Do you need to be amazing at maths to work in Payroll?

stamina9008

Im about average at maths, not great and not awful...just mediocre.
How good do you need to be?
How relevant is competency in maths to payroll?
Thanks

hcb42

depends how you define - good at maths....

I cannot see anything in payroll that is more complicated than add subtract, multiply and divide - and being confident with percentages and decimals.

ohreally

stamina9008 wrote: »

How good do you need to be?

If you're mediocre you will fit in well and probably even excel.

pinkshoes

Mediocre would get a promotion where I work! Ours can't even calculate pro rata holiday entitlements - I had to do it for them!

Notmyrealname

stamina9008 wrote: »

Im about average at maths, not great and not awful...just mediocre.
How good do you need to be?
How relevant is competency in maths to payroll?
Thanks

I'll ask you a simple question:

Would you want someone who is "just Ok" at maths to be in charge of sorting out your wages?

Although maths isn't as important as it used to be, you still need to have a good foundation to spot mistakes.

Also, how knowledgeable are you about SAGE? Most places use Sage Payroll.

Horseunderwater

stamina9008 wrote: »

Im about average at maths, not great and not awful...just mediocre.
How good do you need to be?
How relevant is competency in maths to payroll?
Thanks

You do need to be able to work out hours, holiday pay, bank holidays, pay in lieu as well. It's not just about maths.
I used to do a weekly PR of 400 bus drivers both by PC and hand as that was the system that they had back then.
And you probably need to be trained in PAYE as well. The simple stuff is easy - it can get complicated as you fill out the P11 forms (manual/on line in sage). Especially when you add in Benefits in kind and if you do the directors pay, theirs can be very complicated. I am lucky in that I worked in taxation prior to that, so had the basics already. And I can manually work out any tax code. Many would not have a clue now. The maths is for most part the easiest bit.

Mrs_Arcanum

Maths is a very broad subject. For Payroll surely being good at Arithmetic is more useful, with a side order of percentages.

ILW

Entirely depends on what is meant by payroll.

Mudd14

You dont need to be amazing at maths but being logial and be good with figures does help. There are some people in payroll who are terrible with numbers and it does make things very difficult when trying to explain things to them or they try and explain something to an employee when they dont really know themselves!

Tiggy_Wiggy

Also, how knowledgeable are you about SAGE? Most places use Sage Payroll.

Not true. In my 15 years of working in Finance, I've only ever worked at one place who used Sage Payroll.

Would agree that you would need to have an understanding of the PAYE though. How much experience you would need however, would depend on the level of the position you are thinking of applying for.

Mudd14

Basic PAYE training can be given on the job, as with any theory it is best to be in that role so you can apply it to real life scenario's. Its pretty simple to learn the basics. You can always just download the Payroll booklets from the HMRC website to get an idea on the basics.