Durasuite

07/09/2026

Happy National Payroll Week.

This week is a reminder that payroll is not a back-office function. It is the work that keeps people paid accurately, businesses compliant, and trust intact. When it is done well, it is almost invisible. That is exactly why it deserves to be celebrated.

This morning I am heading to London for the Association of Bureau Managers conference. ABM is an outstanding network: extraordinary leaders, sharp operators, and intuitive, intelligent business owners who understand both the technical detail of payroll and the commercial reality of running a bureau.

Days like this are rare.

You get the room, the conversations, the challenge, and the people who are actually making change happen in this sector.

Proud of the profession.

Grateful for the network.

Looking forward to a strong week ahead oh yeah I forgot I’ll be on honeymoon from tomorrow 😜

Payroll Leadership

06/09/2026

UK payroll looks simple until you build the engine.

On a payslip it is pay, tax, net. In the product it is several calendars that do not share a start date, deductions that look identical in the UI and are not the same in law, and reporting rules that care which date you send not only whether you paid.

The work is in the joins.

A bank-holiday shift that must not move the tax year. If Friday is a holiday and cash lands on Thursday, the employee still has the same contractual payday. Mix those two dates at year-end and you can invent a new tax week or lose a real extra one.

A “loan” that is sometimes wages, sometimes a debt, sometimes an employer cost.

Repaying a genuine season-ticket advance is not the same as clawing back training fees. One usually sits after tax. The other can pull pay below the legal floor.

Same screen.

Different statute.

A draft run that must not quietly change a balance. Recalculate three times, approve once. The debt should move once. Otherwise the ledger lies.

A leaver who still has holiday or commission to come. The leaving date is not the last payment.

Close the deduction on the first final run and you will be wrong on the second.

A pension period that is not automatically the same as the work week. Employers can align pensions to the tax month, the pay interval, or the calendar month. Hard-coding one of those will break someone else’s scheme.

I spend time walking those joins against the current UK rules - employment law, minimum wage, tax reporting, pensions because that is where engines go wrong.

Not in the headline calculation. In the second meaning of a field.

If you are scoping UK payroll, plan for that complexity. It is the job, not a rounding error.

06/09/2026

UK payroll looks simple until you build the engine.

On a payslip it is pay, tax, net. In the product it is several calendars that do not share a start date, deductions that look identical in the UI and are not the same in law, and reporting rules that care which date you send not only whether you paid.

The work is in the joins. A bank-holiday shift that must not move the tax year. A “loan” that is sometimes wages, sometimes a debt, sometimes an employer cost.

A draft run that must not quietly change a balance.

A leaver who still has holiday or commission to come. A pension period that is not automatically the same as the work week.

I spend time walking those joins against the current UK rules - employment law, minimum wage, tax reporting, pensions because that is where engines go wrong.

Not in the headline calculation. In the second meaning of a field.

If you are scoping UK payroll, plan for that complexity. It is the job, not a rounding error.

06/09/2026

Payroll is where reform becomes real.

Statutory payments, absence and leave data, time and attendance feeds, and supplier configuration all have to survive a live pay cycle.

If those calculations are wrong, the policy was never implemented.

06/09/2026

06/09/2026

Payroll is where employment reform becomes real.

A rewritten policy can look complete on paper and still fail the first pay run. Statutory payments, absence and leave data, time and attendance feeds, and supplier configuration all have to survive live calculation, exception handling and audit. If those calculations are wrong, the policy was never implemented.

That is why payroll cannot sit at the end of the project plan. It is the control point.
Before you call the organisation ready, pressure-test the pay chain:

• Which new or changing statutory payments will hit the next cycle?
• Where does absence, leave and attendance data enter payroll and who owns the feed if it breaks?
• Which rules, codes, rates and eligibility flags need changing in the system, not just in the handbook?
• What is the supplier responsible for, and what remains an internal control?
• Have you run a full test cycle with real scenarios, including mid-month starters, leavers, family leave and unpaid absence?
• What evidence will you keep: test results, approval trails, exception logs and the communication that went to managers?

A clean policy PDF will not rescue an incorrect occupational-versus-statutory split, a missed qualifying day, or a time-and-attendance code that still maps to the old rule.

Treat payroll readiness as part of the business transformation: named owners, tested calculations, trained managers, and retained evidence.

Then ask the only question that matters after go-live: did the pay file change with the law?

Save this and share it with HR, payroll and ops.
Official implementation timeline: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/implementing-the-plan-to-make-work-pay-and-employment-rights-act

DuraSuite

06/09/2026

🎤 From honeymoon to the stage — with barely time to unpack! I will be knackered especially having ME, fibromyalgia, ehlers danlos syndrome, osteoarthritis and more which do make life tricky at times!

On 16 September, the day after returning from my honeymoon, I’ll be presenting at the Sussex Chamber of Commerce Ember Collective, hosted at Crawley Town Football Club.

As Founder and CEO of DuraSuite, I’ll be sharing the honest story behind my entrepreneurial journey: the ambition, the setbacks, the breakthroughs and what it really takes to turn deep professional expertise into a business and technology platform designed to solve genuine problems.

But this session isn’t only about my journey.

I’ll also be sharing practical insights into what every business should understand about payroll and HR right now, including:

🔹 The growing volume and complexity of employment legislation
🔹 HMRC changes and the evolving payroll technology landscape
🔹 The risks hidden within disconnected systems, unclear ownership and outdated processes
🔹 Why paying people on time does not automatically mean they have been paid correctly
🔹 How stronger governance, technology and accountability can protect both businesses and their people

Alongside almost 20 years of experience across payroll, global mobility, expatriate tax and transformation, I’m a member of the CBI and contribute to strategic discussions involving HMRC’s technology roadmap. This gives me a valuable perspective on not only what is changing, but what those changes could mean in practice for employers.

I’ll also explain why businesses of every size can benefit from DuraSuite: bringing together processes, policies, responsibilities, controls, risks and delivery insight so that HR and payroll can become strategic strengths rather than operational vulnerabilities.

If you’re a Sussex Chamber of Commerce member, I would love you to join us.

Come for the entrepreneurial story.
Stay for the payroll and HR insights that could protect your business.
And perhaps leave seeing these essential functions rather differently.

📍 Crawley Town Football Club
📅 17 September
🎟️ Sussex Chamber of Commerce Ember Collective

Who’s coming?