Creating a Payroll Manual
Last month we talked about preparing to cover for vacations. One very useful tool for this is to have a payroll manual in place. There are many ways to accomplish this. In my first payroll job, we had a binder with print screens and step by step instructions on each of the main tasks of payroll, such as sending the pay over to the vendor, downloading the hours from our time and attendance system, and processing adjustments.
Remote Solutions: With today’s remote work environment, a binder may not be a feasible solution. If your department does not have a shared workspace, I recommend you get one, whether it be:
- Shared drive on the company network
- Folder in Office 365
- Team site on Microsoft Teams.
Within this folder, you can save all the steps necessary to process your company’s payroll.
Payroll manual: Step by step instructions with print screens is the most thorough way to create a payroll manual. A simple word document is the most efficient program to accomplish this.
1. Using a word document gives you the ability to make edits as things change over time, but it would be best to assign the editing to one member on your team. Word gives the option to password protect the document to prevent any unintended edits being made.
2. After taking a screen shot from your payroll system, you can simply insert it into a word document using your keyboard shortcuts for paste (ctrl + v). It will put the image in your document where you are. You can then continue typing the instructions above or below your image. The image will move along with your text.
3. Oftentimes it is helpful to have text boxes and arrows pointing to items in the screen shot.
To insert an arrow
Choose “insert” on your ribbon.
Click on shapes.
Choose the arrow from drop-down menu.
Use your mouse to draw the arrow where you want it. You can move it or resize as necessary as well.
To insert an arrow
Choose “insert” on your ribbon.
Click on text box.
Draw the box where you want it.
Both an arrow and a text box are free to move around.
They do not go in line with the text, so you are able to put them where you want to put them.
Once you have all your screen shots and instructions put together as you want them, you can save them all in one central place and give everyone on your team to access them. This gives them options as they can print them to follow along as they go and make notes or highlights, or they can just reference them on their screen if they prefer.