Working In Payroll: A Day In The Life

What is a typical day in the life like when working in Payroll?

Really, there is no typical day working in payroll…

Payroll is fast paced. It can change by the hour depending on employer (ER) or employee (EE) changes, or even legislation.

How Does The Payroll Process Start?

A payroll process will start with checking for any tax code or National Insurance updates for the EE’s before confirming with the ER for the payroll data.

This can be requested by:

• Phone
• Email
• Spreadsheets or
• Payroll input request direct from the BrightPay Software.

Once this has been received, it is the job of the processor to correctly input this data, but also to make sure that the ER is compliant with the current legislation for holiday pay, sick pay, statutory payments, auto enrolment pension schemes and apprenticeship levy.

Payroll may also need to monitor attachments of earning orders that have been received by the ER, along with any salary sacrifice schemes or payrolling benefits (PBIK).

What Happens Next?

Once the payroll has been processed, some ER’s like to receive the payslips for approval. There are two ways this can be done, either by emailed payslips or payroll approval through BrightPay. On approval (if needed), the payroll is submitted to HMRC and the payroll reports, along with any PAYE liabilities, are confirmed with the ER and the payslips are made available for the EE’s on the portal at a date confirmed with the ER.

For some clients we manage the payment to the EE’s and HMRC. We do this by producing payment files for the ER to upload to their own bank; by producing files for direct transfer to EE’s via our PTX payments platform (a 3 day BACS process) or, the most popular Modulr, which can be a same day faster payment software linked to BrightPay.

Auto Enrolment Pension Schemes

Auto enrolment pension schemes are varied and BrightPay can connect to many of them through API. Although some do need to be manually uploaded, so we need to know how the portal processes work for each of the different pension providers. Normally we submit the pensions a couple of days after the payroll has been submitted to HMRC. We do this in case there are amendments as the pension schemes are not as flexible as the payroll software.

Monitoring PAYE Liabilities

As agents we also have access to the HMRC portal, where we can monitor any PAYE labilities and speak to HMRC on the ER’s behalf for payroll or CIS queries. Having said that, actually getting to talk to HMRC these days can be a full time job by itself.

Staying Up To Date With Payroll Legislation

Another important part of payroll is ensuring the team are always up to date with current payroll legislation. This helps to ensure the Whitings Payroll Bureau can advise you on all payroll needs.

This could be through:

• An annual payroll and HR refresher course,
• Bespoke training programs running throughout the year,
• HMRC webinars
• Various payroll related written and on-line publications

Get In Touch

For information and advice on how the Whitings Payroll Bureau can help you, contact your local Whitings LLP office today.

Disclaimer - All information in this post was correct at time of writing.