News & Events
Payroll: Behind the scenes
5th September 2023
A day in the life of a payroll manager
This week is National Payroll Week – a week that focuses on raising awareness of payroll and the impact payroll has on the UK economy. This year the spotlight is on careers in payroll.
Throughout National Payroll Week, we will be sharing a series of articles that provide a glimpse behind the scenes of the payroll profession. We kick off this series by spending a day with our Payroll Manager, Rebecca Gotch.
I got up around 6am and attempted to get ready before the children woke up, my plan wasn’t particularly successful as they both up before I’d finished my shower. Breakfast eaten and pack lunch is prepared before heading off to drop them at Summer Club and heading into the office.
Once I arrived at the office, just after 9 am, I logged on, and looked over my emails, before writing a quick to-do list for the day. My days are always quite varied, which is one of the things I enjoy about working in payroll. It’s the beginning of the month, so it’s a quieter day than towards the end of the month when there are deadlines to meet.
Next, I caught up with one of my team – I try to have regular one-to-one meetings with each of my team approximately once a month. We usually spend 30 minutes catching up on how they are getting on and we might chat about anything from new homes to new payroll clients.
Then I had a call with a client who wanted to re-arrange a meeting. The client was coming in to discuss how they send in their CIS information so that we can assist them in simplifying their process and removing some of their CIS burden.
After rearranging the meeting, I completed a re-declaration of compliance for a new client we have recently onboarded. This took longer than I had originally planned as I found that the information on the previous declaration was incorrect. After a call to the client and The Pension Regulator to correct the previous information, I was able to complete the re-declaration with the correct details.
Next, was a meeting with one of my team who is currently studying towards their Foundation Degree in Payroll Management. During the meeting, we discussed the work-based project they are currently working on as part of the qualification. I have been working with them to utilise this within the payroll department and to assist with the project implementation.
I then tackled some team admin, which included approving holiday requests for my team members. We have a system in place to ensure there is always payroll cover and at least one of the team is always in the office to deal with any client enquiries.
Next, I look through and update our new client tracker. The tracker includes all new payroll clients and allows us to ensure we have covered all the necessary onboarding sets to ensure the process is as seamless as possible. I overlook this and update regularly.
My final tasks of the day are focused on training and development. I have recently booked some dates for live HMRC and CIPP webinars, so these are added to my calendar. I also ensure each of my team is also invited.
Lastly, I log into our new ACT dashboard. ACT is a new training platform my team will be using and after attending a launch earlier that week I had been eagerly awaiting my login details. I made some notes from the dashboard ready to discuss with my team the following day regarding plans to start the training and which topics we will be starting with.
I log off and head home around 5:30, my husband had already collected the children. So, once I’m home we all ate together in the garden to make the most of one of the very few sunny days we seem to be having this summer!
Join the Rowleys team
To find out more about the current and future opportunities we have at Rowleys please get in touch for an informal chat, or visit our current vacancies page. We’re always keen to hear from talented people who are keen to grow their career with us.
You can also find out more about our payroll services on our payroll webpage.