns in any complex global project. The key is to plan meticulously for the “knowns” and high- probability scenarios.
Fear of disruption to employee pay and trust. Concerns regarding data integrity and loss. “Implementation trauma” from past failed projects. Internal bandwidth limitations and a lack of clarity on what a “good” migration looks like. Most assume switching will be harder than staying put. But when you account for the escalating risks of outdated systems, I believe the opposite is true. My Golden Rule: Plan for the Knowns to Master the Unknowns While some might aim for a “quiet” migration, I emphasise that successful projects are built
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Our Seven-Step Framework for Success 1. Discovery & Due Diligence: “Lifting the Floorboards.” The first phase is diagnostic, not technical. We focus on identifying “unwritten process knowledge” (that undocumented institutional expertise held by a single person) which represents the biggest risk in any migration. We capture this data upfront to ensure no detail is lost in transition. 2. Solution Design: Configuration for the Future. We configure a future- state environment where automation is “baked in.” By removing manual touchpoints, we reduce cost, risk, and even the operational carbon footprint. The system must adapt to your business strategy, ensuring alignment with GL outputs, HR integration, and local compliance engines. 3. Data Validation & Integrity: I am always clear on the division of responsibility here: you can migrate a process, but you cannot migrate broken data. While the client remains responsible for the primary data cleansing, my team provides comprehensive templates for all country-specific information. We then validate the completeness and accuracy of that data, leveraging existing reporting to ensure the new system is founded on a verified baseline. 4.Parallel Testing: Correcting the Past. This is where trust is built. Our approach to parallel runs is tailored to headcount and complexity - typically involving one to two cycles. Crucially, we use this stage to identify where previous set- ups may not align with actual policy. By spotting legacy compliance mistakes now, we ensure they are not replicated in the new environment. 5. Client Training & Change Management: Technology only works when people trust it. I ensure our migrations include comprehensive training for payroll, HR, and Finance teams. Transparency in communication prevents “noise” and ensures employees understand updates to payslips or portals before they happen. 6. Go-Live & Hypercare: The official go-live is a tightly controlled event. We provide heightened controls and dedicated support during the first few payroll cycles. This “Hypercare” period only ends when the new process is running predictably and at a steady state. 7. Continuous Enhancement: A payroll system is never “done” it must evolve with the business. Post-migration, we work to adopt predictive analytics and standardise processes across new markets to ensure the system enables the next five years of growth.
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The Awards celebrate and reward technical excellence, professional development and teamwork within the Global Payroll industry. The Global Payroll Awards are an annual event proudly organised by the Global Payroll Alliance. The Awards recognise the outstanding achievements of businesses and individuals within the payroll community. The Awards have been running since 2016 and sells out with over 300 payroll professionals in attendance every year. Contact us to find out how to get involved with the 2026 Global Payroll Awards. Get involved
Enter This event is not limited to payroll teams in the UK, it will celebrate technical excellence and professional development amongst companies and their payroll teams operating internationally.
Attend Join us at the only award ceremony in the world for professionals involved in global Payroll, this year on 4th June 2026, in Barcelona, Spain.
Sponsor Sponsorship of the Global Payroll Awards offers businesses unrivalled exposure to a very large audience before, during and after the event
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Automation and integration Award
Payroll Consultant of the Year
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Employer of Record Organisation of the Year
Global Payroll Supplier of the Year
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In-country Payroll Provider
International Payroll Payments of the Year
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Payroll Innovation Award
Payroll Manager of the Year
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Payroll Software Supplier of the Year
Payroll Student of the Year
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Payroll Team of the Year
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Transformation Project of the Year
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Perspective, Not Age:
Author: Ayşe Nazmiye Uça is the Founder and Chairman of the Turkish Payroll Association and established Turkey’s first payroll outsourcing company 26 years ago. Her company, Datassist, leads the market in technology-centered payroll services, catering to Fortune 500 companies and major Turkish corporations. Datassist excels in Regulation Technologies (RegTech) and continues to expand through strategic investments and business partnerships, aiming to offer comprehensive services in an evolving market. In 2024, Ayşe ranked 20th among Turkey’s top 100 female founders by Fast Company magazine, based on company turnover. Her life purpose is to shape organizations, create new opportunities, and guide her employees toward achieving their career goals.
An unspoken, quietly practised form of discrimination. Not the Glass Ceiling, but the Silver Ceiling.
Y ears ago, I visited a human resources company in Italy. The first thing that caught my attention when I walked into the office was the age of the employees. After being
greeted by a white- haired staff member, every person I was introduced to seemed similarly senior. The vast majority of the office was over fifty. Coming from Türkiye, my first reaction was to think,
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The Silver Ceiling in Organisations
“
In a country like ours, with a relatively young population, turning fifty is often not seen as a period of professional maturity, but as a threshold where invisible barriers begin to appear.
In a country like ours, with a relatively young population, turning fifty is often not seen as a period of professional maturity, but as a threshold where invisible barriers begin to appear. There is no open exclusion. No one directly
says, “That is it, you’re done now.” But during promotion cycles, names quietly start to disappear from the lists. Today, there is a term for this situation: the Silver Ceiling.
“They must have been here for centuries.” Once the initial surprise passed, I realised that age was not treated as something to hide or carry as a burden, but as a natural part of the organisation.
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a particular document from, and another employee, straight from the heart of Anatolia, replied, “Get it from the old hag in accounting.” I flinched. I still remember my instinctive reaction at that moment: “I should not still be working at that age.” Years later, I realise that the real problem was that reaction itself. The issue was not that someone was working at an older age, but the language used to describe that work. She was most likely someone who knew her job inside out, who carried the institutional memory of the organisation, yet the language reduced her not to an expert or an experienced professional, but to a label defined by her age. In that moment, it was not only her who was diminished. A silent message was sent to everyone present: “If you are still working at this age, this is how you will be spoken about.”
She was most likely someone who knew her job inside out, who carried the institutional memory of the organisation, yet the language reduced her not to an expert or an experienced professional, but to a label defined by her age.
enough for the role? Is this a long-term investment? How open are they to change? None of these questions explicitly refers to age. Yet the answers often become automatic once age enters the picture. As a result, employees over fifty become invisible in promotion processes, even though their performance has not declined. I first noticed the roots of this mindset during my university years, while visiting a friend at their work. I heard someone ask where they could get
The Silver Ceiling is the age-based version of the Glass Ceiling. It is not an overt form of discrimination. On the contrary, it operates through silent decisions that are difficult to measure and even harder to challenge. Employees over fifty continue to perform their roles, but at a certain point, they are excluded from the organisation’s future plans. Their performance is rarely questioned, yet their potential is no longer considered. In promotion discussions, familiar questions begin to circulate: Is this person dynamic
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This is why the Silver Ceiling is fundamentally about perspective, not age. The same person may be seen as a “senior expert” in one organisation and labelled as someone who should “remain stable” in another. The problem is not the employee’s age, but the organisation’s inability to connect experience with the future. Over time, this mindset pushes middle-aged employees into a defensive posture. In job interviews and professional settings, you start to hear statements like: “Yes, I’m this age, but I look young.” “My energy levels are still very high.” “I work very well with younger people.” No one ever feels the need to say, “I’m thirty, but I’m mature.” This defensive language shows that age is no longer seen as an advantage, but as a risk that must be neutralised.
The issue is not job hunting. The issue is that people who are still working are, after a certain point, excluded from the organisation’s future.
I saw this contradiction most clearly in Austria. There were restaurants with signs on their doors saying, “Closed because we can’t find staff.” and on the same very street, plenty of young people were sat in cafés. The story is usually framed like this: “Young people don’t want to work.” Yet the same system quietly sidelines people over fifty who are already working. A friend of mine, over sixty, summed up this contradiction perfectly: “I think they imagine we’ll turn up to job interviews
be crossing the ageing threshold, excluded from the long-term vision. After fifty, the biggest obstacle is not the work itself, but the invisible closing of promotion and progression pathways. The Silver Ceiling pushes people out of the system without firing them. Authority diminishes, spheres of influence shrink, and chairs disappear from the decision-making table. If a system forces people to hide the age they are, the problem lies not with individuals but with the system itself. This dynamic is reminiscent of Margin Call. Experience exists within the organisation, but not at its centre. It
with a walking stick.” The issue is not job hunting. The issue is that people who are still working are, after a certain point, once they are perceived to
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is kept at the edges; available, but not directive. Not because it has lost its value, but because its moment is assumed not to have arrived yet. because they age, but because organisations stop knowing how to look at experience. Perhaps it is time to ask a different question: Employees do not become invisible Who are we not seeing in promotion decisions, and why? The Social Face of Invisibility These invisible barriers do not appear only in the promotion process; they also surface in the social fabric of everyday working life. Middle-aged and older employees are often quietly pushed to the sidelines. Lunches, coffee conversations, team messaging channels, and even informal meetings increasingly revolve around the younger circles. No one openly says, “You can’t
come,” but invitations lessen, communication thins out, and eventually, connections weaken. At first glance, this kind of exclusion may not seem that important, but in modern organisations, promotions are shaped not only by performance metrics, but by networks, visibility, and social proximity. An employee who is no longer part of the group gradually
finds themselves outside decision-making processes as well. In this way, age-related bias is reproduced not through formal policy, but through everyday interaction. The Silver Ceiling is not only about not being able to move up. It is also about being left out while still inside.
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The evolving role of payroll in Australia’s compliance landscape
In this white paper, developed by the GPA in partnership with Yellow Canary, we examine how payroll compliance in Australia has shifted from an operational concern to a core governance issue in the wake of wage theft reforms. Drawing on insights from Yellow Canary’s 2026 State of Payroll Compliance Report, we look at why organisations are increasingly expected to provide defensible evidence that employees are being paid correctly. We outline practical approaches to strengthening payroll governance, including proactive audits, clearer ownership of upstream decisions, and the role of human oversight in validating systems and assumptions to support consistent, evidence-based compliance.
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Empowering Global Payroll and HR to Lead Responsible AI Adoption A leadership perspective on where AI creates value and where accountability must remain human
Author: Rick Hammell With over 18 years of experience in Global HR Operations management, Rick Hammell is currently the Founder and CEO of HCM and Payments platform Globalli (formerly Helios). He is also the Founder of Atlas, a company he established in 2015 which empowers companies to expand into new markets efficiently, rapidly, and with strict adherence to compliance standards. Under Rick’s visionary leadership, Atlas experienced a remarkable transformation, evolving from a local startup into a renowned global tech firm with a network of 19 offices worldwide, allowing the organization to provide exceptional support to clients in over 160 countries. Notably, Atlas secured two significant funding rounds, amounting to $20 million in 2020 and $200 million in 2022. Rick was honored with the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Midwest award in 2021 in recognition of his achievements.
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A rtificial intelligence is rapidly becoming embedded across the enterprise. For executive teams and boards, the conversation has largely focused on productivity, cost efficiency, and competitive advantage. These are important considerations, but in global payroll, employer-of- record (EOR), and enterprise HR operations, they are not sufficient on their own. These functions sit at the core of the employment relationship. They
are responsible for ensuring people are paid accurately and on time, that employment obligations are met across jurisdictions, and that the organization operates within an increasingly complex regulatory environment. Decisions made here carry legal, financial, and reputational consequences that extend well beyond operational efficiency. As a result, AI adoption in global
payroll and HR is not simply a technology initiative. It is a governance decision.
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Why Payroll and HR Deserve a Different AI Conversation Global payroll and HR teams operate under constraints that differ materially from most other enterprise functions. They manage country-specific labor and tax rules, cross-border data privacy requirements, and multiple employment models simultaneously. Errors are visible immediately and often impact employees directly. This reality has shaped how these teams work. Controls are layered. Reviews are deliberate. Accountability is clear. While this discipline is sometimes perceived as conservatism, it is more accurately described as risk management embedded into daily operations. For leadership teams, this distinction matters. AI introduced without regard for these operating realities can undermine trust internally
and externally. AI introduced in partnership with these teams can materially strengthen the organization’s compliance posture and operational resilience. Positioning AI as Oversight, Not Autonomy At the executive and board level, there is often an understandable desire to see AI “take on more.” In global payroll and EOR, the more productive question is where AI should inform decisions rather than make them. Used effectively, AI enhances visibility across complex systems. It identifies anomalies before payroll is finalized, highlights inconsistencies across countries or vendors, and surfaces regulatory changes that may impact compliance. It allows teams to focus attention where risk is highest. What it should not do is operate without human accountability. In payroll and HR, responsibility for outcomes cannot be delegated to a model. It must remain with leaders who understand both the regulatory context and the human impact of each decision. Organizations that recognize this distinction tend to deploy AI more successfully and with far less internal resistance.
While this discipline is sometimes perceived as conservatism, it is more accurately described as risk management embedded into daily operations.
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Control Builds Confidence and Adoption
Organizations that recognize this distinction tend to deploy AI more successfully and with far less internal resistance. difficult to monitor manually. AI can act as a continuous monitoring layer, reducing reliance on point- in-time reviews and institutional memory. However, this benefit is only realized when AI is designed within existing governance frameworks. Compliance, legal, payroll, and risk leaders must be involved early; not as approvers at the end, but as partners in shaping how AI is applied. For boards, this is an important signal. AI that operates within strong governance reduces risk. AI that bypasses it increases exposure. Elevating, Not Replacing, Critical Talent As AI reduces manual effort in payroll and HR, the nature of work shifts. This is often framed as a workforce reduction question. In practice, it is more accurately a workforce evolution question.
From a governance perspective, the success of AI in payroll and HR depends less on technical capability and more on control. Teams are far more willing to adopt new tools when they understand how those tools work, where their limits are, and when intervention is required. For leadership, this means supporting a phased approach to adoption. Early use cases that focus on analysis, validation, and reporting allow confidence to develop without exposing the organization to unnecessary risk. Over time, as controls are proven and trust is established, AI can be applied more deeply; always with defined approval points and escalation paths. This approach may feel incremental, but it is precisely what enables sustainable scale. Strengthening Compliance Through Design One of the most compelling reasons to invest in AI within global payroll and HR is its potential to improve compliance outcomes. Regulatory environments are dynamic, fragmented, and increasingly
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global payroll and enterprise HR is not speed alone. It is predictability. Fewer late-stage escalations. Fewer audit surprises. Stronger confidence in expansion decisions and employment models. For leadership teams, this translates into reduced operational risk and greater strategic flexibility. For boards, it represents improved governance and resilience in an increasingly complex global environment. A Leadership Decision With Long-Term Consequences AI will continue to advance, and global HR and payroll platforms will continue to evolve. The determining factor in success will not be access to technology, but how leadership chooses to introduce it. Organizations that empower payroll, EOR, and HR leaders to shape AI adoption, rather than imposing it from the outside, are more likely to realize durable value. They build systems that scale responsibly, retain accountability, and strengthen trust. At its best, AI does not replace judgment in global payroll and HR. It sharpens it. And that is where its real value lies.
Global payroll and HR professionals increasingly act as risk advisors, data stewards, and strategic partners to the business. AI enables this shift by freeing capacity and improving insight, but only if leaders recognize and support the change. Clear role definition, targeted capability development, and explicit leadership endorsement are essential. Without them, organizations risk disengagement among some of their most compliance-critical talent. Transparency as a Strategic Imperative For executives and boards, transparency around AI use in payroll and HR is not optional. Employees, regulators, and works councils expect clarity on how decisions are supported and who remains accountable. Organizations that are explicit about where AI is used, how decisions are governed, and how outcomes can be explained are better positioned to maintain trust. Those that are opaque invite scrutiny, often at the worst possible time. What AI Actually Delivers at Scale The most meaningful impact of AI in
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Pour homme. Pour femme. Pour Pay Day.
Discover the allure of global payroll and mobility at www.activpayroll.com/love
04:05 INTERVIEW
Lisa Orton has built a long and varied career in global payroll. She began in purchase ledger before quickly moving into the dynamic and complex world of payroll, starting a journey that would see her work with major organisations including Holcim Group, Thyssenkrupp, KPMG and PwC. Between the Lines Lisa Orton
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L isa brings valuable hands- on payroll experience to her work as she and her team focus on supporting clients with practical payroll processing, particularly resolving the challenges they face with paying international and expatriate employees. With more than 35 years of experience in payroll, Lisa has witnessed significant transformation across the profession and continues to embrace the pace of change shaping its future. This interview has been edited for clarity.
GPA: What got you into payroll? Lisa Orton: Like most people, I just kind of fell into the field. Before I had my children, I was in finance and accounting, and I used to do a bit of the payroll, helping out the payroll manager. Back then, much of the work was not automated as we have it today. We even typed in the bank account numbers every month to make the payments to people. It was a big job. Fast forward about four years, after taking time out to have my children, I thought I needed to get back into work (my youngest was four), and there was a temporary payroll job that came about, and I just thought, I’ve done payroll, I’ll go, and I’ll go for that. I took the position, and within about two weeks, the payroll manager went off sick, and she never came back. So, very quickly, I ended up in the deep end after two weeks, running payroll for 600 people. It was a weekly manufacturing payroll, very manual, and everything was on my plate. And, you know what? I just loved it. I loved the pace. I loved everything about it. Times for payroll were a lot different back then. I was the sole payroll
I took the position, and within about two weeks, the payroll manager went off sick, and she never came back. So, very quickly, I ended up in the deep end after two weeks, running payroll for 600 people.
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person responsible for all this work, tucked away in this little cupboard area, and we paid by using little brown envelopes with the money in them. I remember we had a contact in HMRC who we could phone and speak to directly. Then, at year- end, we would literally walk all the documents round to the local HMRC office and physically turn in. This was so very different than now, with real-time information and everything being done on computers. GPA: What was next for you in payroll? Lisa Orton: After about three years, I thought I needed a change, I needed to have an opportunity to see some progression. I went to do payroll for Birmingham Metropolitan College, and things were very different from the factory setting as I was paying lecturers and such. After that I moved into doing payroll for a firm in construction, which also was very different than my previous experiences. It was there I got my first chance to experience a global payroll, handling pay for expats coming
in and out of the UK and how their pay needed to be treated for tax purposes in this country compared to their home country. It’s that role that later got me into consulting work around global payroll. Getting into consulting was a big change for me. The practice at the first, large consulting firm I worked at involved not just helping clients with their payroll but also doing the payroll for some clients on their behalf. That again was a completely new experience for me which again I loved. I was there for seven years, helped lead and grow their clientele, and then went to PWC, where I also grew their business and then PWC sold the global mobility unit to a private equity business. I’ve spent the last seven years with first PWC and then that company. GPA: Tell us about your current role. Lisa Orton: I lead the UK payroll operations for clients, which means we actually process and operate payrolls for several hundred clients and a lot of that is international payroll. It’s expat payroll. It’s very niche areas like VIP payrolls or non-executive directors or things that have unique complexities. So, they’re all areas that I would say you don’t
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down into it and rolling my sleeves up.
I love the helping people side of my job, the finding-the-solution part and the investigation.
Often our role is applying the expertise of knowing what’s the right thing to do to get the right answer. Sometimes, however, it involves pushing back and saying “we don’t think you can actually do that.” You’ve got to know the details and be able to explain the consequences. That’s another thing I love about the consultancy side of what I do. I help clients see those things that they wouldn’t necessarily see. GPA: How has technology changed payroll operations? Lisa Orton: Technology has changed hugely and continues to change payroll. One thing that strikes me is that men go to the moon and all, and in business, we do all these amazing things with technology, but there still is no really one true, single space to process multiple country payrolls for every country! There’s not one magic platform or button that can be pressed to process all those payrolls in every country. I’ve seen lots of progress in that, and it’s improving all the time, but we’re still a long way from that holy grail piece.
normally find within a normal payroll team within an industry. So, we focus on those really specialist areas and I lead that function. I have another role helping some clients determine and assess what they really want for their payroll, and then we go out with them to solicit requests for proposals (RFPs) and help them review the potential vendors. We’re doing another exercise that involves helping a client review their entire payroll function because they have a lot of errors. So, we’re re-running that whole thing and advising them on how to correct the errors and set them up to make sure those issues don’t happen in the future. I love the helping people side of my job, the finding-the-solution part and the investigation. I’m sure in a previous life I would have been an auditor or something because I enjoy really digging
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GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE ISSUE 21
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So many employers are looking at transforming their global payroll because they have different vendors in different countries and discover that nothing fits together. But they must recognise that simply lifting and shifting existing programs to new ones won’t be successful unless you lift the bonnet up, see what’s under there and let out all the skeletons. If you don’t, they’re still going to be there when you move them. Make sure that you know everybody involved is brought together to analyse what you’re currently doing, and that means being approachable. I think another attribute has to include creativity as well. With all that in place, then you can begin to think about how you want to turn what you have into something much better and bigger. GPA: What are some of the lessons from your journey in payroll that you would pass on to those just starting in the industry? Lisa Orton: Never think the job is “just payroll,” a back office function, and there is little opportunity to make anything of yourself. You can make an amazing career out of payroll, and it is one of the most interesting, challenging, but satisfying jobs I think you can ever do.
We are using technology to examine how clients collect data, analyse it and produce an output to payroll so that they are compliant for each employee and each client. That’s a real challenge. As a business, we are developing tools that allow us to analyse compensation data all together globally, to understand what’s taxable and not taxable in every jurisdiction, and then apply the payroll notifications straight to the payroll teams or to us if we’re running the payroll. While it’s not a complete solution for all the compliance pieces for the local tax authorities, it does cut down on a major part of the challenge of managing and paying globally mobile employees. Our clients get to see the bigger picture of what their global mobility programs are costing them. And they can only do that from having multiple sources leading into one truth.
GPA: What are some of the attributes needed to run a successful global payroll?
Lisa Orton: One attribute is to not be frightened to bring the skeletons out of the cupboards and address them at the time of a transition to a new system or process.
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For those who have been in payroll a little bit longer and maybe think they know a thing or two about payroll, I advise them to remember that every day is a school day. Listen to people’s ideas and listen to what’s happening in the world in general, and you can understand what changes are happening. I’ve been in payroll more than 30 years, but I still learn things every day. Some people think payroll is the same thing every cycle, but know this: no day is the same. There’s always something different, which is what I like about the field. GPA: What do you see for the future of payroll? Lisa Orton: I would like to see payroll being more of a standalone function. Payroll has just about everything in employee data systems that will impact the business, or potentially impact the business. This can be used to advise the company’s board of directors. I see those in payroll becoming much more vocal within an employer’s operations. Things will change a lot as the technology improves. As pay systems leverage AI, the payroll
But even AI can’t replace the knowledge and the thought process of a payroll professional with real deep expertise because of the need to consider the circumstances, the context. So, that’s where I think the role will change. People will need to get deeper into the expertise and knowledge part of being a payroll professional. I would like to see payroll being more of a standalone function. Payroll has just about everything in employee data systems that will impact the business, or potentially impact the business.
function will change when adopting these programs.
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Payroll has become a strategic differentiator for global organizations. With increasingly distributed workforces, growing competition for talent, and evolving compliance standards, how businesses manage payroll now influences their ability to scale and meet employee expectations. By 2026, payroll will no longer solely center on accurate and timely payments. It will be a source of trust, intelligence, and competitive advantage. The global payroll market is projected to reach $18.72 billion in 2026, with a
CAGR of 4.88%. Such growth reflects how payroll systems are adapting to business needs, driven by AI and automation. These technologies are taking payroll from an administrative task into a strategic function which delivers insight, agility, and resilience. Cloud platforms, real-time data access, and personalization tools are central to workforce satisfaction and modernization. AI is pivotal to this shift. It automates compliance checks, forecasts costs, reduces errors, and manages administrative workload, while payroll teams focus on oversight, insights, and culture.
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04:05 APAC
The Audit Risk You Already Created
Author: Meg D’Cruz Meg D’Cruz is the Director of Employment Taxes at Ryan Tax Australia. Meg’s 25‑year career spans every corner of payroll and employment tax, from hands‑on processing and operations through to leading teams across complex environments, system implementations, outsourcing models, large‑scale remediations and industry‑wide regulatory change. She has seen the evolution from cash payments, bundy cards, and manual calculations to modern payroll platforms, HRIS integrations and the shifting landscape of employment taxes and legislation. Her experience stretches across transport, construction, hospitality, retail, mining, FMCG and professional services. She is widely recognised as a trusted advisor who helps organisations cut through the noise, strengthen compliance, and build payroll environments that are stable, confident, and audit‑ready. Meg’s current focus includes Payroll Tax remediation and guiding employers through Payday Super readiness as businesses prepare for a major shift in compliance expectations. Outside of Ryan, Meg is committed to elevating the payroll profession, most recently by founding the “Payroll Leadership Collective”, a national community for payroll leaders to network, collaborate and grow together.
To a non-payroller, most would think underpayment remediation ends when employees get their backpay. However, in payroll, that’s the moment the behind the scenes story starts revealing itself.
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O nce you fix the and realigned, and that’s where organisations can unknowingly stumble into the regulator’s field of view. underpayment, every reporting output needs to be untangled
Fixing underpayments looks simple from outside payroll: calculate what you owe, pay it, close off, and you’re done. But anyone who’s worked in payroll knows there’s always a second storyline running underneath, the “reporting narrative”. Every
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stream is going to react in its own way. Correcting the net pay is a great outcome, but inconsistent records supporting that are what attracts unwanted regulator attention. So, you’ve corrected the pay but do all your systems tell the same story: tax withholding, super, and realtime payroll reporting, also, payroll tax and workers’ compensation? All these five reporting streams rely on the same thing; correctly classified earnings, but they want that information expressed in their own quirky way depending on the regulator and/or state. Your first stop is PAYG. Backpayments sit under the ATO’s “additional payments” rules, which means Schedule 5 withholding and a full reconciliation across the pay run, the ledger, your reporting outputs, and the year-to-date figures employees see when they log into myGov. The calculation isn’t the hard bit here, it is keeping the numbers consistent everywhere, because inconsistency is what stands out later. Next up is Superannuation, where it gets even trickier. If underpayments have happened, you can expect the SG to be
So, you’ve corrected the pay but do all your systems tell the same story: tax withholding, super, and realtime payroll reporting, also, payroll tax and workers’ compensation?
correction pushes through PAYG, Super Guarantee (SG), Single Touch Payroll (STP), payroll tax, and workers’ compensation, and if those numbers don’t all move together, something will eventually light up on a regulator’s screen. The underpayment headlines end at employee payment. The risk doesn’t. We’ve all heard the narrative; underpayments tend to start in the same places. Rules that weren’t kept up to date, rotten time data, or interpretations that were never written down or just assumed. And when those foundations wobble, it doesn’t just create underpayments; it creates mismatched reporting over months or even years. Change one earnings type and every reporting
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GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE ISSUE 21
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impacted too because the earnings base wasn’t right. Today it’s Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE), from 1 July 2026 it’s Qualified Earnings (QE). But regardless of the base, timing rules matter. You can still end up in the SGC regime, which means an SGC statement, penalties, and more admin than anyone deserves. And don’t forget Payday Super changes which tighten the screws even more. From 1 July 2026, SG must hit the fund within seven business days of payday. Plus, employers must report year-to-date QE and super liability through STP every single payday. That means remediation programs spanning different time periods need to know which rules applied when. Incorrect timing is one of the easiest SG traps to fall into, given the surrounding complexity of ATO guidelines. Remember, fixing the pay isn’t enough; there’s also STP creating new challenges where you have to fix the data trail. Employers have 14 days from finding an error (or until the next pay if cycles are longer) to correct it. And if the remediation includes back payments, and Lump Sum E you need to approach cautiously.
Late or messy amendments are among the most common
reasons state revenue authorities start asking questions.
From 1 July 2025, every amount that qualifies must be reported as Lump Sum E, no matter the value and under STP, you need to tag the right financial years. STP feeds myGov, and anything inaccurate flows straight into the employee’s tax return. If the numbers are wrong, your first complaint might not be from the ATO, it could be from confused employees at tax time. Next, Payroll tax often catches people off guard because every state handles timing differently. Amendments can be monthly or annual, depending on the jurisdiction, and if your historical location data isn’t clean, you may need to reapportion wages too. Grouping and nexus rules also come into play, and penalties and interest can add up quickly. Late or messy amendments are among the most common reasons state revenue authorities start asking questions. The last thing you want is to receive a
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