Welcome to your next module - Establish and maintain payroll systems. In this module, you will be presented with the knowledge required to understand the fundamentals of recording and preparing payroll documentation, responding to enquiries, and processing payroll data for manual and computerised systems.
The knowledge covered in this module is included but not limited to:
- Establishing payroll requirements
- Recording payroll data
- Preparing and processing the payroll
- Handling payroll enquiries
- Maintaining the payroll system
Case Study
This module teaches what is required for the role of a Payroll Officer. You will be asked to complete activities to practice your knowledge and understanding of the topic before undertaking the assessment. The practice exercises will be completed using MYOB Business™.
Please be aware that you will be using a trial version of MYOB Business, which is intended for educational purposes. You will have access to this file for six months. If you think you might not be able to complete this module within that time period, please get in touch with MYOB support and ask for an extension.
This is Taylor Burns. Ace Finance employs Taylor to work with small businesses assisting them in managing their payroll.
Let us begin by asking Taylor three questions about his role.
To work as a payroll officer there is no mandated qualification. However, most businesses will not employ a payroll officer without some formal qualification to prove their expertise and knowledge of payroll and related accountancy services. Additional training in specific payroll systems, such as MYOB or Xero, is also highly desirable.
In addition to this, there are some soft skills a payroll officer should have to succeed in their career. These include:
- Good communication skills to communicate effectively with employees and management
- Integrity as a significant amount of information that I deal with is confidential and protected under the Privacy Act
- Attention to detail including being able to identify problems and resolve issues quickly
- Ability to learn and develop new skills. This is especially important as tax requirements change regularly with the introduction of Single Touch Payroll most business now use a computerised accounting system to perform their payroll functions.
I work with many small businesses assisting them in implementing and processing their payroll. Some of the day to day tasks I assist with include:
- Collecting and collating timesheets from employees to ensure the correct information is entered and employees receive the right pay.
- Calculating pay for employees with irregular working hours.
- Calculating deductions and benefits such as mileage paid to drivers or deductions for workplace schemes, bonuses, overtime and other incidents where an employee received extra pay.
- Handling superannuation and annual leave
- Carrying out tax compliance including setting up and reporting through Single Touch Payroll and ensuring all tax is completed correctly for employee pay, including all withholdings paid as part of tax at the end of the tax year.
- Entering new employee information into a payroll system and answering queries from employees about changes in their pay, taxes, or any other payroll related matter.
I have been working at Ace Finance as a payroll officer for the last two years, so I am familiar with the federal state and territory employment legislation as well as the Fair Work Act. To maintain this knowledge, I subscribe to the ATO and Fairwork newsletter, which sends notifications about new regulations or changes. In the past, I have also attended payroll seminars and webinars to keep informed on changes in the industry.
This course uses the cloud-based accounting system MYOB Business™ to set up, process and manage payroll. Access a 6-month education trial to complete the activities in this module.
Please be aware that the license provided to you is for educational purposes only. Key details about your MYOB educational license:
- License Type: Educational
- Access Duration: 6 months
- Relevant Modules that use MYOB:
- FMSACC426 Set up and operate computerised accounting systems
- FNSTPB411 Complete business activity and instalment activity statements
- FNSTPB412 Establish and maintain payroll systems
- FNSACC418 Work effectively in the accounting and bookkeeping industry
It's crucial to complete these modules within this 6-month timeframe. If, for any reason, you are unable to finish these modules within the six-month period, you must take the following steps:
- Contact MYOB Help: Reach out to MYOB support for assistance. Located in the top right corner of the dashboard.
- Request Extension: Ask for an extension due to course requirements.
We encourage you to manage your time effectively and plan your coursework accordingly. Failure to contact MYOB help before your trial expires will result in the loss of access to your MYOB file, and any work you have completed to date will be irretrievably lost.
To introduce you to MYOB Accounting, we have included the following introductory course.
Day to day with MYOB - this will provide you with an overview of the full accounting features, only one of which is payroll. It's a good idea to go through it to see where Payroll fits into the bigger application, and how banking details are managed.
This video tutorial will describe MYOB Business:
This video provides details about setting up payroll. We'll go over each element as we move along the module, but you can get a good overview watching MYOB's tutorial.
