If you happen to be a business owner, you are more than likely to have employees contributing to your firm or organization. What this means is that you are also going to have to compensate them regularly (unless you have unbelievable negotiation skills).
Now, as your business expands its footprint and undertakes a number of ancillary tasks, you will realize that there is a lot more to arranging and dispatching pay checks to your growing list of employees.
Whether it is about calculating due taxes, planning for the future, accounting for expansion plans or even handling attrition levels, these accounting related activities are sure to give you tough time unless you have a streamlined mechanism to handle them for you.
Payroll Software: A Burning Necessity
Without deploying modern payroll software that accommodates their evolving financial planning/structuring requirements; most businesses are in for a tough ride, as lot of them have already discovered to their anguish.
After all, any business, regardless of their size and industry domain, endeavors to relentlessly enhance their efficiency and productivity. In the wake of ever-increasing competition rampant in most industries, these entities realize that all it takes is one wrong move on their part to have catastrophic results.
The undying fervor to excel on all facets, including the all-important payroll functions, has expedited the need to develop a number of cutting edge payroll solutions offering great features which in turn, help companies streamline the process of HR management without affecting their efficiency levels.
What is a payroll system?
To put it simply, a payroll software essentially accurately deduces the due payment amount that needs to be made to various parties like employees, creditors, third party players, etc.
Modern payroll systems are suited for professional units that are focused about their targets, deadlines, and overall objectives, regardless of their size and scale of operation.
Different from the rest of the operations
A payroll system is different from other operative functions of a business, in that you simply cannot do without it. Timely financial management after all, is the backbone of any business entity worth its salt, without which, sustainability would be a major concern.
This assumes even more importance for large corporations which make dozens of transactions every day. It is in this context that the companies strive, had to instruct their workforce adequately while also ensuring proper implementation of disaster recovery plans and other mechanisms to safeguard payroll systems.
Here, the role of a payroll supplier also deserves special mention because they are responsible not only training and support services, but also to make poignant updates in cases of taxes and various other legislative changes.
Payroll software capabilities
The software also prepares a mechanism for you to make payments at weekly, monthly, or yearly intervals, depending upon the category.
Here are the inherent abilities of a payroll system:
- Calculates and prepares pay slips for your workers.
- Accommodates employer loans and other adjustments.
- Produce payment reports on employee payment, which brings out clarity and transparency.
- Helps companies maintain all records of deductions and payments.
- Prepare month/year-end reports and other relevant documentation.
- Compute accurate figures in case of superannuation.
Practical benefits of using a payroll system
Streamlining HR tasks
Payroll software systems simplify tedious HR (human resource) tasks that previously used to take hundreds of hours.
This ‘freed up’ time turns out to be an absolute boon for new and/or small-scale entities who can then devote more time in devising strategies forbusiness expansion.
Secondly, software also obviate the need for checking and rechecking monthly reports salary slips, superannuation calculation, tax adjustments, etc. Being fully automated, payroll systems help you make timely payments to your employees based on your predefine parameters. This leaves little or no scope for human manipulation.
Not only does payroll software help them gain cognizance about their internal processes; it also allows them to know where, when and how to make subtle chances on the various aspects of your budgetary allocation.
Integrated access
Companies tend to retain data of their employees’ performance reports, annual leaves, and other correspondence. Instead of putting the onus of handling this task on its HR staff, payroll systems allow the flexibility of recording just about any type of information without having to depend upon any third party software.
Most state-of-the-art programs also offer automatic journal integration, implying that all your records can be accessed anywhere, anytime.
Forecasting
Payroll software is simply superb, in that they tell you exactly how and where you spent the money on your operations, all through a mouse click. These assessment modules let you know areas where you need to implement cost-cutting measures to enhance efficiencies.
Also, before you plan to use the services of a HR professional or outsource the same elsewhere, think twice. This is because using a payroll system that computes, analyzes and forecasts expenditure trends can greatly impact your profit margins.
Customization
The great thing about these systems is that they also let you prepare not just reports, but intelligent report. In other words, they allow for the preparation of company-specific reports along with all actual and estimated expenses, fringe benefits, and other extraneous elements.
The entire history of previous and existing payment slips with all relevant details can be customized and shared with relevant parties.
Simplification
Unlike manual preparation of sprawling legal regulations and confusing tax structures which can take away precious time of accounting professionals, a payroll software is intrinsically practical, user-friendly and helpful for any rookie payroll manager.
Most programs these days also come with a suit of add-on services like troubleshooting, online live chat and email support to help you simplify the complicated.
Selection of a payroll supplier
It is absolutely vital that you select only a reliable and authentic payroll supplier that caters to your specific requirements while exhibiting flexibility and intuitiveness.
Any supplier should provide electronic filing for some forms, and ideally all those that can be filed electronically to negate the costs associated with payroll software.
Then you may also want to check out the cost of updating, supporting andoperating the system. At the same time, enquire as to when and how the updates would take place.
Finally, ascertain the level and quality of support offered by the system. This is also a very important yardstick to consider because payroll systems are critical to a business’s daily operations and if there is a problem, it must be resolved quickly and completely.