Payroll administrators play a major role in a company or an organisation. Their responsibility is to ensure that every employee in an organisation gets paid on time without any fluctuations or delays. Their job is to oversee the processes related to the payroll systems in the company. Calculating taxes, managing salaries and human resource activities like collecting employee information are some of the responsibilities of the payroll administrator. So, let’s know about the payroll administrator job description and their duties within an organisation.
Did you know? The word payroll came into existence around the 1750s. It’s the combination of two words; pay (a verb) and roll (a noun). This refers to the list of periodic payments made to employees in salary.
Skills required by Payroll administrators
Payroll professionals require mathematical and computational skills with communication and leadership qualities; hence this job has been in demand lately.
- The professional degree qualification required to do this job is to have a degree in accounting or finance with a certification in payroll, which helps in understanding the payroll software.
- With this, payroll administrators need to be aware of company policies, regional tax laws, and compliance requirements.
- Mostly the payroll administrators are expected to work with the accounts and HR team of the company or the organisation.
In big companies with more than thousands of employees, their role can be to handle taxes accounts as well as to have a working knowledge of the payroll software. They must also regularly update the payroll software. In smaller companies, their role can be as simple as updating salary-related information in spreadsheets and writing cheques. In these situations, companies can sometimes outsource the payroll responsibilities to specialist service providers who are experts in payroll solutions. Payroll administrators are usually good at multitasking, as well as they’re good at numerical values. In the end, the best of best payroll administrators manage all the payroll aspects in an accurate and timely way.
Salary of Payroll Administrators
Payroll administrators salary ranges between ₹2 lakhs to ₹6 lakhs, according to PayScale. This depends on the size of the company or the organisation they work for, the number of people working in it, and their work experience. This is probably a perfect opportunity for the kind of people who love handling numbers, working in a busy workspace, and are smart enough to take in the key business process of the company.
Also read: Meaning of Statutory Compliance in Payroll
Duties and responsibilities of a Payroll Administrator:
Collecting information about the Employee
Tracking and collecting the right data of the employee is a key responsibility of a payroll administrator. Right information of every employee of the company needs to be regularly updated in the company database with the help of the HR department. This helps the company track any dues of newly hired or terminated employees. This requires the payroll administrator to be in sync with the HR team.
Maintenance of timekeeping records
This job requires the person working as a payroll administrator to keep track of all employees working hours. They should ensure all the employees log in to their working hours regularly. The overtime done by the employees must also be updated regularly. They must collect all this information and regularly update their payroll software. Also, few companies trust payroll administrators to keep an eye on all the inconsistent employees and its reason. Again, this must be regularly updated in the company’s software so that there will be no confusion regarding employee data, which may not lead to any delays in the employees’ payment.
Ensuring regular payments of all employees
Payroll personnel have this as one of their biggest responsibilities. Employees working hours need to be logged in; this includes the overtime available. Once this is done, the major responsibility of the payroll administrator is to calculate the amount the company owes to each employee. This amount will be transferred to the employees via a particular channel.
According to the company’s policy, this particular payment channel is usually selected by the employees. This can be done by cheque or cash or directly transferring it to accounts via NEFT or IMPS. The role of the administrator here is to make sure all the employees get paid the correct amount as accurately as possible. The payment will be made either weekly, monthly, or quarterly depending on the company’s policy or the organisation.
Process Deduction
The role of the payroll administrator here is to make sure that the deductions which are voluntary or involuntary need to be made accurately every month from every employee’s payment. They should do this according to the local governing laws.
Any mistakes made here can be bad for the company leading to compliance issues or monetary fines. There are two kinds of deductions made by the company. As mentioned above, voluntary deductions and involuntary deductions. Voluntary deductions may include the following:
- Premiums for retirement plan
- Premiums for Healthcare
- Premiums for insurance
- Premiums for investment
- Stock options of the company
While the involuntary deductions may include:
The above deductions must be made and filled properly by the payroll administrator.
Payroll process recording
One of the biggest responsibilities of the payroll administrator is to create and manage all the payroll-related processes. They should file payment logs, involuntary deductions and voluntary deductions, timekeeping logs, and tax filing logs that need to be kept track of.
Another responsibility is to keep the company payroll system updated. Employees need to be aware of all the company policies and logs regarding payroll information. Keeping everything in record is necessary to avoid confusion regarding any matter related to old or new employees or payroll management. And if there are any unresolved matters, then these records can help make the decisions easier and better. Also, making the payroll system more efficient makes it easier for employees to access it.
Handling payment related issues
Payroll administrators need to be aware of all the company policies and logs. They also need to have a good knowledge of the employee-related logs and payroll information. This helps the payroll administrator to help resolve any difficulties that might occur regarding the payment cycle. They are responsible for answering the questions asked by the employees regarding the payroll system, and they’ve to be prepared to answer all kinds of payroll-related problems that might occur in the company or the organisation.
Payroll clerks or payroll administrators should be able to manage different responsibilities that come with this job role. They must be aware of local government ruling laws while assuring company policies are intact with the necessary laws. Finally, they need to adapt to cross-team collaboration as their job needs them to be in line with the HR team and the accounts team to keep them updated on employee information.
Qualifications required for a Payroll administrator job:
Below are a few of the qualifications required for a candidate to apply for the payroll administrator role:
- Firstly, this job requires excellent oral as well as written communication
- An understanding of labour’s rules, as well as human resource rules, is required
- Very strong at handling numbers
- Good knowledge of payroll software
- Should know how to manage the organisation as well as time
- Interpersonal skills like being honest, empathetic, patient etc., is required for this job
- Ability to communicate between the teams
- Ability to remember all the details
- Also, the ability to give priority to important tasks properly and effectively
Also read: What is Full and Final Settlement Process in Payroll
Conclusion:
If you enjoy working in a busy office environment and love dealing with numbers, this job is for you! Payroll administrators need to handle all the tasks and duties regarding payroll in a company or an organisation. The most important duties of a payroll administrator or a payroll clerk are to prepare, process and distribute paychecks to the employees of an organisation. This job requires you to collaborate with the company’s HR team and accounts team or the organisation. If you are good at communication and handling numbers, this job is for you.
Payroll Administrators can work alone in an organisation or look after other payroll administrators working under them in a bigger organisation. This role requires you to have a finance, accounting, or business administration degree. They also need to be an expert in Microsoft Office and Microsoft Excel, Access. They need to be the best at keeping track of different records.