TECHNOLOGY
The automation advantage
Justyna Kwiatkowska MCIPP, Head of Payroll, Aston Shaw Ltd., considers the true value of automation and how pay professionals can get the most out of it
A utomation isn’t just a fashionable slogan in payroll; it’s a practical response to a role that’s become increasingly complex and time sensitive. In the United Kingdom, pay professionals have navigated a period of upheaval: the pandemic reshaped working patterns and expectations, Brexit limited labour mobility and increased regulatory complexity and high staff turnover has made recruitment and retention more difficult. At the same time, compliance requirements have grown more demanding. Real time information (RTI) submissions, automatic enrolment, national minimum wage (NMW) updates, evolving holiday pay case law and frequent employment law changes all require close attention. Put simply, there’s more work to do, fewer people available to do it and far less tolerance from employees or regulators when errors occur. This is precisely where automation demonstrates its true value, by taking the pressure off repetitive processes and allowing pay professionals to focus on the areas that really matter. What does automation do? Most pay professionals are familiar with the basics of automation. Systems already distribute payslips electronically, generate bank files and submit RTI files to HM Revenue and Customs. But modern payroll systems can do much more than this, and many of their features still aren’t being used to the full.
With scheduling features, entire pay runs can be set up for the year ahead, ensuring each period opens with the correct dates, tax settings and pay groups ready to process. Fixed salaries and allowances can flow through automatically, while approved hours can be imported directly from time and attendance systems without any manual re-keying. Once payroll is validated, the system can finalise the entire process in one sweep: submitting RTI, generating finance reports, preparing pension contributions, uploading journals to bookkeeping software, sending payslips to employees and even distributing payroll report packs to clients and stakeholders. For bureaus managing hundreds of small, stable payrolls, such as director-only schemes, fixed-salary groups or monthly patterns with little variation, this level of automation can transform workloads. Instead of spending hours repeating identical tasks, teams can allow the system to process the ‘happy path’ and focus their expertise on the exceptions. What once resembled a production line becomes more like a control room, where outliers are identified, checked and resolved. In this way, automation not only saves time but also reshapes the role of the pay professional.
professionals still view automation with caution. The most common misconception is that automation will replace people with ‘cold software’. In reality, automation changes the shape of payroll work rather than eliminating it. Software can process data, but it cannot interpret context. It cannot decide whether a retrospective pay adjustment should be spread across prior periods or corrected in the current one. It cannot weigh up competing interpretations of legislation and decide which is fairest or most compliant. And it certainly cannot sit with a manager frustrated about overtime costs or support an employee who’s anxious about their payslip. What automation really does is highlight the value of pay professionals. It exposes where their real contribution has always been – in judgment, interpretation, communication and accountability. Far from making pay roles obsolete, it makes them more strategic and more visible across the organisation. Using time saved The most powerful outcome of automation is the capacity it creates. Hours once spent on manual data entry, copying figures between systems or clicking through repetitive steps can be reinvested into higher-value activities. One immediate benefit is stronger compliance. Payroll teams can focus on preventive controls rather than
Misconceptions about automation Despite these benefits, many pay
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | December 2025 - January 2026 | Issue 116 54
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