“Please refer any payroll-related questions to Jared going forward.”

English Lesson: Please refer any payroll-related questions to Jared going forward.

You work in the accounting department of a company. Your company has hired someone new (Jared) who will be doing some of the work that you used to do. You write an announcement to all of the other employees and explain which questions they should ask Jared.

Please refer any payroll-related questions to Jared going forward.

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Please (do something).

Writing "Please ___" is a formal way to ask a question. You can use "Please ___":

  • for very important requests
  • when you are angry at someone and don't want to be too friendly with them
  • when you're writing to someone who you don't know
  • when you're writing or making an announcement to a group of people

For a friendlier, but still very polite, way to make a request, you can write:

If you could get back to me by the end of the day, that would be appreciated.

refer (a question) to (someone)

This formal phrase is used in business communication. "Referring" a question to someone means asking that person the question.

For example:

Please refer any questions you may have to J. Martin Forrester, Public Relations Director.

(something)-related questions

The phrase "___-related questions" means "questions about ___". This is a formal phrase.

(do something) going forward

"Going forward" means "from now on" or "starting now and continuing permanently".

This phrase is used mostly in business settings.

It's useful because the phrase "from now on" sounds critical and aggressive. People say "from now on" when they're angry like this:

From now on, check with me before you do that.

"Going forward", on the other hand, sounds more formal but also doesn't sound angry.

payroll

"Payroll" means:

  1. the process of paying employees at a business
  2. a list of the employees at a company
  3. the money that the business has to spend on its employees:

For example:

I leave all of the payroll stuff up to our Financial officer.

We have over 3,000 employees on our payroll.

All employers are required to contribute 2 percent of their total payroll to unemployment insurance.

This word comes up in some phrases like:

payroll taxes

cut (a company's) payroll

payroll records

a payroll check