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ESG Diligence: The Key To Sustainable M&A Transactions
AAB / Our Team / Nicola Burns
LinkedIn
Meet the Payroll & Employment team
SMEs. Owner Managed Businesses. Large Corporates.
UK Payroll. Payroll Data. PAYE.
Energy. Business Services. Public Sector. Hospitality & Leisure. Retail.
Nicola Burns is a payroll manager, looking after some of our UK payroll clients from our Aberdeen office. Day-to-day Nicola manages the payroll team, overseeing the delivery of client work and ensuring that payrolls are completed correctly and on time. She also spends time working with a diverse portfolio of clients (ranging from 1 to 1,800 employees) and is responsible for onboarding new clients which involves completing their implementation and running their payrolls before rolling this out to other members of the team.
This experience, coupled with her knowledge of UK legislation and HMRC requirements, means Nicola is well placed to provide a payroll review service. She delivers this particular service to potential new clients or contacts who require assistance with their payroll process, or simply believe the process can be done better.
“Delivering the payroll service to clients is a given. Getting to know them on a personal level and establishing a good working relationship is where we can bring even more value to them and that’s what we always strive for. Having a good relationship like this not only helps identify opportunities but it also helps for overcoming any challenges you encounter along the way as clients trust you and know that you’ll do whatever you can to fix an issue.
Clients do expect us to know payroll inside and out, so we constantly keep on top of all changes and new legislation so that they know if they ever have any queries, we can always give them the answer. For example, at the start of each tax year we’ll let clients know what’s changing and how it will impact them. Keeping them involved and informed is part of delivering an awesome service.”
“Embracing technology is nothing new for our team, but this has been accelerated in the last few years as we look to further improve our processes and ultimately our service delivery. Automating the admin side of payroll processing gives the team time to focus on the actual payroll delivery and spend more time with clients. Payroll needs to be a hands on process and I think we have established an ideal tech-enabled personal service.
We look to help clients improve their internal processes too. By getting under the skin of the business we can identify ways in which we can help remove manual processes and streamline efficiencies which often then leads to reviewing other areas of the business that could benefit from a tech review too.”
“One of the most satisfying parts of the job is managing a successful implementation. That starts with the onboarding process, seeing the first live monthly pay run smoothly through to a successful completion. Then there’s the ongoing delivery, I really enjoy working with my clients and doing a good job for them. It’s great when they can come to me with questions I can assist with and even better when they are satisfied with the outcome of our work. One of the best things to hear is a happy client say that they will actively promote the work we deliver and recommend AAB to other businesses. One client recently said we could send any potential new clients their way as they’d love to give us a “glowing review” which was a fantastic complement to receive!”
“I really enjoy my role and working with clients. I also really enjoy working with my team and other colleagues, particularly coaching others and seeing them progress and develop. We have an active apprenticeship programme and seeing team members come in and start their careers with us ultimately grow as individuals and in their careers is really rewarding. Looking ahead, I think there will be lots more of this to come. The growth across AAB in recent has been really exciting, and seeing the team continue to grow, new offices opening, integrating with payroll teams from businesses we’ve merged with and learning from each other opens up even more opportunities for our team, our clients and us as individuals which ultimately makes our roles even more enjoyable.”