Payroll Specialist

Guide Dogs; Reading; Hybrid; GBP 28,000 - 42,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

26 days annual leave

Real Living Wage Employer

Flex pot to use on benefits

Buy/sell annual leave

Discounts & cash-back scheme

Excellent pension scheme

Job summary

Guide Dogs in Reading is seeking a Payroll Specialist to process payroll transactions, reconcile accounts and support month-end and year-end reporting. The role blends remote and office work, requiring attendance at our Reading hub for a minimum of two days per week.

You will ensure HMRC compliance, manage third-party payments, and oversee benefit reporting while maintaining strong controls over payroll balances.

Qualifications

• Professional payroller with experience in all aspects of payroll accounting.
• Proven experience in running payrolls from start to finish including financial reporting.
• Demonstrable experience in calculating payroll manually and able to comply with HMRC requirements.
• Experience of a similar sized organisation with similar complexity.
• GCSEs in Maths and English or equivalent (QCF levels 1-2 / SQCF levels 4-5).

Responsibilities

• Prepare, authorise and input journals into the Finance system relating to payroll accounts.
• Maintain relationships with Flexible Benefit providers to resolve over/under payments.
• Check, process and authorise payroll invoices monthly.
• Liaise with third parties for queries or issues.
• Run post payroll reports for distribution to Finance and managers.
• Ensure payroll balance sheets are reconciled and controls are in place.

Skills

Payroll accounting

End-to-end payroll

HMRC compliance

Payroll reporting

GCSE Maths & English

Education

GCSE Maths & English (or equivalent)

Job description

About The Role

Guide Dogs - Be Part of Something Life‑Changing

Come and join us as a self‑motivated and purpose‑driven Payroll Specialist and be part of something life‑changing - helping people with sight loss live the life they choose.

The Payroll Specialist helps people with sight loss to live the life they choose by processing all payroll related transactions and reconcile all accounts to the financial systems, with month end, year-end and reporting of payroll information. The role will ensure compliance with HMRC rules together with third party payments and financial controls in place within Guide Dogs. They will process any benefit reporting to the HMRC and communicate to employees.

This is a hybrid role, combining remote and office-based working. The successful candidate will be expected to work from our Reading Hub for a minimum of two days per week. Working hours for this role are Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 5:00pm.

Key Responsibilities

• Prepare, authorise and input journals into the Finance system that relate to the payroll accounts.
• Maintain good relationships with the Flexible Benefit providers to ensure that any over or under payments are resolved in a timely manner.
• Responsible for the checking, processing and authorising of all Payroll related invoices on a monthly basis.
• Liaising with relevant third parties with any queries or issues.
• Run all post payroll reports for distribution. These include the Payroll Costing Reports to be sent to Finance to enable them to prepare accurate monthly budget reports for managers.
• Accountable and responsible for ensuring all payroll related balance sheets (19 accounts totalling £3.6 million per month) are reconciled and all reconciling items are cleared. Responsible for ensuring controls are in place for overall balance sheet accounts so that if mapping from Payroll to Finance should fail steps can be put in place for corrections to be completed.

You

You’ll have a customer-focused and solution-oriented approach to delivering an accurate and efficient payroll service. You’ll enjoy working in a busy, fast-paced environment, with a dedicated focus on providing an excellent employee experience, managing payroll processes effectively and building strong working relationships. Whilst being committed to accuracy, confidentiality, compliance and continuous improvement, you’ll act with integrity and honesty in everything you do.

Skills and Competencies

• Professional payroller with experience in all aspects of payroll with a demonstrated history in payroll accounting.
• Proven experience in running payrolls from start to finish including financial reporting.
• Demonstrable experience in calculating payroll manually and able to comply with all HMRC requirements.
• Experience of a similar sized organisation with similar complexity.
• GCSEs in Maths and English or equivalent (QCF levels 1-2 / SQCF levels 4-5)

Benefits

• Professional payroller with experience in all aspects of payroll with a demonstrated history in payroll accounting.
• Proven experience in running payrolls from start to finish including financial reporting.
• Demonstrable experience in calculating payroll manually and able to comply with all HMRC requirements.
• Experience of a similar sized organisation with similar complexity.
• GCSEs in Maths and English or equivalent (QCF levels 1-2 / SQCF levels 4-5)
• 26 days annual leave. After three years of continuous employment, this increases to 28 days plus bank holidays.
• Real Living Wage Employer
• Flex pot - equal to a proportion of your annual salary to use on our wide variety of flexible benefits
• The option to buy and sell annual leave
• Discounts and cash-back scheme
• Excellent pension scheme (We will match your pension contributions plus 2% up to a maximum of 9% employer contribution)
• And lots more!

We wouldn’t be able to change the lives of people with sight loss without our people. That’s why it’s important for us to provide a variety of benefits that reward our colleagues in a way that suits them and recognises the hard work and contribution that they make.

For high volumes of applications, we reserve the right to close adverts earlier than advertised.

About Us

If you want to know more about the teams who work at Guide Dogs, you can find it on our Careers Page

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

Guide Dogs welcomes applications from all sections of the community and actively encourages diversity to maximise achievements, creativity and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability or nationality.

We encourage applications from people with disabilities as they are currently under‑represented in the organisation and guarantee an invitation to interview for all applicants with disabilities who demonstrate, within their application form, sufficient evidence to meet the essential criteria for the job.

If you are successful you will need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK via our digital ID checking supplier; in addition, we cannot offer visa sponsorship at this time.

Safeguarding

Guide Dogs is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children, young people and adults at risk of harm with whom we work. We expect all our employees and volunteers to fully share this commitment.

At Guide Dogs, we believe in fair and equitable hiring practices. A criminal record will not automatically disqualify an applicant from consideration for a position. Each case will be evaluated individually, taking into account the nature of the offense, its relevance to the role, and the time that has passed since the incident. We encourage all candidates to disclose relevant information, and we assure you that it will be handled confidentially and fairly.

Guide Dogs follow Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding the vulnerable people we work with. As part of this, we require a full work history with any gaps accounted for & a minimum of 2 professional referee details fully covering the past 5 years. If you are applying for a disclosure role, please note that you will be required to undergo an enhanced DBS check and sign up to the DBS update service.