Payroll systems, process & controls
- Payroll process and controls review
- New system implementation assessment and support
- Emergency payroll processing when your team is unavailable
Our expertise
Wage Compliance
01
Payroll & compliance reviews
End-to-end reviews of your payroll processes and controls to confirm wage compliance and identify gaps before they become underpayments.
Payroll process and controls reviews
- Pre-merger and acquisition payroll compliance due diligence
- Payroll data analytics
- Historical and sample payroll recalculations to identify and quantify underpayments
- Annualised salary assessments
- Better Off Overall Tests (BOOT)
- Long service leave calculations
- Rostering and work pattern analysis
02
Wage remediations
Quantifying underpayments, running the remediations and supporting with payments to current and former employees.
Wage remediations
- Payroll remediation project management
- Payroll recalculations to quantify underpayments and superannuation shortfalls
- Support making rectification payments
- Detailed records and reporting for boards, auditors and regulators
- Root cause fixes to prevent recurrence
03
Payroll implementations
Implementing a new payroll system or making changes to your existing one, with award rules, pay codes and allowances set up correctly from day one.
Payroll implementations
- Payroll system implementation support, working with your vendor and internal teams
- Pay rule configuration
- New employee group setup, including classifications, pay rates, allowances and penalties
- Merger and acquisition payroll risk reviews and employee integration
- Data migration reviews covering historical balances, leave accruals and employee details
- Testing scenario design, including parallel payroll runs before go-live
04
Workplace legislation
Auditing pay, leave and record-keeping practices against the Fair Work Act 2009, Fair Work Regulations 2009, the National Employment Standards and State/Territory legislation.
Workplace legislation
- Review of payroll practices against awards, enterprise agreements and the National Employment Standards (NES)
- Sample and historical payroll recalculations to quantify underpayments
- Better Off Overall Test (BOOT) assessments for enterprise agreements and annualised salaries
- Long service leave assessments under state and territory legislation
- Rostering and work pattern compliance reviews
- Employee classification reviews
- Clear, practical compliance advice
05
Enforceable undertakings
Negotiating undertakings with the Fair Work Ombudsman, bringing in PR support to protect your reputation, and preparing rectification models.
Enforceable undertakings
- Support understanding your EU obligations
- Provide a clear, practical roadmap
- Root cause analysis of underpayments
- Underpayment calculations and FWO documentation
- Current and former employee tracing, hotlines and communications
- Delivery or oversight of required audits
- Payroll system, classification and control fixes
- Tailored workplace relations training for managers, HR and payroll teams
- Management of EU deadlines, reporting and FWO interactions
- Sustainable compliance frameworks
06
Liaison with the Fair Work Ombudsman
Where you have been required to self-report, we manage communication with the FWO on your behalf, from first contact through to resolution.
Liaison with the Fair Work Ombudsman
- Responses to Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) requests for information, working alongside your legal advisers where needed
- Support, where required, with self-reporting of underpayments to the FWO
- Preparation of reports, evidence and documentation for the FWO
- Ongoing point of contact for communication with the regulator
- Support in demonstrating cooperation and commitment to compliance
Payroll expertise from the inside
Our specialists have run payrolls themselves, so they understand the pressures, deadlines and complexities your team faces every pay cycle. That hands-on experience means practical advice that works in the real world, not just on paper.
It also means we can step in when you need us most. If your payroll staff are unexpectedly unavailable, we can process your payroll so your people are paid accurately and on time.
Pay compliance with Modern Awards & EBAs
- Data analytics
- Sample and historical payroll recalculations to quantify underpayments
- Assessments of annualised salaries
- Better off overall tests (BOOT)
- Long service leave calculations
- Rostering and work pattern analytics
Remediation & Fair Work Ombudsman support
- Regulatory support: independent audits and assessments for Enforceable Undertakings
- Project management for payroll remediation programs
- Hotlines and communications for impacted individuals
- Facilitating rectification payments back to individuals
Superannuation & payroll tax
- Identifying and quantifying superannuation shortfalls as part of payroll recalculations
- Flagging potential Superannuation Guarantee Charge and payroll tax exposure
- Working alongside your accountant, or one of our partner accountancy firms, where formal tax advice is needed
Questions worth asking
- Is your payroll system set up for the awards and agreements that apply to your people?
- Have you checked recently for Modern Award updates that apply to your organisation?
- Could you be underpaying employees, and have you quantified everything that’s owed?
- Are superannuation contributions being calculated and paid correctly?
- Do you need independent audit support for an Enforceable Undertaking?
If you’re not sure of the answer to any of these, our wage compliance specialists can help you find out.
Working with your accountants
We’re workplace relations and payroll compliance specialists, not accountants, so we don’t provide tax advice. Where a review raises tax questions, we work closely with accountancy firms, whether that’s your own or one of our trusted partners, so you get the right advice throughout the process.