The person behind the pay slip

Today, we are looking at two persons – the one behind the pay slip which is the receiver, and the one that is the sender.

Firstly, we are going to focus on the receiver of the pay slip, the employee. The one email that most employees open faster than any other email, is the one containing their monthly pay slip. They drop everything they are busy with, to see what is their compensation for all the hard work they put in for the month. The first amount they look at, is the net payout, i.e. the amount they received, or going to receive, in their bank account. If that amount looks incorrect, they are ready for a query (in payroll terms: a fight). They then move to the deductions section, to double check if something was deducted incorrectly. The most frequent question that I get, is: “Why is my tax deduction so high?”. Employees don’t always have the background knowledge with regards to payroll taxes, and how their taxes are calculated. All they see is a bigger or lesser amount than the previous month, or a difference in what is the norm for them. They then check to see if their overtime, commission or other extra income, were processed correctly. Once the pay slip has been received and there are queries, the whole focus moves over to the other person behind the pay slip, the sender.

The sender is not always the payroll administrator that processed the pay slip, therefore the sender might be the third party between the receiver and the administrator. In a lot of organizations, the payroll administrator is part of the Financial Department, and once payroll has been processed, the pay slips are forwarded to all employees by the HR department. It is crucial for employees to know whom the correct person/department is, to address any queries to. It is also very important for an organization to be very clear on whom may deal with which queries. But let’s not get into those technicalities in this article. The responsible person that needs to ensure that the payroll is processed correctly, is the Payroll Administrator. This person needs to know how the Payroll Software works, and how to process all the different transactions with regards to remuneration legislatively correct. They need to be on top of the latest amendments in all Acts that affects payroll. Therefore, it is of very high importance that any company with employees, whether it’s 1 employee, or 500 employees, have a competent Payroll Administrator. Incorrect payroll processing can cost a company thousands of rands, and should not be taken lightly at all.

How do you measure if a Payroll Administrator is competent?

1. You will know by the way they utilize the Payroll Software. There is a lot of helpful functionalities that are lost in the value chain when the administrator does not know their software well.

2. Years of service in the industry are also a direct reflection on the overall knowledge the administrator brings to the position (Legislative processes, submissions, trainings, CPD, to only mention a few).

3. Impeccable attention to detail is also critical, as each employee has a different salary structure, and incorrect processing due to human error is unacceptable.

4. The Payroll Administrator needs to be able to deal with all information with strict confidentiality, ensuring all parties that leaking of information will not occur.

5. Low dissatisfaction and minimal complaints from employees on a monthly, weekly, fortnightly basis.

6. Company is payroll compliant on all levels. Hefty penalties and interest are paid by companies that are not compliant with all the legislative requirements with regards to payroll.

There are so many aspects to take into consideration, when taking the entire Payroll Value Chain into consideration, which I will cover in the following Blogs to come.

The MAIN aspect that stands out in companies worldwide, is that if the person behind the one end of the pay slip (administrator), is competent, and processes an accurate, on-time payroll every single month, with mostly minor or no comebacks with regards to queries where incorrect processing needs to be fixed, it creates an environment of trust between the employer and employee, and the person behind the other end of the pay slip (employee), is satisfied, and more productive.

May you all have a blessed week to come, and I look forward to share more valuable nuggets on Payroll with you going forward.

Warm Regards,

Stephanie Jacobs

Payroll Needs