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

Notmyrealname

Tiggy_Wiggy wrote: »

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

Not really a valid argument. You may have only had one or two jobs.

Most of the small businesses I provided computer services for used Sage.

SGina

I have worked for a number of companies, both small & large, public and private and it is the small companies that tend to use Sage. Medium & Large companies do not tend to touch Sage. (I have a low opinion of Sage, but that's just me)

Mudd14

All the companies I have worked at use Sage, from a firm of accountants to a construction company to a large retailer turning over hundreds of millions.....

Evilm

If they don't use Sage they tend to use another software package instead as far as I've seen. Calculating it all by hand must be a nightmare and in this day and age I can't see many people doing that these days. (I know of one person who does it all by hand but I don't really think he's the norm.)

Tiggy_Wiggy

Notmyrealname wrote: »

Not really a valid argument. You may have only had one or two jobs.

Most of the small businesses I provided computer services for used Sage.

Maybe that's the difference. The companies I have worked for (more than 2 but less than 10), have all been medium to large size manufacturing companies.

Smaller businesses may find using a standardised package such as Sage ok for their requirements.

LadyMissA

Notmyrealname wrote: »

Not really a valid argument. You may have only had one or two jobs.

Most of the small businesses I provided computer services for used Sage.

I have only worked in one company that used Sage Payroll too and I have had 10 different jobs since 1986

Mara69

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

When i started in income recovery (Leaseholder services) my Maths skills were OK. They're pretty good now, in terms of what I need for my job. I think with the right training and computer packages, mediocre maths will do are a starting point.

uponahill

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 would have to have a 'feeling' for maths as well as an ability to understand and use maths. You would also require good IT skills, both keyboard operation and software abilities as well as an inquiring and analytical mind.

uponahill

Evilm wrote: »

If they don't use Sage they tend to use another software package instead as far as I've seen. Calculating it all by hand must be a nightmare and in this day and age I can't see many people doing that these days. (I know of one person who does it all by hand but I don't really think he's the norm.)

Payroll was always done by hand with the help of an Adler adding machine in my days.
If you were lucky they used a Kalamazoo system.

You had to understand how to operate the tax tables that HMRC sent out every year, understand code numbers, calculate percentages and fractions.

Then you had to understand NI rules.

On top of that understand sick pay, maternity pay etc.

I never used a computer until 2000 much less a calculator!

And that was my first job and I have an A level in Maths!

ky822000

When I was a supervisor in a large department (having done payroll previously), I found the hardest thing was explaining to people that you couldn't work out hours or annual leave on a calculator!!

Trying to explain to someone that hours work on a quarter/half/three quarter basis because an hour is 60 minutes (ie, on a calculator, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75) was incredibly difficult but actually very simple maths - just took a different way of looking at things.

To answer your question; you don't need A level maths to do payroll, just a VERY good grasp of day to day maths and numbers.....