AI Is Coming for Payroll, but Not How You Think

[00:00:00] Welcome back folks. It's another episode of It's About Payroll. What is going on? Well, how you doing, sir? I'm back. Happy Juneteenth to you. Happy Juneteenth. As we record, yeah. I'm gonna try to check something out later too. An event and locally. I'm gonna try to go check some Juneteenth activities out.

[00:00:22] I may just start doing some happy hour stuff. You know, just got some visitors there. Nice. So I might just take them out for a little bit and just, you know, have some appetizers and a few drinks, man. Heck yeah. Enjoy the Friday. Yes, sir. For sure. Anything you want to start us off with? I do have a tip and I do have an article, well, a quick little article to cover. I want it to come from a different angle.

[00:00:50] Mm-hmm. It's about financial fitness. I think it could be. Ha ha ha. But I wanted to pose a question though. You and I have had this conversation, I think recently and in the past too, when it comes to hiring contractors or 1099 folks to come in to help with the project. Yep. Right? So I understand that depending on the level of service and someone's aptitude, the rates can vary, right? Whether you're hiring an individual or a firm.

[00:01:20] Mm-hmm. You know, business or whatever it may be. So the question I wanted to ask is in terms of hiring a contractor to come in, what do you think matters most? Is it, it's part of a two-part question.

[00:01:36] Is it the overall rate that they're coming with? Even if that means like, hey, like, hey, they have all the connections, they have the knowledge, they have, you know, the experience and stuff versus getting someone that may not have all the connections, but, you know, has the work ethic and stuff like that. But is that a far lesser rate? Great. What do you think? Which of those do you think matters?

[00:02:07] Well, money matters. The budget definitely matters. Okay. Yeah. I think you got to get the best person or best solution for the budget. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you, yeah, pretty much.

[00:02:22] It's funny because I was going to ask AI later today, like marketing wise, like if money wasn't an issue, how do you market? Like, how would you begin to market something? Because I always like to start with like, don't think about money first, get the best. What is the best solution? And then factor the money in. But yeah, it's a tough, you know, it was, what do you think?

[00:02:49] I think it depends on the situation. And I know that may be like a cop out. Yeah. Cause what if you don't have the budget for it? Yeah. But if you do have the budget and you need someone to come in and actually clean it up, yeah, it may hurt, you know, to pay that price, that initial price or initial rate.

[00:03:08] And look, you can probably haggle and negotiate and try to get the rate down, you know, whatever. But if it's, if the juice is worth the squeeze, then yes, absolutely. Use, use that purse, that person, all those services or whatever that you're looking for. But in most situations, it's exactly like you said, right? It's, you know, how am I going to get the most bang for my buck? Yeah.

[00:03:34] You know, how am I going to like stretch this dollar that I'm trying to put towards this contracting situation? And, you know, you're going to try to find somebody that fits your model or your situation. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, it's tough. It's the hiring period. Like, do you get an, do you get an employee? Do you get a contractor? Do you get a consultant? Like it's all.

[00:03:55] That's crazy. Do you, do you also, do you also, you know, that's another, right? Another consideration. So let's see, I got financial fitness. That's so, I mean, it could apply, right? I was just talking about AI a lot today. And as we finish our third week of our cohort for CPT, a certified payroll technician.

[00:04:25] The next four word is in the fall. So if you know anybody or, or that person that needs payroll certification and, or you want to learn a new system, you know, I thought it was going to be for one particular type of target audience, but turn like, you know, we got some students that I didn't even, I didn't even think about that could use the course, you know?

[00:04:48] So anyway, we were talking about AI today, Friday, Fridays is an open kind of open office and just get on. I didn't think that anybody was going to come, but a student came on and needed some help and guidance with some other things.

[00:05:01] And we were talking about AI a lot. And I just want to, yeah. I just want to make sure that folks are using AI to prompting it properly and getting backup, right? Like don't, if you have to provide a work product and you're going to use AI as a tool, don't say, oh, chat told me, or this is according to chat, go find the backup for it and provide the state

[00:05:31] local or whatever the backup is. Cause we're talking about payroll. So there's going to be source document source information. That's so funny that you had that conversation today and the show topic is AI. So there you go. Before we get into, so yeah, it works further, right? Before we get into AI, I found a little, we haven't done, we need to do a payroll true crime. We haven't done true crime in a while. The next one needs to be a true crime.

[00:05:57] A little teaser, true crime. I found the article out there and the, a few takeaways from it. What was that? What was the name of it? Let me see. Fake workers, real salaries. Fake workers, real salaries.

[00:06:10] So, um, but it's interesting. So, so as we talk about ghost employees a lot and ghost employees can hide without increasing total payroll. In this case, money was allegedly taken in small amounts from real employees and redirected to fake workers, allowing the total payroll to appear normal. Crazy payroll approvals. Payrolls, payroll approvals are useless if records can be changed afterward. That's a huge call out.

[00:06:40] Any post-approval payroll change should create an audit trail and require new approval before funds are released. Um, reconcile people, not just dollars. Another great call out. Employers should regularly compare payroll, HR records, attendance, supervisors, IDs, and bank accounts to confirm that every person being paid actually exists and works for the organization.

[00:07:04] That's a great call out, man. But look, one of the parts, one of the many parts that stood out to me was the part about being the capability to change records after payroll is done. Okay. But how do you prevent that? Right? Because if there needs to be an adjustment for someone, like say someone got, you know, underpaid, their rate wasn't updated or whatever record they're talking about, are they talking about financial records? Are they talking about employee records? Like, what are they talking about? I guess that's the question I should ask.

[00:07:33] Okay. Because I was thinking like, I'm like, there are times in payroll where someone has to go, you know, a change that wasn't pushed through or there was an error on the form, you know, and their rate, their rate was actually 10 cents less than what it's actually, or a dollar less than what it was actually supposed to be. Right. So like, how do you prevent changes from being made in that scenario? Do you just say like, you know, what do you do?

[00:08:00] I think this specifically is talking about the batch, like before that batch gets processed, that dollar amount for check day, if there are any changes that impact that dollar amount before, right? If you have an approval workflow, or whatever that approval workflow looks like, you got, you know, that's what it means. That's what it does. That's what this is referring to.

[00:08:28] Okay. Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah. So yeah, so it's like, if somebody, you know, if you got to prepare, you know, we've been in that situation, we got to prepare a preview, somebody looks at it, somebody signing off, approved. Every time it changes, you got to resend that preview. Right? Yes. Even in a situation where you kind of trusted to process after time cards are approved, and like, maybe the approvals are all done at the cutoff, and then you just process.

[00:08:58] If something changes after that, you should be pushing some type of notification back to folks like, Hey, that rate was changed after the cutoff. I'm just making y'all aware, you know, um, something like that. I mean, it is going to be different depending on the workflow, but in any event, like it's got to make sure. It's documented and there's, you know,

[00:09:26] I just don't understand why people still feel the need to do that because systems are so sophisticated now that for the most part, nobody, even if you use a smaller, lesser known payroll system, like the records are still going to be there and show the change either way. So even if it doesn't necessarily get caught initially, it's going to get caught. So yeah, at some point down the line, somebody is going to want to do an audit and yeah.

[00:09:56] They thought there would be a smart in this case. Right. They would like, right. Like not impacting that total payroll number, which I mean, it is very clever in a diabolical criminal way, but that's why all these audits are so important, you know, and the systems that I think that's where let's go right into AI. Cause I'm sure it'll come up in this conversation. So take us into AI. What are we talking about today?

[00:10:25] Look, so is it an adversary or an ally? Right. It depends on your position. I spoke with some people in payroll and HR business and they don't love the idea of AI at all. You know, I was just at a recent dinner with one of the vendors and one of the people there that was another client. They were just like, I don't like AI at all. I don't want it. And you know, you know, for people are the way to go and this and that, but look, that's that person's position. Right.

[00:10:54] And so look, this topic is current is controversial. And, you know, I wanted to guarantee a great discussion for it. Right. So as we know, AI is writing emails, creating videos, coding, and even answering employee questions. Right. So here's a question, right? Is payroll next? Will payroll professionals become obsolete?

[00:11:22] Or is AI simply another tool in the payroll toolbox? Right. So you think, when I think about that, I think about, you know, Batman's belt, those different things in there. Is AI just another latest tool to that belt? Right. So we're diving into that. So I guess the first initial question that I want to ask you. So in the next 10 years, I don't know if you've spoken to this before, but will AI completely replace payroll professionals within the next 10 years?

[00:11:51] I don't think that, I don't think it'll ever replace payroll professionals completely. No, it will reduce jobs for sure. Big departments are going to get reduced. But I actually, now that I'm looking at it and you know, the more I think about it and I've been evaluating the business landscape, the market, the evolution of it all. It's actually gonna, I think it's gonna eliminate some vendors as well.

[00:12:21] I think some softwares are gonna go away. We're gonna see the vendor market consolidate considerably in the next 10 years as well. Because if you really think about it, AI can calculate gross to net. Hmm. Yeah. So what do you think? So look, we have two different parts here, right? So I'm going to play the devil's advocate part. Right. And then I want you to come from the other side. Right.

[00:12:50] So when it comes to replacing payroll folks, like, and of course, look for those listening, this is not my position. We're doing this for the sake of the argument and discussion and argument. Right. So look, AI payroll chat bots are already answering employee questions. They can automatically calculate those taxes. They can automate management processing.

[00:13:19] There's AI powered compliance monitoring. Employee self servers will become smarter because of AI. Is he? Mm-hmm . And like you said, you know, fewer payroll administrators will be needed. Right. So yes. Like if the pair, if AI can do all that, then yes. Some folks in payroll are going to be replaced. Right.

[00:13:43] And the recent surveys out there are saying that many payroll providers are actively investing in AI powered support. As a channel. Anomaly detection and workflow automation. Yes. Exactly. What I was talking about. Yeah. You know, so I think drastically, we're going to see drastic changes in payroll departments over the next decade. The next 10 years, I think it's going to be more. So like you said, you know, you know how the plane has that autopilot. Mm-hmm .

[00:14:12] We're going to be, we're going to be the pilots of that plane. You know what I'm saying? And so like, you know, we'll have our parts in it, you know, to play, but you know, we'll just kind of be like landing. And steering the system more so in the direction that we need it to go. And AI is going to be doing a lot of the grunt work. I, so to speak. I saw, I think that is absolutely, you know, the case.

[00:14:42] Yeah. You know, it is, but it's already very complicated, right? Payroll and, you know, one of the students today was worried about the, uh, over time calculation that three required, you know, another student was, you know, interested in taxes and understanding the tax or state tax rather, you know, strategy and things like that. Like that.

[00:15:08] This is all stuff that AI can solve for, but it needs to, you need to make sure that it's citing back to the source material, right? To the state or government resource that the information is coming from. Um, so yeah, you can get AI to give you the, to kind of make it a little easy for you, but

[00:15:33] you still want to, again, when you're providing your finished work to your bosses, you want to say, according to the federal government, not according to Claude and or chat GPT. You know what I mean? Um, you want to say according to FLSA, according to the state of or locality of, right? Like that is, is confirming this information. Um, and you got to know it.

[00:16:02] So it's cool, but some of the things that you mentioned there are already adjusting automation. It's not AI, right? A calculator is automation. That's existed for centuries, right? Right. Or a century. I don't know about centuries, but a century at least. Yeah. So, so I understand what you're saying, but I think it's, I think that's where the confusion comes for a lot of people.

[00:16:28] It's because I think they get lost in the fact that, you know, automation has already existed. And they tie and they tie AI to it because AI can calculate. AI can do those things. And so they're tying the two together and saying, oh, that's AI. Automation has been there. Now AI is taking those tasks on. Yes. I think that's, I think that's what that was trying to say. Yeah.

[00:16:56] Um, so let's look at the other side of this, you know, why would someone particularly, you know, like my, my associate that I met at that dinner, why would they be against AI replacing payroll in a capacity? Right. So some of the reasons here are because AI cannot truly own liability. What does that mean though? It can't truly own liability.

[00:17:22] Well, I'm guessing like, it's saying that as like, so in my mind, when I hear that, I hear like, oh, if we didn't file some taxes or we're negligent in something that we need, that we're, we're not complying on. Like, we can't sit there and blame AI for that. Oh yeah, definitely not. My, my AI didn't do it. So, you know, she give us a pass, you know, you know, so I think that's what it's time to say. Sure.

[00:17:52] And I can't take that ownership of that liability. Like, like you always say, trust, but verify. I think I took over this one. So you're supposed to read. No, it doesn't matter. Then you keep it going. Yeah. No, true. I don't even know where we're at. Okay. So like, I'll go then like, so payroll requires judgment. And so I think it's saying that AI really can't judge.

[00:18:17] I, you know, I'm, I mean, I necessarily agree with that because AI can, it does have a lovable, has the level of intelligence to judge, right? State and local taxes constantly change. Yeah. So how's AI going to know to automatically update that and your payroll provider system or your in-house system, whatever you may use, right? Employee relation issues.

[00:18:43] How can AI address any employer relation issues? Right. It can though. There are some easy layups for all. I mean, so again, yeah, this is a good argument. The liability when I get requires job, payroll requires judgment. What judgment? I know this is like, are my as well to disprove it, but we're just trying to speak for what the other side might think. Cause I agree with you.

[00:19:13] I think that AI is eventually is definitely already impacting the payroll industry. Right. And replacing certain tasks and or positions. Right. I think this is just trying to say what people who take the opposite position is just are what their thought process may be. So it's hard for me to consider. Cause I don't know what that, what they mean by requires judgment. You know, for me, it's not judgment.

[00:19:42] It's black and white. It requires decision making and compliance. So maybe that's what they were trying to say. I don't know, but the employee relations part, I think it actually could handle some issues, but I see where it could hit a limit. That part, employee relations requires judgment. That's separate. That's not, that's actually not payroll either. Executive compensation complexities.

[00:20:12] That's where you want AI to come in and help you out anything complex in the calculation or the logic of it all. Yes. When I spoke to that person at the dinner, they were kind of like leaning into the human aspect more so than anything. They were just saying like, you know, the human is something that can't be replaced. The human to human interaction is something that. Oh, you know, of right. You can't replace. Exactly.

[00:20:38] And that's why I think it will stay around for like, there will always be a human involved. Yeah. So human empathy during paranormal mistakes. So that kind of speaks to that. I'm saying like chat is pretty empathetic to me when I'm. I don't know what you're saying, but you know, look at the end of the day, I think fear will drive these, you know, justifications of,

[00:21:07] and they get scared about it all. And it's just fear, you know? Yeah. But as I've been saying in the class, we have to embrace the AI, you know, and shout out to the AI, you know, I have no, I didn't read about it. I saw the headline in my email. I was like, oh my God, it's amazing.

[00:21:34] But shout out to any of those companies out there that are embracing AI. And I do see it in a lot of the vendors, you know, for the clients that we have and I use and help them. And a lot of it is just chat bot though, you know, but it is helpful. Think about this. Anytime there's innovation. There's going to be fear. There's going to be fear and there's going to be some level of impact. Think about those.

[00:22:02] Think about the car, for instance, right? Those factories, they had a lot of humans on the assembly line, like putting all this together. And then they realize, you know what? It'll probably be quicker if we just had something with some robot arms, just adding, like popping stuff on. Yep. And then, you know, all we got to do is, you know, we'll never call out sick. We have guys on staff that can fix these things really quick and they produce cars all time, times of night.

[00:22:29] Look, you still would need that human intervention just to oversee things. Right. And you have to partner with those things, but there's always, anytime there's innovation, there's going to be impact to the people in the industry, whatever it may be, or in society. Right. Yeah. There's always going to be something. So. But there's a book out there called Crossing the Chasm and it teaches us about that technology adoption life cycle.

[00:22:55] And it's in the first wave is the innovators that are ushering it in and they love the innovation of things. Then you have early adopters and early majority, late majority. And at the end of the cycle is the laggards and the laggards are really just, they wait. And so everybody's all, you know, one, two, three, four different groups, and they are the last ones to adopt it. So you'll always have that. Yeah.

[00:23:23] You'll always have that in that innovation life cycle. And AI is no different, right? There's no different than that. Yeah. So let's move to the next sections. Which roles do you think are going to be most likely to change? Right? So it's put highest risk are those lower level data entry, support agents and routine processing.

[00:23:49] Those are, they said those are going to be the most high risk positions and lower risk is going to be those in the managerial space, compliance specialists, global payroll experts, strategic payroll leaders. Do you agree with that? Yes. Okay. But I think that what it'll do to this space, those four will can easily get consolidated

[00:24:13] because if you're any one of these titles, a payroll manager, a director leader, a compliance specialist, a global payroll expert or strategic payroll leader. So you could easily consolidate the other three into any one of those titles or categories because of AI. Right? It will give you the access to become a compliance specialist, a global payroll expert, because now

[00:24:41] you'll be able to just research through AI all the global type of compliance and requirements that you need. I'd love to talk to Max about this. So the global piece and the strategic payroll leader is probably the lowest risk, because for me, strategy is very unique.

[00:25:06] And, you know, that is something that is going to be different from payroll pros or payroll pro on their strategy on payroll and how it applies to business. So that is going to be very unique. Right. But that strategic payroll leader could easily consolidate those other skill sets in, you know? I get, I get, I get what you're saying. Yeah. So that's a segment. Right.

[00:25:32] So look, well, future payroll professionals spend less time processing payroll and more time interpreting payroll. Do you think that's going to be true? Yes, that's exactly right. The processing of it. That's what you want. That should be the end game. You don't want your payroll team and folks to spend all the time processing.

[00:25:52] Why would you want that when they can actually do analytics, interpret, be that human liaison that you want and should have to tell you what to pay attention to? Hey, overtime is up. This is why go dig, go, you know, because you might need somebody to go research and go interview the manager as to the report is going to tell you, right?

[00:26:17] I think overtime is up in this department, but are you going to ask AI to go now and talk to the manager and figure it out? No, you're going to need a person to go interview that manager. So look, I wanted to say this because, because we've been saying the pilot thing for so long, right? So I just put it in Google to ask what do pilots do when the plane is in autopilot? Oh, wow. And I think we could tie this to payroll and what your vision is for a payroll pilot. Right?

[00:26:46] So when a plane is on autopilot, the system itself maintains the course altitude and speed. Pilots do not physically maintain the course. Instead they act as system managers. Pilots do not physically maintain the course of the control. They monitor the instruments, communicate with ATC air traffic control, calculate the fuel and plan for the upcoming landing.

[00:27:11] And, you know, and just as I was saying in the class, it's about that prompt, right? AI is only as good as the prompt and the information that it has. So that is still, it's still not judgment. It's that it's because payroll is only is, I think that's why I have succeeded in payrolls because it's really black and white. Right?

[00:27:41] For the most part, right? 95% of payroll is black and white. There's definitely some nuance and some human aspect and some sure empathy. There's definitely times you have to make a judgment. Absolutely. Sure. Sure. So, yes. But, um, yeah. All right. Great, man. So, all right, let's get into our little fun segments here before we close out. This part is just a lightning round part. So just answer yes or no.

[00:28:11] And, you know, we'll both do that and then it's our payroll hot takes. All right. Gotcha. So AI should approve payroll runs. Yes or no? No. No. Agreed. No. AI should answer employee payroll questions. Yes. Agreed. AI should calculate final pay. Yep. AI, AI should handle tax notices. Yeah. Can we can absolutely. Why not? Yeah.

[00:28:39] AI should determine worker classification. I would say yes. Oh, business owners will not though. Oh, cause really? Absolutely. Black and white. Right. Okay. Cause, cause it's based on the rule set. The reg regulations. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So I agree. I actually agree with you on there that it could do that because it is set in black and white. Right. All right. Like that though. Business owners won't like that. Last one. AI should replace payroll customer service.

[00:29:08] No, not replace, but support. Okay. Yeah. Use as a tool, right? Yeah. Use that as a tool. Cause it's, and it will need to escalate. I, you know, I even get annoyed if I can't escalate to a human at some point. I don't mind AI answering questions. If it gives me the answers and I get to get through my, whatever I'm trying to solve in the system and I get there. Awesome. But if I get stuck, cause it doesn't really understand. And honestly, I'm probably not prompting. Right. Right.

[00:29:37] If I knew how to prompt it. So long winded of replace payroll customer service. No, it should support. I like that. I agree with you on that. Yeah. You can say whether you agree or disagree, or you were like, I don't know. So hot take number one, direct deposit should be mandatory. Right. Agreed. Oh, okay. I agree. I actually agree with you because it's to the employee's benefit. Yeah. Right.

[00:30:05] You know, seven, I haven't wait for a check in the mail. Oh, you know that if there's a national, a natural disaster or anything like that, or just anything that will slow that delivery. And it happens all the time. We see it all the time. You see it during like closures and stuff during the holidays. Yeah. People have live checks and it's like, Hey, what are you doing with that? Like where? I need my life check, you know? Cause think about it. It's to the employee's benefit. Yeah. Most people take a picture of it anyway and deposit it with their phone electronically. Like, what are we doing?

[00:30:35] You know what I mean? Nope. I don't know who, that's why I don't understand why check cashing places are still in business. Dude, you just read my mind. I remember when we were talking about that. Also here. Yeah. Yeah. Because me and Walt talk about this stuff also here all the time. And I swear to God, we must've talked about how to solve for a live check for like an hour. And we just got kept getting stuck in an electronic solution. Right.

[00:31:04] And that ultimately is electronic, but I still, and I don't think of it. I still think it's like maybe the electronic solution and then somebody goes to get the cash from some, and that's where we ended up. Right. It was like hack, still having somewhere where electronically we send money. And then a check cashing might just become some type of, yeah, we got your electronic file. Here's your money.

[00:31:33] You need to give me the code or your phone. Right. Right. They're there. They are like QR code. Here you go. Right. Your unique QR code. I can come to get my money. Right. My check. Right. There you go. Cause it's like, I can't. Cause we were thinking about the people that aren't bankable that. And look, I know that's what I'm thinking. A lot of options online and stuff like that. We can have a conversation. We can keep, this is kind of safe thing that happened. I know we, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. You're caught in the loop. Okay.

[00:32:03] So next one, right. Is paper checks should disappear completely by 2030? I'm going to say yes. I just, but that gets us down that rabbit hole again of like how, I don't know. I just don't see a world without, as long as we have electricity, a digital solution is viable. Yes. I totally agree that they should completely disappear. Do I think they will? No, right?

[00:32:33] Yeah. Not by 2030. I was really only four years away. Oh, it sounds 23. Yeah. 2030. No, I'm just looking at the number that not by 2030 because it sounds like as far away, but it ain't. It's only four years away. It's not. Maybe by 2040. Halfway through the year. We're almost at 20. Exactly. Yeah. So the next one. Employees should receive daily pay if they want. Oh my God. This is such a, no, you can't. No.

[00:33:03] No. Yes. If it's last day, yesterday's pay. Okay. Okay. Look, it has to be contingent on the fact that it's a day in arrears. Yes. Like, yes, we're not going to be able to operate that quickly, accurately in same day. It's like a lot of contingencies. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Because think about it. There's a lot of contingencies to your point. Case in point here is I forgot to clock out or something got mixed up. You know how it happens.

[00:33:32] The punches get jacked up and then somebody has 16 hours of pay because they stayed on the clock. They forgot to clock out yesterday. Yep. And then they clocked in and it looked me like they worked 16 hours. And so if they were to access that, they'd be like, oh, look, you know, I'm going to access this 16 hours, even though I only worked seven yesterday. Yeah. It's interesting. Yeah. Okay. Because we think you're caught up just on that really. Next one.

[00:33:59] Unlimited PTO causes more problems than it solves. I would say that it probably, it does. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, the statistics say that folks end up, some folks end up not taking as much time as they would have. With the unlimited PTO thing. And it's counterproductive at that point, right? Like you want people to feel, it's like, it's all about the culture.

[00:34:26] I don't think you can, I think you have to build that culture out the gate and really make people comfortable with it. So, you know, yeah. So no, it causes more problems than it solves. Just give people more time. This is last one here. Yeah. Payroll should report directly to the CEO. I don't know. I'm on the fence with that one. I don't know about that one.

[00:34:54] I think they should have FaceTime with the CEO, but it may need to report to the CFO or the CR or CPO, people officer. That's my initial answer to look, of course it depends on. What's that company is. If it's a lean group. Good call out. Yes. If it's a lean group, then maybe. Right.

[00:35:22] But look, that's what the CFO is there for, you know, depending on which side you decide to go on. If you want, if you want payrolls standalone or if you want payroll to report or fall under finance or HR. Yep. It depends. Like, cause for larger companies, I see the CEO not having enough time to really like getting the weeds with payroll and stuff like that, because they're doing all these, they're the face of the company. Yeah. Right.

[00:35:50] And so they're doing all these higher level communications and talks and visiting and doing this and doing that or whatever. So I think it makes more sense in my mind to report to a CFO or CHRO like you were saying. Yeah. Again, like, but like you said, if it's a big organization, maybe there is a chief payroll officer. Amazing. Yes. Awesome. Could be. I think that chief, you know, cause now, you know, folks are advocating for chief payroll officer.

[00:36:20] And I think it's just, you know, it's just so, it's just so tough to like where it lands, where it should land. And then, you know, yeah, it's tough. It's a tough one. Yeah. Yeah. And so look, listeners, I want you to, this question is for you.

[00:36:44] Go to our, once this episode drops, go to the comments, whether that's on LinkedIn, YouTube, wherever you listen to us and answer this question for us. So 20 years ago, payroll was just mostly paper and spreadsheets. 20 years from now, what do you think payroll will look like and where, and will there still be a payroll professional behind the process? Let us know. No doubt. All right, folks. Thanks for joining.

[00:37:14] Please like subscribe, hit the button, share. We're on every platform that payroll, that payroll is processed. Yes. Basically. But no, every podcast platform and YouTube and tell a friend to tell a friend. Yes. And before we close it out, I have a quick quote for you. A little funny thing. I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they fly by.

[00:37:45] And on that note, we love you folks. Peace. Peace.