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Spotlight on Service Delivery – Niamh Reilly

Niamh Reilly
Niamh Reilly

Global Payroll Client Manager

Aug 15, 2019 3 mins

#PeopleBehindPayroll

Current payroll position?

Global Payroll Client Manager at Immedis.

The payroll job that launched my career?

My career in payroll started in a construction company while in college – I was an accounts clerk there.
My aunt got me in the door and into my first office job.
Why I chose payroll…
As I always say, I didn’t choose payroll – payroll chose me!
My first day in the construction company, the accountant there decided I was a perfect fit for payroll, so she handed it over to me.
Looking back, I think she would have thought anyone was the perfect fit at that point. But I owe my career to that decision so I’m grateful she didn’t want to manage the payroll side of the business!

What I’m working on today?
It’s the end of the month for me, so this week has been all about making sure all my client’s employees have been paid -correctly and accurately and issued payslips on their pay date.
That’s basically 75% of my role wrapped up in one nice sentence!

What I bring to international/country payroll?

I’m a highly organised and methodical person by nature – both personally and professionally.
Because I’m organised and efficient, I’m always looking ahead and seeking out ways to improve our processes to have a smoother payroll operation in the long run.
I also care a lot about the people at the end of every cycle – I really believe that to succeed and continue working in payroll. You need to have a caring and empathetic streak running through your blood.
The empathic side is one of the most important traits in a payroll professional – really caring that people get paid on time and understanding that payday is a huge aspect of everyone’s lives .
Mortgages and bills get paid, savings come out, wedding deposits are paid, engagements rings are bought, school books, holidays, creche fees, dinner out with friends, celebrating with loved ones….. it all comes from payday.

It’s not just ‘payroll’- its people’s livelihoods at the end of the day.

My defining payroll moment/high point?

When I was working in Twitter, I was approached by a Senior Member of the Sales team to explain his payslip to him in detail because he couldn’t figure it out.

Over the following couple of weeks word spread and soon I had important members of the Sales team lining up at my door asking for advice on their payslips and commission.
It was a defining moment for me because it really demonstrated a deep level of trust with this team, their confidence in my advice and I also loved knowing I was helping them to understand quite complicated information as well.
I know that my advice was helping them to understand and plan out their budgets and sales commission which in reality means they can decide to bring their kids on holidays or plan a nice Christmas or buy their dream home. It’s all relevant.

My toughest payroll challenge?

Payments. There’s always a concern around month end that funds wont be credited to employees accounts on time.
Of course it always happens on time – but as any good payroll professional will tell you, there will be always be sleepless nights worrying that people won’t get paid!

My biggest industry influence?

I have to say Edel Cooney – she worked in Twitter and hired me in there at the time. She now works in Tenable Software in Dublin.

She took a chance on me back then as I only previously dealt with UK and Irish payroll but she believed I was more than capable of handling EMEA payrolls for Twitter.
She saw the best in me and believed in my ability. She was always willing to share her in depth knowledge with me and she still is a mentor to me.
I’m forever grateful for the chance she gave me to shine bright.

Best payroll innovation/development?

Payroll moving globally to an online service such as the Immedis platform, the online PAYE Modernisation in Ireland, and payroll software being utilised to its fullest extent in a lot of countries now. Its great to see payroll come on so far, so quickly.

My payroll ambition/vision?

In general, we need to have a much better way to develop some payroll software for General Ledgers to be produced and uploaded into accounting software at the click of a button.
Immedis does do this but at times we come across clients who do not have the software capabilities to match Immedis’ supremacy.
It’s something I hope the market will invest more heavily in over the coming years so they can get the most out of their payroll data and platform.

Where do you see payroll five years from now?

People will always needs to be paid and there will always be taxes to pay – payroll will never be obsolete.

But in the future, I do think automation will make our jobs more streamlined and allow us to focus on the analytics side of payroll and while still ensuring everyone gets paid on time, every time.

Immedis is really ahead of the curve in this respect but I imagine in 5 years time the other payroll providers will be where we are now, but trying to catch up with the latest technology we’ve piloted!