Payroll Officer – £30,000 – £35,000 per year. Full time, office based in Alderley Park, Macclesfield. 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm. Free parking.
Main purpose of role: Responsible for managing and operating the organisation’s payroll system and cycles with the greatest level of accuracy and efficiency. Deals with confidential information daily; responsible for accounts receivable and other accounts tasks; support the Finance Manager and Finance Team.
Key Responsibilities
- Own the completion of the company’s payroll routines and payroll cycles.
- Ensure all aspects of payroll are completed to meet relevant ethical, regulatory compliance and legal standards, having due regard for the policies and processes of the organisation, as well as legislative payroll practices.
- Maintain payroll information by collecting, calculating, and entering data.
- Input pension amendments, process auto‑enrolment and submissions to the external pension provider (Legal & General).
- Calculate statutory payments such as SSP, SPP and SMP and deal with Attachment of Earnings.
- Process P11D returns, tax code changes, P45, and RTI submissions.
- Upload monthly payroll journals accurately and promptly.
- Maintain monthly payroll accruals for holidays and worked hours not paid.
- Reconcile hours worked per time records against contracted hours.
- Work closely with HR to ensure processing accuracy and data integrity.
- Answer staff questions about salary, deductions, attendance, time records, and pension queries.
- Liaise with external agencies such as HMRC and the pension provider.
- Protect employee confidence through the confidentiality of payroll operations.
- Complete new entrant and leaver procedures to meet payroll deadlines.
- Produce monthly, supplemental reports and ad‑hoc analysis to agreed deadlines, including reconciliation of payroll balance sheet accounts such as Pension Control Account and Net Pay control.
- Undertake all integrity and audit checks to ensure information received from operational, clinical and central teams is authorised, accurate and completed within deadlines.
- Maintain key stakeholder management and establish effective working relationships internally and externally, contributing subject‑matter expertise in organisational development and company service evaluation.
- Provide support to the Finance Manager in achieving the team and organisation’s strategic projects.
- Run monthly accounts receivable and associated debt collection when required, and maintain the accrual and reporting schedule.
- Perform weekly cash top‑ups to package prepaid debit cards and reconcile them.
- Process monthly and ad‑hoc expense runs.
- Provide additional support and/or cover for other administrative and operational tasks within the Finance team as needed.
Essential Skills & Experience
- Proven experience as a payroll specialist.
- Experience with NetSuite Payroll.
- Trustworthy with a strong focus on confidentiality.
- Outstanding organisational ability with great attention to detail.
- Excellent communication skills.
- Expert knowledge of Income Tax, National Insurance, SSP and SMP.
- Ability to calculate Gross to Net pay manually.
- Strong IT skills, including Microsoft Excel and Office.
- Payroll qualification is desirable.
- Accounts experience is desirable.
Benefits
- Highly competitive salary.
- Westfield Cashplan & Rewards.
- Free parking.
- Company pension.
- Professional development.
- Blue Light card.
