GARY SILVER Payroll Manager Berg Kaprow Lewis LLP
MONDAY
After my usual busy weekend I often arrive at work feeling more tired than when I left on Friday!
A coffee and a quick read through the weekend’s emails and I’m soon in the swing of things. Usually I start with a review of my diary to see how the week is looking and month in general. I also review the work plan and check client processing dates for that week. We operate payroll for over 550 clients with a varying number of employees on each payroll, anything from one to over 100 employees. The frequency of these also varies and can be anything from weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, twice yearly or annual. It is therefore really important to keep an accurate client list. I’m due to meet with HR today. We have taken on a new client which involves a number of possible employment law implications. There will be high staff turnover and our client wants to pay the employees a commission only salary; this could present a number of issues and the client will have to consider minimum wage regulations should the commission paid not be enough. Employment contracts will also need to be taken into consideration.
TUESDAY
Our monthly payroll meeting takes place. There are a number of small client matters to discuss as well as the usual real time information (RTI) issues. Even though RTI has been running since 6 April 2013 it still presents plenty of challenges. One re-occurring issue seems to be a PAYE scheme where no payroll is being processed and nil EPS submissions have
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been made to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) – however, HMRC still issue a statement of liability. We receive around five of these a month, and each case takes anything up to an hour to resolve but unfortunately the time isn’t chargeable to the client.
Other matters on the agenda are auto-enrolment/workplace pensions, and streamlining our current payroll processes.
WEDNESDAY
Haven’t had much time for emails and post so far this week, so it’s time for a catch up as I like to respond to all emails within 24 hours.
I’m meeting this afternoon with our IT director and there are three points on the agenda. The first being a review of our disaster recovery plan which we review at least once each year. Clients entrust us with running their payroll so there must be an effective disaster recovery plan in place covering all aspects of the process.
Second on the agenda is installing a patch on our current payroll software. Since the introduction of RTI, HMRC change their reporting requirements from time to time. Although this is all behind the scenes it’s important to be accurate with reporting and therefore we really do need the software to be up to date. Our IT department will need to test the install first on a ghost server to make sure it installs without issues, and then run the install on the live data overnight so as not to interrupt the payroll processing. Last point to discuss is the possibility of sending clients’ employees e-payslips instead of secure payslips by post. This would save on printing thousands of payslips each year and reduce costs a great deal, for us and our clients.
THURSDAY
An early start this morning. I’ve arranged a team training session for auto-enrolment/ workplace pensions, and we’ve managed to run it in-house which saves travel to another location. The course will be running for most of the day so the team needs to process a few payrolls and clear some emails before we start. The course will cover all aspects of the legislation, eligible workers, opting in and out, and how we can advise clients on the technicalities behind the process just to name a few. As it was a consultant from our software developers who will be running the training, it is also a great opportunity to make the best use of his time by asking any software queries we may have.
FRIDAY
Early start again this morning to catch up on emails following training all day yesterday. I’m meeting with our financial services
department to discuss auto-enrolment/ workplace pensions. We have already been working with our larger clients to ensure they are ready for their staging dates; however, our smaller clients with perhaps up to twenty employees or less won’t have thought about this a great deal and they’ll expect our help. We need to get the word out as a lot of work needs to be done to ensure they are ready. They will also incur costs which they may not have planned for, so need help to budget effectively. As well as the client receiving notification of auto-enrolment direct from The Pensions Regulator, we need to provide them with information via mail shots and newsletters. We understand our clients are busy, and need to ensure it’s easy for them, with our help, to be aware of, and comply with, the regulations.
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a week in the life of...
technical
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