In our #PeopleOfAccace series, we will take you behind the scenes of Accace through interviews with our colleagues. You will find out how new services and solutions are created, who has been with Accace the longest and what positions they went through over the years. But most importantly, you will get to know our amazing people.

In the fifth interview, we talked to Senior Payroll Accountant and Excel “guru” Veronika Eglová, who joined us over two years ago and in that short period of time has managed to simplify the work and automate the processes of payroll processing. Get inspired by the interview with Veronika, which is full of enthusiasm, motivation, and well-intentioned advice.

What do you do and what does your typical day look like at Accace?

My typical workday depends on the date in the calendar. As my son says, “Mommy goes to work to laugh,” and during closing he says, “Mommy’s still working,” so the truth is somewhere in between.

My main job is processing payroll for clients, which does not end with the money being deposited into a bank account as someone might think. Payroll processing includes much more. It’s not just about calculating wages, benefits, meal allowances, sick leaves, vacation vouchers, reporting, processing annual tax returns (our favourite quarterly activity), but also monitoring constant changes, adapting the system to new legal requirements, or providing various consulting services for clients and their employees. We also provide consultancy to clients’ employees regarding their payslips, confirmations but also other payroll and personnel questions.

At the same time, I try to maintain good relationships, whether within the team or with a client, to streamline the process of working together, to introduce and set up various control mechanisms using Excel and PowerQuery calculations. My role is also to coordinate, organize, delegate tasks, and be able to rely on the information from others, which of course also includes a certain degree of control. However, this was something new for me since I was previously responsible for the entire area on my own and did not need to cooperate that much.

Finally, I am happy when I can contribute to the good mood and positive atmosphere in the office and be an inspiration and support for my colleagues. Everyone in our team is important and there is always someone we can ask for advice, and knowing that we are not alone is an amazing feeling for me. We are on the same boat with the same course, so we need to help each other, learn from each other, and enjoy this trip to the fullest. Collaboration and team spirit are also reasons why I love my job. We are a DREAM team working with lot of laughter and joy. Every morning we come smiling to work and leaving with a smile as well, in the meantime we take care of what needs to be done.

You joined Accace over two years ago. What convinced you to switch from your previous job to your current one here?

This is my third job and each one has been my passion, for which I am grateful. For me, it is important to feel useful, responsible, but also the working atmosphere, maintaining relationships and opportunities for realization, expanding my knowledge, experience and moving forward. I have always been lucky to have a great team and fate has arranged a change for me after +/- 10 years.

The first time I left with a smile on my face on maternity leave, which I really enjoyed, and when I returned to work, I was already working for my second employer. Here I was laid off after years due to company’s bankruptcy.

Another opportunity arose for me, to look for not only a new employer, but also to choose between HR and accounting, for which I was responsible in my previous job. It was not an easy decision for me, but in the end, payroll at Accace won. Honestly: “Sending people money is a beautiful feeling,”. Those who know me well can confirm that I have always enjoyed digging around in numbers and calculations, and so I was looking for a new personal working challenge.

I also had certain criteria in my mind, such as: interesting work in the field of HR/payroll/accounting in a successful company with a good reputation, the possibility of working from home, a good location within Bratislava – and all of them Accace met. Over time, I experienced also other perks working for Accace such as: focus on process automation, pro-employee approach, charity and help within civic organization #accacelife. In addition, a major advantage of outsourcing is the opportunity to experience different cases that cannot be encountered and solved in one company, but only with a larger, more diverse range of payroll clients.

I already knew Accace because it was the payroll processing provider for my previous employer and I was the contact person on the client side, so the opposite situation as today. I had many years of experience in payroll processing in my first job, but since we had Accace from the beginning, I haven’t processed them for the last few years, although they were also an integral part of my responsibilities there. I was well-versed, but I didn’t send any registration forms to the authorities and other related agenda, which had to be dusted off a bit from the past.

I remember once, it was a long time ago, even in the days when I wouldn’t even think about considering another job, I told Deniska from Accace: “When I finish here, I’ll go to work for Accace,”. I contacted her at the time I was looking for a job and it didn’t take long before Accace published the Senior Payroll Accountant offer and after reading it I said to myself that I can imagine myself here. And that’s how I attracted Accace and I’m very happy that we were able to bring it to a successful end – the beginning, actually.

Every year we organize THE ACES – an internal competition where our colleagues can nominate one of us who has made the most innovative and modern contribution to the company. You won this year. Can you tell us about the “improvements” you came up with?

It was a surprise for me, because many skilled and helpful people are working here, real professionals in each department. In my nomination, the following was written: For innovative and modern contributions to the payroll department and for simplifying the work and processes in payroll processing.

Within our department, a proposal was made to create an automated process – a payroll robot. I designed the process structure, document flow, overall communication, and support for development as well as approaches and ways to solve given situations.

The payroll robots run on the power automate desktop platform and serve to communicate with the Social Insurance Agency through the e-service portal. The first robot submits registration forms, pension insurance forms, monthly reports on the Social Insurance Agency website based on our request and saves us time with individual login and submission, but especially subsequent downloading of confirmations and checking of reports on the portal. Subsequently, with the advent of ePN, the idea of a sibling was born – a second robot that would daily download the latest ePN data from the Social Insurance Agency portal into an Excel spreadsheet designed by me with the addition of important information and calculations. This robot makes it easier for us to check for changes on a daily basis and also reminds us of the deadlines for meeting our obligations to the Social Insurance Agency.

As I already mentioned, it is my overall passion to optimize processes and set up various calculators or control mechanisms to make our work as easy and timesaving as possible. There were several of them, so I’ll mention at least a few: check of the accounting document with payroll summaries, various automated calculations of meal allowances and allowances, control templates, consolidated reports. My willingness to help and share Excel knowledge through training, team spirit, energy and good mood were also mentioned in the awards nomination.

What do you do in your free time?

I have a son, so I spend a lot of time with him, we usually play sports together – floorball, table tennis, billiard, beach tennis, ball and board games, chess, dancing… basically anything active and crazy – of course not every day depending on our free time and preference. I also like to travel – whether it’s a vacation by the sea, a sightseeing trip or hiking. Sometimes I just need to relax and unwind. Of course, I like spending time with family, friends, and children – I generally love people, so I prefer company over solitude.

I almost forgot; I also like to attend various personal development courses. Currently I am fulfilling my childhood dream – I am part of a theatre club, which is not so much about acting as it is about existing on a stage. To be here and now with your own emotions in given acting role. It is very interesting, brings me joy and purifies me.

What do only a few people know about you (so far)?

As a child, I first wanted to be a teacher and I am fulfilling this wish through our internal payroll trainings and Excel courses. In my first job, I participated in the Green Belt training thanks to several improvement proposals, in which I received a certificate for process improvement for the implementation of a successful project. Otherwise, I am from twins, left-handed and I like to laugh. I consider all my failures as lessons who taught me to overcome obstacles. Thanks to them, I am here today.

This is also my life motto: I believe that anything is possible, you just have to want it.