CPA904 – Applied Payroll Management

Case Study - NutriGrow

Submitted by
Deborah Brimner, Debra Conrad, Grace Hsieh,
Ashley MacAdam, and Monika Schmidt
On February 28, 2013
Table of Contents

1 INTRODUCTION 3
2 BENCHMARKING 4
2.1 THE FIVE STEPS OF BENCHMARKING 4
2.2 THE PAYROLL BENCHMARKING TEAM 5
2.3 ORGANIZATIONS CHOSEN TO BENCHMARK 5
3 LIST OF ASSUMPTIONS 7
4 ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN 8
4.1 STAKEHOLDERS 8
4.1.1 Internal Stakeholders 8
4.1.2 External Stakeholders 8
4.2 INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL OPPORTUNITIES AND CONSTRAINTS 9
5 ISSUES 10
5.1 THE PAYROLL SYSTEM 10
5.2 PAYROLL PROCESSES AND PROCEDURES 13
5.3 TIME REPORTING SYSTEM 15
5.4 PAYROLL AND HR INFORMATION SHARING 17
6 OTHER ISSUES 20
6.1 PROJECT MANAGEMENT 20
6.2 CHANGE MANAGEMENT & COMMUNICATION 20
6.3 SPECIAL REPORT REQUESTS FROM OTHER DEPARTMENTS 21
6.4 PRIVACY ISSUES ARISING FROM THE NEW SOFTWARE SYSTEM 21
6.5 PAYROLL-RELATED CONCERNS AS COMPANY EXPANDS 22
7 PAYROLL’S ROLE IN THE ORGANIZATION 22
8 ACTION PLAN AND TIMELINE 23
8.1 IMPORTANT DEADLINES 23
8.2 TIMELINE 23
8.3 POTENTIAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS/MILESTONES 24
9 CONCLUSION 25
10 REFERENCES 26
11 APPENDIX 28

1 Introduction

NutriGrow is a Canadian owned and operated agricultural supplies manufacturer, operating in the province of Manitoba. The organization has been in business for 60 years, with relatively slow growth until the recent introduction of a new product that was marketed to large agri-businesses with great success. The strategic decision to market this product internationally means that NutriGrow will experience an unprecedented increase in their business activity over the next decade.
In anticipation of this increase, management has given the payroll department at NutriGrow the tasks of implementing payroll best practices to become more efficient, re-organize the payroll department into a