Payroll & Accounts Assistant

The School

King Edward’s School, founded in 1552, is an independent co-educational Day School: there are currently 700+ pupils in the Senior School (including 220 pupils in the Sixth Form), 195 in the Junior School and 90 in the Pre-prep school.

The Senior School and Junior Schools are independently situated on North Road in a delightfully landscaped 14-acre site on the south eastern edge of Bath, just below the University, with fine views over the City Centre and surrounding hills.  In addition, there are attractive playing fields one mile from the School at Bathampton. The Pre-prep School is situated in Weston Lane close to the Royal United Hospital.

The School is a registered Charity and is incorporated as a company limited by guarantee

Job Purpose:

The monthly payroll for c280 employees is processed in-house using Payroll Plus, part of the PASS software system, on which training will be provided.

The role is to support the School Accountant in the processing the payroll for staff across all 3 Schools in a timely and accurate manner and be responsible for managing the school’s payroll operations ensuring that each stage of the payroll process is actioned properly; that staff are paid correctly; that appropriate and accurate information is provided to the School Accountant and that correct information and payments are made to the HMRC, pension providers and other statutory bodies.  In addition, the role will carry out additional accounting and finance activities on both the Sales Ledger and Purchase Ledger.

Main Activities:

Payroll Activities

• Complete payroll processing for each pay period, ensuring that staff are paid on time and receive the correct payments.
• Understanding and following payroll procedures and payroll related forms.
• Inputting, maintaining and updating all employee records on the payroll system.
• Processing overtime and expense claims for employees.
• Complying with relevant legislation and regulations (eg Pension reporting, HMRC reporting
• Assisting with month-end processes essential for statutory and other returns (eg reconciliation of Payroll, filing of Pension returns, returns to HMRC etc)
• Assisting with year-end processes (eg reporting to HMRC, pension reports for all schemes operated by the School and preparation of P60s).
• Dealing with payroll queries from employees.
• Maintaining confidentiality of employee’s pay records
• Completing payroll reports for review by School Accountant and Bursar
• Prepare budgetary information from the payroll as required by the School Accountant and provide support to the School Accountant and Bursar during the annual budgeting process
• In conjunction with the School Accountant and HR Manager, plan the best way to implement legislative changes and ensure that standard procedures are developed to support any such changes
• Participate in any projects to develop the payroll processes, taking a lead on identifying improvements and playing a key role in implementing any resultant changes

Financial & Management Accounting Duties

• Provide assistant with charging and collection of termly fees and other income
• Administration and reconciliation of school trips and tours 
• Assist with Debtors control
• Providing assistance to Purchase Ledger, matching invoices to purchase orders, batching and coding of invoices, investigating discrepancies, data input, supplier payments.
• Daily banking duties, including petty cash as required.
• Office filing, photocopying and any other ad hoc duties as directed by the School Accountant

Person specification

• Demonstrated payroll processing experience
• Understanding of Tax procedures and familiarity with other salary deductions
• Accounting and Bookkeeping skills with appropriate qualifications
• A knowledge of spread sheets MS Excel, Word and Outlook
• Strong numeracy and literacy skills
• Ability to work to tight deadlines & undertake reconciliations
• Ability to work with minimal supervision with sound decision making skills
• Organised individual with a methodical approach to work and a keen attention to detail
• Excellent telephone manner and good communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to interpret and apply relevant legislation
• A team player with a good sense of humour, willingness and enthusiasm