Specialist Payroll Consulting
Home / Specialist Payroll Consulting
Specialist Payroll Consulting
Home / Specialist Payroll Consulting
What makes us different?
While our engagements vary, the core problems we help our clients with remain the same. Many clients ask us similar questions about their payroll operations.
Australian Payroll Association has experience in completing audits required from a Fair Work Enforceable Undertaking (EU).
- Is my payroll delivery strategy the most efficient and compliant as it can be?
- Is outsourcing/inhouse payroll function best for my organisation?
- Do I have satisfactory governance and controls in my payroll process to mitigate risk of error and fraud?
- Can my payroll operation be delivered more cheaply?
- Am I using the best payroll technology or service for my organisation?
Payroll 360 TM
All our engagements are based on a seven step Payroll 360 TM Methodology. Once we have a 360 view of your payroll function, we can work to optimise it for cost and compliance.
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Step 6
Step 7
Process Review
Understanding your end to end payroll process and what recommendations might be required to ensure a rigorous process without compromising accuracy or costs to deliver.
Understanding your end to end payroll process and what recommendations might be required to ensure a rigorous process without compromising accuracy or costs to deliver.
People
Payroll staff vary considerably in cost, skills and knowledge. We assess your current payroll team and determine whether there are skill or knowledge gaps using our Payroll Knowledge Assessment and interview techniques.
Payroll staff vary considerably in cost, skills and knowledge. We assess your current payroll team and determine whether there are skill or knowledge gaps using our Payroll Knowledge Assessment and interview techniques.
Payroll Governance and Controls
Identify gaps in governance and controls that can be changed to eliminate payroll risk.
Identify gaps in governance and controls that can be changed to eliminate payroll risk.
Risk Management
Once we are comfortable that we have a full understanding of your payroll process, we will manage any risks related to fraud, regulatory fines, errors and other compliance risks.
Once we are comfortable that we have a full understanding of your payroll process, we will manage any risks related to fraud, regulatory fines, errors and other compliance risks.
Payroll Continuity
With payroll being a mission critical process, we look at your disaster recovery plans and documentation to ensure peace of mind in the event of a payroll disaster.
With payroll being a mission critical process, we look at your disaster recovery plans and documentation to ensure peace of mind in the event of a payroll disaster.
Payroll Benchmarking
By collecting your benchmarking data, we can look at how you compare to Australian payroll benchmarking standards or against specific employers or industry categories.
By collecting your benchmarking data, we can look at how you compare to Australian payroll benchmarking standards or against specific employers or industry categories.
Payroll Delivery Strategy
We work with you to determine the payroll delivery strategy that will work best in your organisation, whether that be in-house, SaaS, outsourced, off shoring or a fully managed payroll service.
We work with you to determine the payroll delivery strategy that will work best in your organisation, whether that be in-house, SaaS, outsourced, off shoring or a fully managed payroll service.
How we can help
Payroll Process Review
Payroll Compliance Audit
Payroll technology evaluation and selection
Remediation projects
An end to end assessment of your payroll operation and delivery of payroll best practice. We aim to identify ways to optimise your payroll process with simplification, standardisation and governance at the core of all activities.
We can include analysis and costs on how your payroll process might be improved with a change in payroll delivery strategy or technology.
Click here to view a sample methodology
Sample methodology:
| End to end walkthrough | Obtain an understanding and document how processes currently work and what documentation supports them. |
| Risk assessment | Determine tolerance for error in outcomes considering complexity of function, scale, manual or automated process, extent of work completed outside payroll systems, history of error, judgement/subjectivity in execution. |
| Identify gaps or opportunities | Understand where control gaps arise as well as opportunities to modify current activities. |
| Optimise | Consider areas of double handling of information, data or reporting and manual processes to identify areas for efficiency and service improvement. This will include opportunities to stop, standardise or automate certain processes. |
| Mapping | Develop and end-to-end process map of both current and proposed processes. |
| Test and reporting | Action optimisation and governance change and put into business as usual processes and document (completed by client) |
A full review to ensure correct calculations of all award and EBA conditions for your payroll or that of your subcontractors. We will also ensure that all employment obligations are being met, payroll allowances and penalties are being correctly treated in payroll and superannuation and leave calculations are being treated in accordance with state and territory legislation.
Australian Payroll Association is experienced with Fair Work to undertake payroll audits as part of an Enforceable Undertaking. These audits have a slightly different methodology to that detailed below.
Click here to view a sample methodology
Sample methodology:
| End to end walkthrough | Obtain an understanding and document how processes currently work and what documentation supports them. |
| Risk assessment | Determine tolerance for error in outcomes considering complexity of function, scale, manual or automated process, extent of work completed outside payroll systems, history of error, judgement/subjectivity in execution. |
| Analyse Awards and Enterprise Agreements | Identify all conditions that would constitute any extra or alternative payments, rates or entitlements. |
| Analyse work patterns and employment types | Identify samples of different types of employees and work patterns that might trigger Award or EBA rules. |
| Calculations | Sample relevant employees under different scenarios and work patterns to make calculations as to what the employees should have been paid based on hours and days worked. Identify any variances compared to actual payments, accruals or entitlements made for these employees. |
| Recommendations | Provide recommendations to remediate under or over payments for pays, superannuation or leave accruals including how payments should be configured to calculate in the payroll or time & attendance system. |
One of the most common questions we are asked is ‘what is the best payroll system’. The initial answer is always that same… ‘it depends’.
It depends on many things, including:
- Your size
- Your industry
- Your requirements
- Your appetite for new technology
- The demographic of your employees
- Your integration requirements
- Whether you want to outsource or run payroll inhouse
- What level of service you require
- What key risks you want to mitigate
Sample methodology:
| End to end walkthrough | Understand your current payroll process and any issues that require resolution |
| Risk assessment | Understand your showstoppers. They may be related to size of vendor, key person risk, reputation for service levels, data storage location and many other criteria. |
| Requirements | Work with key stakeholders to identify and document payroll requirements. |
| Initial market scan | Liaise with vendors with a view to identifying a maximum of three who could deliver to your requirements and budget. |
| Written responses | Obtain written responses from potential vendors based on your requirements. This may be in the form of an RFP or a more informal requirements document. |
| Scripted workshops | Vendors are invited to present their proposed solutions following a scripted workshop based on your payroll requirements, process and calculations. |
| Weighted scoring | Scoring based on weightings determined by you. A preferred vendor may be required to do a further presentation on areas that require deeper understanding at this stage. |
| Negotiate contract | Assistance with negotiating contract including pricing and service level agreements if required. |
We work with clients on payroll remediation tasks which can include quantifying underpayments and remediating the payroll systems and processes to ensure they cannot occur again.
The methodology used will be determined by the exact nature of the engagement.
We've worked with
