What Does HR Payroll Do?

There is often a lot of overlap between HR and payroll which can sometimes leave people wondering what does HR payroll do, and who is dealing with what in their organisation.

Certainly, in terms of payroll, HR can have varying levels of involvement. In some companies, its involvement might be fairly limited if there’s a large standalone payroll department, perhaps as part of a finance function. But in other companies at the other end of the scale, HR might be involved in running the entire payroll or acting as the liaison if they are already using the services of an outsourced payroll provider.  Here are just some of the things you’ll typically find HR payroll is involved in.

This can be an extremely broad area of involvement. Typically, HR will be involved in the processing of all new company starters and leavers, and it will handle all of the documentation in relation to every employment and contract change.

The scope of this area is vast. It could include specific pay related activity such as being involved in all aspects of the administration of annual pay reviews right the way through to compiling the reports needed to comply with pay gap reporting requirements.

HR will also be involved with employees on any form of leave: so, for example, employees who are on company or statutory sick pay due to illness, or an employee who is off on maternity leave. HR might well be responsible for maintaining payroll records too: depending on the level of involvement the HR department has across the full payroll process, they might be required to maintain some or even all of the records associated with payroll.

When it comes to payroll, it is absolutely crucial to make sure that all of the information relating to each employee is correct. This relates to initial records when an employee joins a company as outlined above, but it also relates to the ongoing payroll information that must be provided to make sure the payroll is run correctly every month. If there is a high volume of data that is provided manually via spreadsheets and so forth, HR payroll will need to make sure that it is entered correctly into the necessary systems.

One of the roles HR payroll can have is the responsibility for ensuring that all monthly timesheets are received by the deadline, and then processing them in line with the organisation’s requirements. It’s important that there are routine checks built-in to ensure that the data received is correct. HR may also find itself involved in chasing up missing information or timesheets to ensure payroll can be run correctly and on time.

HR might be involved with directly processing the payroll, and ensuring that employees receive their salaries or wages on time and for the correct amount. HR will also need to ensure all deductions are paid on time to HMRC. The function might also be involved in other aspects of annual reporting including statutory year-end returns and P60s.

It is a legal requirement to supply payslips to employees and workers. Payslips need to provide information including both gross and net pay, any variable deductions made in that pay period and the hours that have been worked if the payment depends on how many hours have been worked in the period. HR can be involved in both the creation and distribution of payslips, either as printed out payslips, or payslips that are sent electronically.

One of HR payroll’s major responsibilities is being the point of contact for payroll queries. Even if there is a separate payroll department within a company, HR will often find itself being the first port of call for employees who have any questions relating to their payments.

Statutory rates need to be monitored: rates including the National Living Wage, National Minimum Wage, Maternity Pay, Adoption Pay, Paternity Pay, Shared Parental Pay, Parental Bereavement Pay and Statutory Sick Pay are reviewed annually.

There can be no doubt that staying on top of all of the changes in relation to payroll legislation can be really demanding. Legislation can be changed and updated regularly (even more so as a consequence of the pandemic). Keeping track of all of these changes and then making sure they are implemented correctly can fall under the remit of HR payroll employees.

One way to reduce this burden can be to consider the use of outsourced payroll services.

When it comes to understanding more about what does HR payroll do, hopefully this article has been useful in clarifying at least some aspects of what is involved. But apart from doing it in-house, are there any alternatives when it comes to running a payroll?

One option is to fully outsource your payroll. There are many reasons for choosing to do this. It lifts a major burden off your business knowing that all aspects of your payroll are being taken care of by professionals. It frees up time to concentrate on core company activity. It reduces the risk of errors. It means that your company is not suddenly in a position where an unexpected absence of a key member of payroll staff means you are struggling to run the payroll and get everything completed on time. Ultimately, it can work out to be a very cost-effective decision.

Please do take a look here for more details about our outsourced payroll services. If you would like to know more about how CPS can help you, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us.