If you have hired staff for your business, you’re obviously running a successful company. The only little problem is that you need to pay these people! Of course, paying your staff a fair wage is part of your business plan, but sometimes, sorting out payroll can seem like a real headache to even the most experienced business person.
Traditionally, payroll has had to have its own department full of accountants, meaning more salaries and wages. However, things are getting a little easier thanks to modern technology. If you follow the steps below, you’ll find yourself managing payroll like an absolute pro. Read on for everything you need to know about streamlining payroll.
Table of Contents
Get Payroll Software
The best thing you can do to simplify and streamline your payroll operations is to get some modern payroll software. These platforms are designed to help you with all tasks surrounding payroll, payments, invoices, and tax payments. You will have to pay a subscription fee for this type of software, though using them can save you plenty of money as you’ll need less staff to help you run your payroll system.
Harness Automation
One of the best things about this kind of software is the in-built automation. You’ll no longer need to spend hours on complex calculations, as the software will be able to do it all for you automatically. All your staff’s hours worked can be automatically counted, added up, and added to their pay stub. Not only that, but the right amount of tax, pension, and other deductions will be automatically calculated. This level of automation takes hours away from your accounts department, meaning you only need to hire a small finance team, saving your business a fair amount of money.
Automation works in other ways within payroll software, too. For example, salary changes can be preset to come into effect when staff reaches a certain number of hours, while time-off requests can also be incorporated. You’ll also never have to worry about paying the right amount to contractors or suppliers or even paying the right amount of tax, as the software can be automated to do all of this for you.
Allow Staff Access
On top of this, your staff can benefit from payroll technology as well. Having an online system means that staff can regularly check whether their hours have been uploaded accurately, whilst keeping track of their earnings, pensions, and more. This has been shown to greatly improve staff morale and reduce staff turnover, making your business much easier to run!
Integrate With Accounting
Payroll is, of course, just a small part of the larger cog of your business finance. Good payroll software will integrate seamlessly with Xero or whichever accounting software you decide to use. This, again, speeds up your overall accounting experience within your business. All payroll will be properly accounted for in your accounting software, with no need for manual copying of the payroll information. Say goodbye to long, boring, complicated spreadsheets.
Generate Dynamic Pay Stubs
As mentioned, staff are much happier when they can see their pay stubs. Over 15% of American companies don’t even offer their staff pay stubs, which dramatically reduces morale. Your staff will be able to have dynamic pay stubs generated online, on paper, or on-demand by your payroll software. Any time they need proof of employment or income, they won’t need to come to you or your accounts department for letters or paperwork. Instead, the system will download and save the payslips for them. Just another way you – and your staff – will be saving time and energy.
Link it With Benefits
Finally, if staff like getting payslips, they certainly like getting good benefits. Recent surveys on Linkedin have shown that staff is far more interested in companies that look after them well, as opposed to companies that pay well but have no benefits or wellness programs. Offering good benefits isn’t necessarily an easy task, but with great payroll software, you can integrate your benefits. This means that your staff can be automatically assigned the right benefits based on their pay grade, hours, or any other variable. The best part is your platforms will allow staff to access all their pay and benefits in one simple place, taking yet more work off your hands.
These are some of the ways that modern tech is changing the way payroll works. Get some payroll software sorted and you’ll soon find yourself with far more time on your hands, as you’ll be spending far less time worrying about pay and taxes!
