In Your Shoes - Avril Craig

Let's Make a plan!

Although I am missing the pre-pandemic office environment, one of the great advantages of working from home is there’s no commute. I am especially glad of this today, a particularly freezing and dark January morning. This extra time is put to good use though, catching up on the weekends emails and reviewing my calendar to see what’s in store, all before 9am.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail “- a famous quote by Benjamin Franklin which I completely live by. Monday at 9am kicks off the working week with a virtual meeting of the Senior Payroll Team. We discuss plans and strategies for the week ahead and allocate specific roles and duties, ensuring we rotate the workflow management, BACS processing, BACS review and payroll review duties amongst the seniors. The Senior team go off to have catch ups with their own mentor group. Working at home can be very isolating at times so we try to mimic the office environment by having a constant chatter online and regular one on-to-one catch ups.

The next meeting in my schedule is with my Assistant Manager Jagoda. Together we are focusing on looking at some new processes we may implement and discuss plans. It is so easy to get bogged down in the current workload and forget the importance of looking at the bigger picture and future developments, so we make time to do this regularly.

A bit of everything!

As an early bird by nature, I am up at 7am working on my calendar. As Payroll Manager, you have lots of ‘hats’ and the duties that come along with each of them are of equal importance. One of the biggest productivity lessons I have learned is that, when trying to juggle lots of different projects, its best to work directly from a calendar as opposed to a ‘to do’ list, and it really works! Today I am focused on arranging year end team training, probationary reviews, reviewing the set-up of our newly onboarded clients, and arranging check ins with our new clients to make sure all is well.

Whilst I am working away, I hear the constant ‘ping’ ‘ping’ of our team’s online chatter. Everyone is saying “Good morning” as you would when you arrive at the office. Then, “Has anyone dealt with ….?” or “Can someone help me with….?’” The day in is full flow and I chip in and help out where I can. Later in the day I have a catch up with the full payroll team, the content for this comes mainly from the Senior team meeting on Monday. We go over what is happening in the week and then just have a bit of a chat and, its nice to get to see everyone’s face.

A New Year’s resolution of mine is to go out for a walk every morning. I’ve even pinned this reminder on the wall above my laptop to make sure that I make it happen each day! Today the weather isn’t very nice, but I make myself go. If you have a ‘desk job’ you’ll know that we really don’t move enough throughout the day, so I am really committed to sticking to this. After a nice refreshing walk its time to catch up with the Partner I report to, David Smith, he is a really supportive mentor to work with. I update him, then we talk about the various ongoing projects and client matters, he is so insightful and really does help me to see the best way to tackle things. A few ongoing clients matters to take care of, then its suddenly 5pm, the time really does seem to fly by which I can only think is a positive sign as I’m always so engaged with what I’m doing.

Lets get everyone paid

Wednesday is BACS day, so I am more hands on today and payroll process focused. I check the processing trackers, check the BACS tracker, make sure all payrolls due are with the team for processing and things are progressing nicely.

We were very busy last week with the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme claim deadline for December’s furlough pay, so next on the agenda is a meeting with my colleagues who deal with the CJRS claims to make plans for the next round of claims. At MHA Henderson Loggie, we are lucky enough to have an Employer Advisory Team which was set up in response to the Covid-19 situation, they provide advice and support to our clients on the CJRS scheme and surrounding matters, including dealing with furlough grant calculation and claims. The Payroll Team and Employer Advisory Team have been collaborating very closely since March last year, we have adapted well to this new reality.

Later in the day, I have a catch up with my firm wide colleagues to plan the content for the next Virtual Accountancy Network session. My calendar for February is filling up already!

Checking in, and looking to the future

I have two recurring entries in my diary on Thursdays TEAM and CLIENTS. Team means I need to think about the team on an individual basis, is anyone needing support? This is especially relevant now in this ‘new normal ‘we all have had to adapt to. Some colleagues are parents who are home working and simultaneously home schooling, they have a lot to juggle, so today a chat around flexible hours and workable solutions was on the agenda.

I know that if my team are ok, my clients will be looked after. But nevertheless, these tough times mean some clients are finding life difficult. The payroll team has fed back some information to me, so I call our client to see how we can help them. Our clients know they can call us anytime, but this time it was for me to take the initiative.

Also, on the agenda today, we have configuration work to do on some new software, so lots to get through today, it's all hands-on-deck.! We are excited about the opportunities our new software will bring, and the configuration session goes well.

In between all of this there is the usual daily flow of client calls, team catch ups and requests for help or information to deal with. Most days comprise of expected activity and unexpected activity, so we constantly triage tasks and adapt plans to place the resources where they are needed most.

We made it!

Its Friday! Today I make sure I follow a strict 9am-5pm schedule, no early start, it’s been a busy week.

A bit of admin to start the day, such as authorising team holidays, catching up on LinkedIn posts, workplace posts and authorising invoices.

Friday is a day I like to use for doing some training and to catch up on reading. There is so much happening in the world of payroll now, the legislation has been ever-changing since March, so keeping up with any new developments is essential.

Workplace pension triennial re enrolment next, and a meeting with with my Assistant Manager to review how all of that is going rounds off the morning for me.

And before you know it, the week is over! There is not much we can do on the weekends, but relaxation is definitely on the agenda.