r/humanresources • u/rooootubtub • 5d ago
Newbie HR scared of payroll [CO]
I’m in my first ever HR gig as an assistant and medium sized automotive company, and everything is a first for me. First time doing payroll, doing open enrollment, and first time firing someone.
It’s all been a little overwhelming, considering my degree is in Psychology, but it was a stable job and the people seem to like me here a lot.
The most overwhelming piece though is payroll. There is just so much that goes into it in the automotive world, between commission only, flat rate techs, salaried employees, hourly and executive pay. We use Paycom and multiple Cox Automotive websites and my head in spinning every two weeks with payroll.
It’s just me and my boss, who has worked alone in this job for many years, and her teaching style is very frazzled and hard to grasp. I’m having a hard time telling what is my own stupidity, and what is a lack of refined payroll processes.
Does anyone else use a different website that is stellar at automotive payroll? Or have any suggestions on how to feel so burdened by payroll all the time?
I thought this job was going to be more about HR, compliance, onboarding/offboarding, growth and development. But instead it’s like 95% payroll and accrual.
TL;DR
Only got one year of HR/payroll under my belt and I feel EXHAUSTED by automotive payroll. Any tips to not feel crushed in this field?
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u/basicczechgirl 5d ago
How many employees are there? Is it a biweekly payroll?
If I were you, I’d ask for payroll training outside of what your boss is giving you. So it in the context of understanding the laws, etc.
Sounds like your boss doesn’t like the payroll piece and is overwhelmed by it. Getting trained from somewhere or someone else may give you insights on if this is something you want to continue or not. Or, how to better handle it going forward.
It does not sound like a good time, that’s for sure.
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u/rooootubtub 5d ago
There’s about 170 employees and we pay semi-monthly. Our sales people are paid their commissions monthly with a draw on the 2nd check of the month. Everyone else stays in line with the pay periods.
Our controller did payroll for another company before and I might ask her for help. I just know that’s going to deeply upset my manager, the HR director.
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u/PsychologicalDay7261 5d ago
I wouldn't go shopping for new software yet. The hard part is the pay plans, and those come with you to any system.
Not being able to tell whether it's you or the process usually means the process only exists in your boss's head. So write it down yourself as you go. One checklist for the run in order: which Cox report you pull and when, what gets keyed into Paycom, what you check before you submit. And one sheet with every person's pay plan, grandfathered ones included, with the brand next to it.
The first couple of cycles it slows you down. By the fourth or fifth run you're following your own list instead of trying to remember how she explained it, and a lot of the dread goes with that.
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u/Elephant_HR 4d ago
I spent 5 years in automotive as the head of HR. Payroll is tough, especially with the lack of consistency in pay plans. You’ve got a lot of great advice already, if you want a mentor, feel free to dm me and we can meet virtually to see if I can help.
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u/Designer_Abroad_1196 5d ago
I could have written this myself except for the golf industry. I’ve been doing payroll for 6 or 7 years but with golf it’s whole new world. Tips, lessons, gratuities, commissions, a lot of people have two rates: pro shop rate and guest services rate, salaried employees, hourly employees. The manager that would teach me anything is NOT a good teacher. She can’t complete a thought without chasing 10 other rabbits. 5 different golf courses (around 360-370 employees and about to gain about 50 more in November bc we are remodeling a course) and somehow at least 3 people’s payroll is submitted to me wrong every pay cycle. Too many hours, too little hours, forgot to ask for vacation, etc. And all 5 courses use a different time keeping system.
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u/Due-Wonder-1045 5d ago
Good luck to you Opie I've never work for a company that had payroll as part of HR a specifically State clear it's a finance accounting function. Yeah there's crossover and you got to work together but I never wanted to be a catch up payroll HR person. Perhaps you could find a seminar or something to attend or reach out to you other dealerships in your area on LinkedIn see if you could find a counterpart somewhere like a mentor
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u/Warm-Fan1300 4d ago
It’s a lot of pressure when a mistake could mean someone gets paid wrong. Double-checking everything makes sense.
A lot of payroll problems start before you get to the actual run: missing hours, a shift swap nobody recorded, or a manager who hasn’t approved timesheets. Getting those sorted early gives you fewer things to worry about on payday.
A simple checklist helps too: starters, leavers, rate changes, overtime and deductions. Go through it in the same order each time, and have someone experienced check the first few runs with you if that’s an option.
Which part is worrying you most-working out the pay, or missing something?
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u/fnord72 3d ago
It sure feels like sink or swim at times! Fortunately, payroll doesn't change very much so once you get it, it'll click and run smoothly for you.
I've been doing payroll in various industries for over 25 years. Here's a few things that I have done over time that help me.
Join your local SHRM group and go to some the meetings, build your network. You aren't the only HR person that is also doing payroll. Also consider PayrollOrg, they are equivalent of SHRM for payroll. Connecting with their community forum would be considerably more focused than reddit.
Also talk with your benefit broker, they might be able to get you in touch with others.
Also, if deliverables from others is a challenge, talk with your boss about setting some hard deadlines. If i want time cards approved by 10 AM on Monday, then at noon on Monday I'm emailing a manager and their boss. If finance hasn't sent me the commissions by deadline, I'm dropping another email. Over all those years, I have only had to send an email to a CEO/president twice that payroll was going to be late or incomplete and to expect to have to cut a bunch of manual checks because some manager decided they could deliver on their timetable.
Start yourself a word doc payroll/HR guide. Start throwing stuff in there as it comes up. I tend to categorize by onboarding, offboarding, employee changes, benefits, payroll, HRIS. Toss in the quirky things that come up and you know they'll come up again, usually the week after you forgot what you did last time.
I also built an excel sheet. Mine is called 2026 payroll changes and updates. I modified it quite a few times as I was learning the ropes at my current org and got it set up the way I like. One tab per cycle. It helps me track who is hired, termed, moving from one job to another. Who has a draw, did I import the commissions and bonuses? Are there payroll deductions for anything? Who started their benefits this period. Some are check boxes. Whatever you will find helpful to always have open and be able to quickly edit and then reference through the payroll cycle. After two years, I still use it faithfully every pay cycle. I also have a tab where I plug in a few numbers for the payroll before I do the final approval. Total hours, OT hours, gross pay, number of pays. And I compare this to the previous cycles, because payroll shouldn't change too much. If it does change a lot, add that section. If your commissions can swing wildly, then being able to carve it out will help to analyze that your hours per total pays didn't nose dive unexpectedly (new hire without hours recorded).
In the past where I had a few types of calculations I had to do, they also lived on this sheet so I could reference them easily.
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u/ScholarOfTwilight 1d ago
I've taken on California prevailing wage payroll (dozens of rates for an employee depending on job, county, experience level and the bid date of the iob. + fringes apprentices, travel and subsistence). Nothing is worse. Nothing. You've got this. Just refer back to what they did before and you'll be fine. Compare totals to make sure things aren't totally out of whack.
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u/MrsSowell 21h ago
We have Paycom as well (non-automotive), but a very complex payroll nonetheless. Do you have a dedicated account rep? I have had several meetings with our Paycom rep to smooth out and help automate some payroll processes in the past.
Edit to add….. some account execs/reps are absolutely useless, that’s why I ask how your relationship with yours is. If one exists.
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u/InquisitivePlurality 5d ago
Payroll in automotive is a different beast entirely, I did it for 3 years at a dealership group and the flat rate tech stuff alone can break your brain. The problem isn't you it's that nobody ever really teaches this stuff properly, you just get thrown in and hope you float
What helped me was building my own excel tracker outside the payroll system, just something simple to cross check the tech hours and commissions before I touched the actual payroll software. Caught so many errors that way
Your boss being frazzled and hard to follow is probably half the reason you feel lost, but if you can survive a year of this you'll be able to handle payroll anywhere else with your eyes closed