Projects
I have completed a total of 26 payroll projects during my 10 years of living in Australia - 10 large scale projects and 16 smaller scale projects. My clients have operated in a number of different industries, covered by many different Awards and Enterprise Agreements. Since leaving EY in 2022, I set up as an independent payroll consultant offering the same level of customer service and expertise at a fraction of the Big 4 cost. Below is a summary of 3 of my more recent, larger scale projects.
Utilities Company
Payroll Project Manager
No. of employees: 2,300
Systems: Workday, Chris21
This organisation identified employee underpayment in April 22, leading to a large scale underpayment calculation covering 7 years.
Client Risks:
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Lack of supporting documentation for key decisions and the complexity and interpretation of Enterprise Agreements.
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Loss of key process stakeholders and knowledge of legacy practice.
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System configuration issues and the need for manual workarounds.
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Inability for time and attendance and payroll systems to automate award interpretation to support efficient pay.
Legislation: Water Award 2010 and 2020, 3 Enterprise Agreements
Activities completed:
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Worked with company employment lawyers and a Big 4 modelling team to determine the calculation methodology to quantify employee underpayment for EA covered employees.
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Supported testing the outputs of the underpayment calculation in order to verify the testing methodology and exceptions.
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Development of a remediation plan to help prevent future underpayment.
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Production of communication documents to outline decisions made, processes followed, and outcomes of work completed for the Fair Work Ombudsman.
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Identification of business rules to support the transition to a new time and attendance system.
Large scale tertiary education provider
Payroll SME (EY)
No. of employees: 16,000
Systems: SAP
This client requested a review into their end-to-end payroll processes in order to identify process risk and potential underpayment or non-compliance with legislation.
Client Risks:
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System configuration issues and manual workarounds.
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Process complexity, including the nature and number of entitlements and interpretation of these.
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Organisational complexity, including the range of staff roles and work performed.
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Data integrity and hygiene in relevant payroll related systems, including ERP transition impacts.
Legislation: 3 Enterprise Agreements
Activities completed:
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Executed key stakeholder interviews and process walkthroughs in order to understand the design effectiveness of the end-to-end process, risks and operating controls.
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Development of risk and control matrices (RACMs) highlighting key controls against risks and assessing the design effectiveness of identified controls.
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Creation of an issues log to report key issues and quick wins on a timely basis.
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Identification of the key operating controls and testing of the top risk mitigating operating controls for operating
effectiveness. -
Production of a report of findings, recommendations
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Development of a high-level remediation roadmap.
Global Transport Company
Payroll SME (EY)
No. of employees: 17,000
Systems: Workday, Preceda
This project commenced with assessing and remediating this entity’s payroll reconciliations for 13 payroll general ledger accounts across 13 separate business units (169 in total), but quickly progressed into providing considerable findings and recommendations for process improvement around payroll data capture, reporting and analysis, plus support in improving payroll operations and compliance with Payroll legislation.
Client Risks:
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Lack of system award interpreter resulting in significant number of manual processes and workarounds.
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Significant number of employment instruments and local agreements creating payroll complexity and process risk.
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Business spin off resulting in the need to transfer employee data and business processes to the new stakeholder team.
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Loss of key payroll members resulting in loss of significant process knowledge and intellectual property in a highly complex pay environment.
Legislation: 72 Enterprise Agreements and 15 local agreements
Activities completed:
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Assessed, cleansed and remediated 13 payroll general ledger accounts across 13 separate business units (169 in total).
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Completed an end-to-end review of the payroll processes completed at both the QLD and NSW offices to understand process risks and controls
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Documented a significant findings and recommendations report in order to streamline and improve payroll operations and to reduce the potential for underpayment and non-compliance.
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Created a large scale Excel model to calculate and allocate the $113m self insurance workers compensation premium across the business and the various States using a risk premium that was calculated using salaries and wages information and workers compensation claim costs.
Services
These are the types of services you may wish to consider:
Payroll Diagnostic
A low cost review of your end-to-end payroll processes in order to identify process risk and operating controls to help you to understand the strength of your control environment.
Project Management / Remediation
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Underpayment calculations
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Process improvement
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Controls testing
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FTE Budgets
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Reconciliations
Subject Matter Expertise
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Annualised salary arrangements
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Time and attendance
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Payroll processing
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Leave liabilities
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Remediation roadmap