u/Logical-Cabinet9674

I keep asking myself why why i didn’t build string Audit / control system and followed it religiously ???

Why why when my manager caught an error, I did not take it as Life and death situation?

I had run successful payrolls

Completed the PCP payroll course

Worked on pension adjustments with little to no help

Flagged many payroll issue and proactively worked

I made many minor, major errors . Some of them are repeated. When I look back most of the errors

were preventable. I had given effort,dedication,care but without a Strong process / system. I didn’t know how a great payroll processor should work . My manager coached me at the beginning . We never had a honest conversation- why I was making mistakes. My previous employer won for the first the award “ Top 100 employer “ I didn’t know the value of a systematic work.

Job market is tough. Less money ,no benefits .

Within few hour’s searched I realized,I won’t make the same money I used to make in my last job.

I would be lucky if I get a payroll job or account payable job or Bookkeeper job in this employer market .

Hello everyone,

I hope you will read this and share your thoughts and comments.

Two years ago, I wrote a post about my payroll journey. On June 1, 2026, I was terminated from that position.

Today is June 10, and I still feel stuck in that moment. I have cried, screamed, questioned myself, and I am still grieving the loss of my job.

Maybe my story will help someone else avoid the mistakes I made.

With honesty and courage, I want to share my own mistakes and what I learned from them.

I was hired on January 29, 2024, as a Payroll Officer.

From the beginning, my Controller (who was the Assistant Controller when I started) helped me, guided me, and supported me. Before every payroll run, we would discuss exceptions and unusual situations. He reviewed my payroll in detail and often caught mistakes. I kept notes on my computer and phone about the errors he pointed out. I also created checklists and payroll to-do lists to help me stay organized.

I tracked things such as:

• ⁠New hires

• ⁠Terminations

• ⁠Retirements

• ⁠Salary increases

• ⁠Cost changes

• ⁠Retroactive pay

• ⁠Acting pay

• ⁠Overtime

• ⁠Maternity leave

• ⁠Leave without pay

• ⁠Benefit changes

• ⁠Name changes

It was a mid-sized organization with about 100 salaried employees. The payroll itself was not extremely complex, but there were still many details to manage.

I handled retiring allowances, severance payments, year-end processing, T4s, pension adjustments, and major salary increase projects. Whenever I didn't know something, I researched it, contacted the National Payroll Institute if necessary, and often spent personal time learning payroll-related topics.

I completed:

• ⁠Two large pay increase projects

• ⁠Two pension adjustment projects

• ⁠Two year-end and T4 cycles

I genuinely cared about my job.

Yet I was terminated for performance.

Looking back, here is my honest reflection.

First, I was not consistently following documented checklists. I often relied on memory, notes in Excel, or mental reminders instead of building detailed checklists every time I made a mistake.

Second, I convinced myself that my manager was my safety net. He reviewed payroll thoroughly and regularly found issues before payroll was released.

Third, over time I became comfortable with that arrangement. Every time he found an error, I felt terrible, but I did not take enough action to create stronger controls and processes for myself.

Between 2024 and 2026, I successfully ran many payrolls without errors. My manager even told me "Good job" several times.

However, in 2026 things changed.

I believe January payrolls were error-free, but during May and June there were errors in multiple payroll runs.

Examples included:

• ⁠An over-deduction that I failed to identify. An employee brought it to my attention on the next pay.

• ⁠A taxable benefit assigned to the wrong employee during a rushed payroll.

• ⁠A parking deduction entered incorrectly because I manually typed the amount instead of copying and pasting it, resulting in a transposition error.

There was also a significant issue involving new Board Members.

The Board Members were paid through two companies. HR created their ADP profiles, while I was responsible for reviewing the information and creating records in the accounting system.

The HR employee was new and had missed several items. I caught and corrected many of them, but I failed to correct the Home Department on some profiles and failed to update an address. Most importantly, I correctly marked one company profile as EI-exempt but forgot to make the same change in the second company profile.

My manager discovered these errors.

The mistakes seemed to be occurring one after another.

The difficult part is that during this period, my manager never formally expressed concerns about my job security. He never told me my position was at risk. I knew I needed to be more careful, but I did not realize how serious the situation had become.

Around the same time, the organization hired a very experienced employee who had ADP experience and had previously run payroll with minimal supervision in a similar organization.

Management decided to move her into the payroll position and hire a replacement for her former role.

I was asked to help train her.

On the day I was terminated, the Director told me that my manager was becoming busier, would no longer be able to review my work in detail, enough coaching had already been provided, and that I was not the right fit for the position. I was given a severance package.

Looking back, I believe my biggest failure was not building a detailed, formal review process that did not depend on someone else catching my mistakes.

If I had followed stronger checklists, double-checked exceptions, and created a more detailed onboarding checklist for Board Members, perhaps the outcome would have been different.

What frustrates me most is feeling blindsided.

I genuinely believed we were working as a team. I believed producing an accurate payroll was a collaborative effort. During my December performance review, there were no negative comments. I even asked my manager whether he spent more time with me than with the other employees he supervised. His response was:

"As long as we catch the mistakes before payroll goes out, that's what matters."

That statement reinforced my belief that we were succeeding as a team.

Now I realize I misunderstood the situation.

I owned the payroll. The responsibility was ultimately mine.

If someone had clearly told me, "Your job is at risk if these errors continue," I would have completely changed my approach.

I would have:

• ⁠Built detailed checklists for every recurring process

• ⁠Slowed down payroll processing

• ⁠Requested additional review time

• ⁠Created specialized checklists for new and unusual situations

• ⁠Focused more heavily on error prevention

I was not careless.

I cross-checked calculations.

I verified bank account numbers.

I carefully reviewed SIN information against TD1 forms.

I manually investigated unusual earnings changes.

I reviewed payroll multiple times.

But despite all of that, I still made mistakes.

And I was terminated.

I understand management's perspective. They likely saw risk. They likely felt that without detailed managerial review, errors would continue. They had another candidate with more experience and a proven ability to work independently.

Still, I believe my weakness was in my process, not my ability to learn.

That is what I struggle with today.

I keep asking myself:

If I had been clearly warned, would I have changed enough to save my job?

I will never know.

What I do know is that I cared deeply about the work, and losing it has been devastating.

I am still sad.

I am still angry.

Most of all, I am still trying to understand how something I cared so much about ended so

suddenly and why I failed to understand that my job is at risk . Board members error shocked me - though I checked and was trying my best , Home address - i didn’t crossed checked with the original paper ( I assumed HR had coded correct and I hat has added the address in accounting software. There diff. Board member, retro pay ,tax complexity - I hugely regret forgetting home department, EI exempt. I realize manager was tired

reviewing my payroll and

Management believed I cannot improve . I been there for 29 months But I think they should have given me - straight indication (in formal way or just say I am getting busier. Manager saw my errors only but didn’t think why the error was occurring. I was under impression manager knows I am trying ,I care about this job , I believe he is my safety net .New employees arrival was impacted their decision to .

Should I really work in payroll ????! What do you think where I really failed ? What should have my manager done ? They terminated me without distributing regular business activities . New employee handling payroll.

Thank you for reading.