Payroll Assistant Page 1 of 5 March 2026

1. Job Details

Job Title Payroll Assistant Hours 18 – 25 p/wk Line Manager

Payroll Manager

Department Payroll Contract Type Permanent Salary £28,329 (pro-rata for less than 39 hours)

2. About Thistle

At Thistle we believe in a world of inclusion, free of isolation and loneliness, where a health crisis doesn’t mean a life crisis. Our charity supports people with disabilities and long-term health conditions to see life differently, to lead good lives and achieve what matters most to them. We believe that everyone in Scotland should have access to our person-centred approach to health and wellbeing.

3. About the role

This role provides payroll processing support as part of the payroll team. The Payroll Assistant will be responsible for the correct and timely payment of salaries to employees, payments to HMRC and pensions and other payroll tasks.

Payroll Assistant Page 2 of 5 March 2026

4. Main Responsibilities

Description

1 Working alongside the Payroll Manager to process and produce the monthly payroll for Thistle Foundation,

check data entries with our HR team, and review sickness entries against our sick pay rules, calculate SMP,

SSP and Enhanced Holiday.

2 To process timesheet import from Rota Management software and, where necessary input manual

timesheets, in respect of overtime, sleepovers, on-call payments, payments to pool staff, expenses and

any other authorised payments.

3 To produce and email pay slips, P45 and P60.

4 To implement tax changes and student loans notified by HMRC.

5 Properly account for any other deductions from the payroll. Ensure payment of arrestment of earnings

orders, pension contributions, employee benefits and other approved deductions to the appropriate

authorities within required timescales

6 To liaise, where necessary, with the various relevant organisations regarding PAYE, NIC, SSP, SMP returns

and pension costs.

7 To prepare and maintain records for the admission of employees to the Thistle pension schemes.

8 To deal with employee payroll-related queries, including liaising with colleagues, tax and government

offices to resolve any such queries

9 To check and verify the monthly payrolls, HMRC, pension payments and BACS for authorisation by

authorised managers.

10 To produce appropriate reports as requested

11 To provide year-end tax reports, as per legislative requirement, to employees and HRMC

12 To complete National Statistical returns with regards to payroll information

13 To process payrolls for one other small organisation

14 To continually review payroll processes for effectiveness and efficiency, recommend improvements to the

payroll manager and implement changes when agreed

15 To undertake other duties as may from time to time be determined by the Payroll Manager & Head of HR

as being appropriate to the post.

Payroll Assistant Page 3 of 5 March 2026

5. Knowledge, Skills and Experience Area Essential Desirable

Education,

qualifications

and training

• National-5 Level Maths and English

Skills and

Knowledge

• Proficient in the use of payroll systems

• Proficient in the use of MS Office including Word,

Excel, and Outlook

• A good understanding of payroll processes

• A customer service approach to working with fellow

employees

• Excellent time management and organisation skills

• Good standard of written and spoken English

• Skilled in making decisions about own work,

prioritising own workload and shared workload

• Ability to work under pressure and to deadlines

• Ability to communicate with various internal and

external customers at all levels

• Ability to take ownership of the tasks relating to the

job and demonstrate responsibility for the correct

completion of them

• Ability to take initiative

• Knowledge and experience of using

Access SelectPay software

Experience • Experience in a similar payroll role

• Demonstrable experience of building effective

relationships with people

• Experience of working to tight deadlines

• Experience of working in the not-

for-profit or social care sector

Personal

Qualities

• At least 2 years’ experience of a similar role gained in a

fast-paced office environment

• Willingness to engage with others across the

organisation and develop good working relationships

• Understanding that within a small team there is a

requirement to be flexible in approach to duties,

particularly during holiday periods

• Ability to be a collaborative team player

• Friendly and approachable to all

Payroll Assistant Page 4 of 5 March 2026

6. Thistle Approach – Core Competencies

Competency Description

Understanding self In order to work well with people we need to develop a good understanding of ourselves and the impact we have on other people. Being genuine, respectful and listening with empathy to other people’s perspectives lies at the heart of all our interactions. We believe this practice is nurtured by the ability to continually reflect on ourselves and the impact we have on others.

Building person- centered relationships

In order to be genuinely person-centered we need to be able to develop supportive, collaborative and enabling relationships. We also believe that people are the experts in their lives, that they are doing their best and that by working alongside people we are more likely to succeed. We reflect on the extent to which we create trust in all our relationships and how well we work within teams.

Making a difference using person-centered approaches

We believe that using person-centered approaches can be critical to whether people make the changes they want in their lives or not. We do this by focusing on what matters to each person and what they want specifically to achieve including taking life enhancing risks. We always encourage feedback in order to learn and improve on what we do.

Focusing on Strengths, resilience and contribution

We believe that people have strengths, skills, knowledge and resilience and the ability to contribute to their own and others’ lives. We need to be flexible and innovative to enable people to share these attributes and make the most of all contributions in order to find creative solutions. We celebrate the success this brings and build our resilience by learning from setbacks.

Promoting wellbeing, citizenship and community

We believe that everyone is a citizen with rights, responsibilities and a contribution to make to their community. This is only meaningfully possible when you have genuine wellbeing and are fully included in your community. This belief drives the work we do at Thistle so we know we must try to influence the unequal and discriminatory aspects of our society in order to change how things currently are. This requires us to share the ‘Thistle Approach’ more widely and in turn, learn from the world around us. To do this well we must continually reflect on what this means for us as individuals and as an organisation.

Payroll Assistant Page 5 of 5 March 2026

7. Key Contacts and Relationships

• Payroll Manager

• HR team

• Finance team

• Line managers

• All employees, as the need arises, in relation to specific payroll queries

• Director of Resources, CEO and Strategic Leadership Team

• Other Thistle Hub colleagues

• HMRC & Pension providers

8. Additional information

• At Thistle we work in a hybrid working environment, between home and our Craigmillar office (13 Queens Walk, Edinburgh EH16 4EA); there is a requirement to attend the workplace for approximately 50% of the contractual time. On occasion, to support particular activities or to provide cover, attendance requirements may be higher.

• This post is subject to a PVG Disclosure.

9. Job Description Creation and Revision

Created March 2026

For review