If you’re looking to learn the process of keeping, analyzing, verifying, and reporting financial records, you may want to consider a career in Accounting administration. Accounting and payroll administration go hand-in-hand.
What is Payroll Administration?
Employees are usually paid per duration worked. Therefore, any activity channeled into organizing compensation or remuneration for employees in an organization with recourse to hours being put into work, and the applicable rate is referred to as Payroll Administration.
A payroll administrator ensures employees get their salaries at the appropriate time.
Duties of a Payroll Administrator
- Maintains employee payroll records.
- Audits time-keeping records. The essence of timekeeping in an organization is to enforce compliance amongst employees.
- In the event wherein there are changes in pay as a result of a salary increase, a payroll administrator has to update it to conform with the new payment status subsequently.
- New hires are being entered into the organization’s payroll by the administrator.
Difference Between Accounting and Payroll Administrators
Oftentimes, people see accounting and payroll administration as one. While that may appear true to an extent, there is, however, a bit difference between these two. While accounts administrators handle a broader range of monetary transactions across the organization, payroll administrators concentrate strictly on salary functions of accounting as the case may be.
Salary Scale
Accounting Administrator
You should expect $21/hour, which should amount to $41,000 annually for median salary and $32/hour, which amounts to $66,000 annually for high-end salary earners.
Payroll Administrator
$24/hour, which amounts to $49,000/year for median salary, and $29/hour, which amounts to $60,000/year.
Becoming an Accounting/Payroll Administrator
The fastest route into the Canadian labor market is through a diploma program. Given this, a diploma in accounting and payroll administration has the potential to put you in the driving seat because every business in Canada needs this service for its finances and employee compensation.
Here are the requisite skills you’ll learn in this program to shape you for the task ahead.
- Ability to build spreadsheets, and use formulas in Excel
- Be knowledgeable with the complete payroll process
- Principles of accounting
- Sound knowledge of accounting software, for example, the Sage 50 and QuickBooks
- Business mathematics
- Get acquainted with the payroll process, etc.
You are expected to spend a maximum period of 10 months in this program, out of which 6 months is for internship. It is a flexible program that you can take either online or on campus. The entry requirement is a Canadian high school grade 12, or its equivalent for mature students. After the 10 monthly programs, you should be an expert in managing the complete accounting cycle for every business.
A career in accounting and payroll administration is encouraged enormously. This is subject to the fact that organizations rely on each of these administrators for their financial responsibilities and employee remuneration, which ultimately enhance job satisfaction.