Finance, Accounting and Audit
Finance Practice
Advanced Payroll Management Programme
Running a payroll that is right, on time, and reconciled, with the statutory returns to prove it.
- Duration
- 5 days
- Contact hours
- 30
- Level
- Advanced
- Fee from
- On enquiry
Overview
Payroll has no good failure modes. It is right or somebody is not paid, and an error is simultaneously an employee relations problem, a tax exposure and an accounting misstatement. The common causes are a master file that anybody can edit, variable inputs arriving by email on the day of the run, no reconciliation between the payroll and the ledger, and statutory returns prepared from the payroll rather than reconciled to it. This week treats payroll as a controlled process, through the cycle and into the returns and the year end.
Who should attend
Payroll managers and officers, HR staff responsible for payroll inputs, financial accountants who post and reconcile it, and internal auditors reviewing the function.
What you will be able to do
- Control the payroll master file so a change is authorised and traceable.
- Run the cycle with a cut off that variable inputs actually respect.
- Reconcile payroll to the general ledger and to the bank every period.
- Treat benefits, allowances and deductions with the right tax consequence.
- Prepare and reconcile statutory returns so a review finds nothing new.
How it is taught
Short input, then work, across 5 days of roughly 6 teaching hours each. Exercises run on situations delegates bring rather than on a case study written for a different organisation. Cohorts are capped so that everybody is asked something.
Available as classroom, in house.
Programme outline
Day 1
The payroll as a control problem
- Where payroll errors come from, in order of frequency
- Segregation between HR, payroll and payment
- The master file, and who may change what
- Starters, leavers and the ones still being paid
Day 2
Running the cycle
- A cut off that variable inputs respect
- Overtime, shift and allowance inputs, authorised at source
- Pre run exception review, and what to look at
- Approval of the run, and the evidence of it
Day 3
Pay, benefits and deductions
- Taxable and non taxable elements, and the grey ones
- Benefits in kind, and valuing them consistently
- Statutory and voluntary deductions, and their priority
- Terminations, leave pay and final settlements
Day 4
Reconciliation and reporting
- Payroll to ledger, every period
- Payroll to bank, and the unpresented items
- Headcount and cost reporting that managers can use
- Provisions for leave and for bonus
Day 5
Statutory and year end
- Returns reconciled to the payroll rather than prepared from it
- Correcting a prior period without creating a second error
- Preparing for a revenue authority or audit review
- Records, retention and confidentiality
What you leave with
- A control map of the delegate's payroll cycle with the authorisation points named.
- A period end reconciliation pack covering ledger, bank and statutory accounts.
- A checklist for the year end and the statutory reconciliation.
Dates and fees
| Dates | Location | Format | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 to 27 November 2026 | Maseru, Lesotho | Classroom | R15,000 |
| 30 November 2026 to 4 December 2026 | Lagos, Nigeria | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 7 to 11 December 2026 | Gaborone, Botswana | Classroom | R15,000 |
| 14 to 18 December 2026 | Nairobi, Kenya | Classroom | US$1,500 |
Fees are per delegate and cover tuition, all programme materials and the certificate. Travel, accommodation and visas are arranged by the delegate. Registration closes two weeks before a programme starts.
Certificate
A GATI certificate recording what was attended, issued after the programme has run and attendance has been taken. Attending at least 80 per cent of the days earns a certificate of completion; attending less earns a certificate of attendance stating exactly what was attended. Every certificate carries a code that anybody can check against GATI's own record.
It records participation. and GATI does not claim one it does not hold.