New Year’s Resolutions 2019

Author: Ian Hurst — Managing Director, Paymaster People Solutions

Most people believe that 5 new year’s resolutions are manageable. Any more than 5, and keeping to these resolutions becomes an impossible challenge. Any less than 5, and you’re bound to feel cheated.

So, for 2019, 5 New Year’s resolutions it will be!

Deliver great service to clients and employees alike

As a payroll administrator or manager, we need to make sure that we start the new year with the conviction that we can deliver a great service to our clients as well as to our paid employees. We must also strive to continually improve upon these levels service—After all, it’s sometimes the small things that lead to the biggest difference being made.

Paymaster’s recommended 5 New Year’s resolutions for 2019

Here’s Paymaster People Solutions’ recommended 5 New Year’s resolutions for 2019:

1. Conduct a full investigation of your payroll system. Look out for opportunities to integrate and automate existing processes. Similarly, conduct a comprehensive write-up of your findings. Include an analysis of your payroll’s data security.
2. To keep up to date with industry best-practices, commit to the regular attendance of a broad range of training courses and seminars.
3. Strongly consider switching to a paperless workflow.
4. Attend a training program on the Employment Tax Incentive scheme. Similarly, actively commit to double-checking your payroll on a regular basis.
5. Every three months, be sure to reconcile your Sout African Revenue Service (SARS) account thereby ensuring that you’re always ‘in good standing’ with the taxman.

Watch this space: Going forward, on a monthly basis, we will looking at specific steps and areas of focus in order to keep you motivated and focused for the full duration of this year.

Tips: Pursue these recommended action steps for January 2019

Tips: Pursue the following recommended action steps for January 2019:

• Be absolutely certain that your time and attendance and general ledger imports are working properly.
• Is the data you receive in the best format? Can we get payroll managers to submit in a way that will allow direct import into payroll? Take appropriate action where necessary.
• Join the South African Payroll Association and keep up to date via their newsletter.
• Regularly visit the SARS website and be on the lookout for free training sessions hosted across South Africa.
• Consider attending the Paymaster Payroll Lab training starting in February.
• Identify those areas of payroll that use paper and ask if it is really needed.
• Do a reconciliation on SARS’ Easyfile and create a baseline for future reconciliations.

Ongoing incremental payroll improvement throughout the year

January is already turning out to be a great month. Let’s keep at it! By adopting the recommendations mentioned, you’ll be best-poised to build on January’s successes in February and the months that follow. This is sure to set the platform for ongoing incremental payroll improvement every month of this year. What a pleasure! What peace of mind!