Teryl @ Work

National Payroll Week has focused +Accsys (Pty) Ltd   on all things payroll. I sat down to talk to Cathie Webb, our Chief Operations Officer, who is a director of South African Payroll Association (SAPA), as well as on the executive of the Payroll Author’s Group (PAG). Having published articles and blogs on the Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) bill last year, I thought it would be a good idea to discuss this with Cathie. She confirms that, in late 2013 when the Minister of Finance approved the ETI Bill, it was designed to encourage business to employ youth, and to supplement the pool of employable and skilled workers available in South Africa. Cathie says “The ETI allows business to reduce their PAYE burden according to a formula which incentivises employment of people earning under R6000 per month.  According to SARS, in the first month of implementation, 56 000 new jobs were created*”. “As this number may include interns, who would have formed pa...

In the past, careers in payroll were not planned.   We believe that is starting to change. Formal education and training for payroll professionals has been a dream since I first managed a help desk back in the early 90s.   We were constantly dealing with operators and administrators who were perfectly proficient in the software they were using, but did not have a broader picture. About 7 or 8 years, we started a Saturday morning Payroll Diploma class, but we quickly saw that our students were struggling to give up family time. Cathie Webb (@CatiWeb), our Chief Operations Officer, decided to investigate eLearning. We spent a very interesting day with a group of government education specialists hearing all about the potential and came away with a way forward.  Of course, Cathie and her team have spent long hours over the years developing, fine tuning, liaising with SETAs, SAQA, SARS and SGBs and generally ensuring that the course is aligned with both the law and edu...