Senior Payroll Officer

Job Activities

1. Preparing, collating and validating payroll related information for input onto payroll system to strict deadlines. Correcting errors as appropriate.
2. Operating 2 payrolls; one for staff and another for pensioners who were awarded enhanced pensions with the management of these pension payments.
3. Training of the Payroll Officer in the payroll system iTrent and reporting system Business Objects.
4. Completing the new starter process: The HR systems team start the new starter process chain within the payroll system, with a workflow to Payroll to complete the process.
5. Resolving any staff pay queries regarding the Contract change procedure.
6. Responsible for ensuring all additions to pay claims are processed accurately and following-up queries as necessary including; support staff claim forms, additional hours claim forms, overtime claim forms, assessor claim forms and guest claim forms.
7. Updating PAYE and NI in the payroll system for any legislative changes.
8. Managing changes to the pension scheme deductions: SPPA (Scottish Public Pensions Agency) pension changes may be made monthly, in line with SPPA guidance. Deductions are calculated automatically, but are required to be checked.
9. Managing changes to the pension scheme deductions: LPF (Lothian Pension Fund) pension changes may be made annually. Payroll imports global changes into the payroll system for employer contribution rates and tiered rates for employee contributions.
10. Processing other deductions, liaising with external agencies as necessary e.g. credit union, give as you earn, childcare vouchers, wage arrestment.
11. Administering advanced payments where necessary: salary or expense advances will be paid under exceptional circumstances with the approval of delegated authorities. The post holder will administer the process and ensure that the advance will be reclaimed against the next salary payment due.
12. Monitoring employee absences to ensure the correct amount of sick pay entitlement is processed.
13. Setting up, calculating and processing the appropriate payments for maternity, paternity and adoption entitlements.
14. Processing staff leaver information into the system, advising the applicable pension scheme as appropriate and posting final payslip and P45 to staff leaving.
15. Reviewing the work of the payroll officers for accuracy and compliance with policy.
16. Monthly analysis of all pay elements from gross to net pay, comparing it to the previous month.
17. Monthly payroll reconciliations are prepared and investigated, and any anomalies rectified, liaising with colleagues as appropriate.
18. Standard reporting within the system for reconciliation, monitoring and control purposes and building other bespoke reports using the BusinessObjects software.
19. Responsible for generating BACS reports from the system to support the payroll reconciliation.
20. Exporting pay information from the payroll system for import into the financial system, through a manual interface for verification of the Finance Manager. All payroll liabilities are reconciled to the balance sheet monthly, and any differences thoroughly investigated and cleared.
21. Ensure pension deductions are made in accordance with the scheme rules, especially in cases such as maternity leave, sickness absence. For SPPA, employee contribution rates are updated on a monthly basis.
22. Provide advice to employees on the pension scheme rules.
23. Ensure iTrent is up to date with any changes to the pension schemes, in liaison with external suppliers.
24. Responsible for the notification of new starts and leavers to the Pension Scheme bodies.
25. Responsible for the notification of any other staff contract changes to the Pension bodies.
26. Responsible for completing monthly and yearly pension returns and payments (to the LPF and SPPA). Responsible for the accuracy and completeness of all monthly and year end statutory returns and payments.
27. Monthly P32 returns ensuring that each reconciles to the HMRC liability payments.
28. Responsible each year end for reconciling the P35 return ensuring that it reconciles to the HMRC liability payments.
29. Responsible for preparing and reconciling year end information regarding P60's and P11 D's (to staff and HMRC as applicable).
30. Responsible for reconciling all third-party creditors, e.g. credit union payments and arranging the payments with the Purchase ledger team and sending additional back up information if requested.

Knowledge/Qualifications

1. Hold a minimum of an SCQF Level 7 (payroll qualification) or equivalent finance related subject or be qualified by experience.
2. Strong understanding of policies and procedures around processing of payroll.
3. Experience supervising/managing a payroll team.
4. Processing payroll in house.
5. Working cross functionally with other departments (i.e. Finance and HR).
6. Dealing with staff payroll queries.
7. Public sector experience.
8. Work Independently.
9. Problem solving.
10. Workload management and planning.
11. Prior use of iTrent or Business Objects.
12. Experience of Unit4/Agresso finance system.
13. Prior involvement in system improvement.