The client
A retail and distribution group operating 46 branches and two distribution centres, with 1,850 permanent and casual staff on monthly and fortnightly pay cycles.
The challenge
Payroll was prepared by a team of three in a large spreadsheet workbook with one tab per branch. Each month the team:
- Collected attendance and overtime sheets from 46 branch managers by email and photo.
- Re-keyed hours, leave and deductions into the workbook.
- Calculated statutory deductions with formulas that had been copied and adjusted over several years.
- Printed and distributed payslips through branch managers.
The process took four full working days. Errors were common: wrong overtime, missed deductions for staff loans, duplicate payments to transferred staff and staff paid after leaving. Every error triggered a query, a correction and sometimes an awkward recovery.
The head of HR also suspected that overtime was being approved too freely in some branches, but could not prove it with the data available.
What we deployed
We implemented our payroll software with HR self-service and timesheets:
- Ready-to-use payroll configuration with the group's pay elements, allowances, statutory deductions, pension and staff loan schemes.
- Biometric attendance integration at every branch, feeding hours directly into payroll.
- Overtime approval rules. Overtime must be pre-approved by the branch manager and, above a weekly threshold, by the area manager.
- Maker-checker approval with a variance report highlighting every employee whose net pay moved by more than 10% from the previous month.
- Automatic payslip emails. Password-protected payslips sent to every employee on approval, and available in the self-service app.
- Bank payment files in each bank's bulk format, and automatic posting of the payroll journal by branch cost centre.
- Leavers control. A leaver recorded in HR stops pay automatically and triggers the final pay calculation.
How we delivered
The payroll was configured and ready to run within 24 hours of receiving the employee master data, pay element list and previous month's payroll. In the first month, the group ran the new system in parallel with the spreadsheet. Differences were investigated one by one. Almost all were spreadsheet errors, including several long-standing overpayments.
Biometric attendance was rolled out branch by branch over the following six weeks. Branch managers were trained in short online sessions and given one-page guides.
Results after six months
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Time to prepare and approve payroll | 4 working days | About 3 hours |
| Payroll errors requiring correction (per month) | 60 to 80 | Fewer than 6 |
| Payments to staff after leaving | Several each quarter | None |
| Overtime cost | Baseline | 14% lower |
| Payslip distribution | Printed, hand delivered | Emailed automatically on approval |
| Payroll queries to HR | High, by phone | 70% lower, mostly via self-service |
Reporting that changed decisions
The monthly payroll cost report by branch, emailed to the finance director and area managers when payroll is approved, showed for the first time how employment cost compared across branches relative to sales.
The overtime report revealed that four branches accounted for almost a third of all overtime, despite having similar sales to other branches. After rota changes and the new approval rules, overtime fell by 14% across the group without affecting opening hours.
Leave liability reporting also gave finance an accurate accrual for unused leave, which the auditors had previously raised as a management letter point.
What made the difference
- Inputs from the source. Attendance flows directly from biometric devices, so there is nothing to re-key.
- Rules applied consistently. Statutory deductions, loans and allowances are configured once and applied every time.
- Variance-based review. Approvers focus on the employees whose pay changed, rather than checking 1,850 lines.
- Staff self-service. Employees find their own payslips and leave balances, which freed the HR team from routine queries.
The payroll team now spends its time on analysis and employee support rather than data entry.
Client identity withheld under a confidentiality agreement. Figures are drawn from the client's before-and-after reporting for the engagement period; outcomes for your business will depend on your starting point and scope.