Anna McNally, PCP
BAASS Business Solutions – Halifax, NS
Anna McNally is a payroll professional who always thought she was going to be a nurse.
As a child, she was known as the “neighbourhood nurse” because she always carried a Band-Aid kit on her belt. In fact, a panicked 10-year-old friend came running to her once — “Anna, Jeremiah hurt himself!” — when her brother had cut himself badly while playing with a saw. The friend, whose parents had just stepped out for a moment, was in shock. Anna was shocked herself. “What do I know? I’m the Band-Aid girl,” she says. She held a towel to the wound and called 911.
In high school, her nursing ambitions led her to volunteer at a hospital. But it was there that the dream ended. Anna realized she couldn’t bear to lose patients; she grew too attached.
However, in her payroll career, she has found another way to nourish this desire to help. As the Payroll Practice Lead and Business Consultant for BAASS Business Solutions, Anna helps clients determine which payroll system will best suit their needs, by weighing factors like whether it should be in-house or outsourced.
Health care — including hospitals and long-term care centres — is an area of particular interest where she is eager to support business wellness. “Budgets are decreasing, but needs are increasing,” she says, adding she finds solutions that will save critical dollars. “Often an organization will have three or four pieces of software that don’t integrate — I help them find the software that best solves their problems. And if I don’t have it, I point them in the right direction.”
Anna’s road to payroll began with a job at consulting firm KPMG, which she got after studying accounting and administration. She then became the accounting supervisor for a shipping company, where she realized that payroll was the perfect salve for what she was seeking — a way to apply her need to help and problem solve.
Twenty years ago, she moved to BAASS Atlantic in Halifax, first managing the office and consulting, furthering her knowledge and interest in payroll. She was given the opportunity to become one of the owners, which she did for about 12 years. Then five years ago her company merged with BAASS International. Succession planning and personal considerations led to her move back to an employee role.
She says that whatever her role has been, payroll has been integral to her ability to nurture business health. “Every business needs to pay their people and I help that happen, which has also helped BAASS be successful.” And while she may not be carrying Band-aid kits around anymore, suffice to say that her payroll efforts ensure everyone is well looked after.
