The NSSO is an Irish Shared Services provider for Human Resources, payroll administration and finance services for Government Departments and Public Service Bodies (PSBs). Our organisations is comprised of Employee Services, Finance Services, Corporate Business Services and Enterprise IT.
The NSSO has over 800 Civil Service staff based in seven offices across Ireland.
Employee Services provides human resources, pensions and payroll shared services to nearly 60 public service bodies and supported by customer relations and support services. They apply the Government’s HR, pension and payroll policies and procedures on behalf of its clients and all key decision making remains with the client in each department or PSB.
HR Services
HR Shared Services provides a range of transactional services to its customers and clients including:
- leave
- absence
- resignations
- retirements
- pay
- organisational structure
- employee schemes
- reporting and document management
- quality, audit, information governance
- training
It is supported by HR Information Systems and Robotics.
HR Services operates collaboratively on a cross-functional basis with Payroll Services (PS), Customer Relations Services teams and with our client departments to ensure that the HR needs of over 43,500 civil servants are met in an effective and timely manner.
In 2021 HR Services supported over 43,500 HR Customers across 44 Client Public Service Bodies with almost 700,000 self-service transactions and over 192,000 customer cases closed.
Payroll Service began operating payroll services in December 2013, on a phased basis, and was completed in November 2017. Previously existing payroll processes and practices from 18 payroll centres were consolidated and integrated into one payroll shared service operation by the Payroll Services.
Services provided include payroll, pensions, expense processing and reporting, as well as payment advice distribution, payment delivery, a customer contact centre, and quality and service management.
In 2021 Payroll Services provided a suite of services for payroll, pension and travel expenses (T&S) payment to 56 Payroll clients and 48 T&S client Departments and Offices using standard payroll processes on a single technology platform in three locations; Tullamore, Galway and Killarney.
The customer relations & support services work towards assisting the NSSO to achieve the highest possible level of customer service and to ensure our customer engagements are positive and of added value. This unit is the interface between the NSSO operational areas in HR and Payroll Services and our clients/customers and is focused on promoting the delivery of optimised NSSO services.
The team also look after Service Management. This is the forum where Public Service Bodies meet with the NSSO to discuss issues and strategies.
Corporate Business Services and Enterprise IT provide functional support across the National Shared Services Office contains the following functions:
- Finance and Facilities
- Governance, Risk and Strategy
- Data Protection
- Communications
- Fraud Prevention
- Governance and Compliance
- HR, Organisation Development
- Internal Audit
Enterprise IT supports all of the divisions in the NSSO and provides:
- Business Intelligence and Reporting
- Cybersecurity
- HR Information Systems
- IT Support
- Robotics Process Automation
In April 2022 Finance Services was launched with 8 Public Service Bodies. The new central finance accounting system will replace 31 different legacy finance systems, over time, eliminating the need to maintain, support and upgrade multiple different systems, reducing cost and improving security.
Finance Services will provide a centralised, standardised, accounting and finance service on a single technology platform to 48 Government bodies who will be brought on board on a phased basis over the next three to four years. It will consolidate expenditure through the Exchequer and support eInvoicing and eProcurement and the management of supplier data.
Finance Services will support these critical finance and accounting administration for central Government, including:
- eInvoicing
- eProcurement
- accounts payable
- accounts receivable
- fixed assets and asset maintenance
- cash management
- tax management
- general ledger
The implementation will enable the financial reporting reform required to support the move to international accounting standards. In addition, the simplification and standardisation of accounting processes across central Government will strengthen compliance with EU and .international reporting and transparency requirements.
Benefits of Finance Services
The benefits of this central finance accounting system to Government and to the taxpayer are:
- It will replace 31 different legacy finance systems, over time, eliminating the need to maintain, support and upgrade multiple different systems, reducing cost and improving security.
- This single platform will consolidate expenditure through the Exchequer. It will support eInvoicing and eProcurement and the management of supplier data.
- The implementation will enable the financial reporting reform required to support the move to international accounting standards.
- The simplification and standardisation of accounting processes across central Government will strengthen compliance with EU and international reporting and transparency requirements
eInvoicing for Suppliers
The NSSO’s Finance Services Division fully supports the national approach to compliance with the EU Directive (Directive 2014/55/EU) on electronic invoicing in public procurement. The NSSO has been a key contributor to a European Standard on electronic invoicing across Member States.
As part of our implementation of a single Financial Management System for Central Government, the NSSO is partnering with Celtrino, the company appointed to provide the eInvoicing portal for all of Central Government. This partnership enables supplier invoices to be digitally transmitted to Central Government via a real-time interface. eInvoicing offers significant opportunities and benefits for suppliers and the NSSO will liaise with you to support you in using this service. Read more here.
eInvoicing offers significant opportunities and benefits for suppliers and the NSSO will liaise with you to support you in using this service. Read more here.
The NSSO has benefited from EC grant aid, as part of a consortium to foster the uptake of eInvoicing services in Malta, the Italian region of Sicily and Ireland. We would like to thank IT Sligo for the extensive support provided by them in project managing this endeavour.
See more information about becoming a government supplier.
See more information on e-invoicing and PEPPOL, which supports transmission of e-invoices.
Training
An extensive body of training material is available on our knowledge base and will be added to the One Learning catalogue in due course.
The training materials are structured by functional area, and include video simulations and self-led instructions. Access training and support material.
Requests for Refresher Training can be submitted to Customer Support.
System and Support Access
If you are experiencing System or Access issues, please go to the Helpdesk to raise a Service Request.
About Financial Management Shared Services Programme
The Financial Management Shared Services Programme (FMSSP) is a dedicated team within Finance Services, who will lead the migration of new groups of clients to Finance Services. This team is be focussed on change, communications and data migration activities as these clients prepare for the move to Finance Services.
Finance Shared Services went live in April 2022 with an initial eight Public Service Bodies including the Department of Finance, the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Over 40 additional client organisations will be brought on boarded on a phased basis over the next three to four years.
When fully established, our Finance Shared Services will provide central standardised finance and accounting processing to over 48 Government Departments and Offices. This will future-proof the finance systems of the Civil Service, enabling fiscal and reporting reforms, and strengthening the financial information available to Government to support their decision-making.
If you have a query on the Programme activities please send an email to the team at support@fsscustomerservice.cloud.gov.ie.
