Preparing payroll on a regular basis can be a migraine-inducing experience. Calculating employee payroll, keeping track of taxes, and other human resources-related activities including employee compensations and remuneration can be a difficult, time-consuming, expensive task.
According to a study conducted by PWC, small and medium-sized enterprises expend more time and monetary resources performing payroll related activities – workforce administration, in-house administration, health and welfare, tax compliance – compared to large businesses
In fact, if these activities are contacted manually, the study revealed, the annual payroll processing costs may run up $2,000 per employee for mid-sized enterprises and over $1,400 per employee for large businesses.
That’s where hr software comes in – simplifying payroll management for small and medium to large businesses and cutting time and costs related to payroll processing.
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But what exactly is a payroll?
In the simplest terms, a payroll is defined as the sum of all financial records of salaries for an employee, bonuses, wages, and deductions. This includes any statutory obligations, taxes, and benefits that accrue to the employees.
Why do you need a good Hr payroll software system for your business?
It eases business processes and reduces risk
As your business grows, there is a need for a sound financial management system. That way, you will be able to track your expenditure and ensure compliance with all the statutory tax requirements. So that you won’t have to go through the excruciatingly painful experience of manually preparing payments for each employee, even if it runs into thousands of employees.
The software ensures that all the necessary deductions and other tax-related obligations to the state are made. That way, it prevents your organization from running afoul with the government and the taxman, something no entrepreneur wants to engage in. Besides, the payroll software enables you to accurately manage the company wage bill, knowing what amounts are owed to employees and when these amounts are due. As such, you’ll be able to pay out the employee dues on time, and therefore avoid demotivating them.
It saves time for other critical duties
The Hr software takes the administrative burden of running the business off your shoulders. The software makes the process of making payments and managing other businesses related obligations easier. As a result, it frees up time so that you can concentrate your efforts in other equally productive activities. Besides, the reduced workload means more gets done, increasing productivity and creating sufficient time for employees to focus on their personal affairs.
It reduces conflicts
Payroll software reduces the margin of error in managing the payroll. In a large business, with many employees, the risk of increased margins of error is fairly high. It becomes a herculean task to manually go through every employee’s individual records to correct any errors. The automated payroll software helps reduce the risk of making such mistakes and hence reduce losses that would result from lawsuits occasioned by the errors. The software increases confidence in Hr staff and makes your employees happier. As a result, it leads to increased staff retention and reduced staff turnover and hiring costs.
It is highly customizable, transparent, and cost-effective.
Payroll software is also easily customizable to meet the needs and budget of any business. The software can be customized to meet the individual needs of the business with regard to the frequency of the payroll processing and the number of employees, whether small and medium enterprises. This frees more administrative time for the Hr department that can be channeled to other aspects of your organization.
Besides, the software ensures employees have easy access to their records and get to know what is wrong, where, or and probably what needs immediate action. They are also able to predict when they would be getting their dues and track any deductions as appropriate.
It boosts productivity
The software enables the business to track the number of hours that individual employees have put in. As a result, it ensures that the employer gets value for money for the wages paid. The payroll software is highly customizable to track reporting times. So that employees can physically log in time they arrived and numbers of hours spent on the job either electronically or biometrically. The software can also track leave days, schedule shifts, sick off time, hours off duty and extra hours employees put in. This ensures that no company time is lost. Again, it shows that the employer is able to accurately offer rewards and incentives to deserving employees, increasing productivity.
It helps employee management
The payroll software also helps in streamlining the operations of your business. As the business grows, the employee relationship lines become blurred. As such, employees may not be very clear about reporting structures and guidelines. The payroll software enables the business to create departments, demarcate reporting structures and manage relationships. It enables the business to know who to promote as the software is able to capture critical staff data. It also promotes constructive feedback for improvement as it is performance-based. This enables employers to have a reward scheme for the best-performing employees.
Helps generate financial reports
Payroll software is also useful in generating financial reports. Many partners and investors in the company would need tabulated evidence of sound financial and organizational standards. The software allows the employer to generate reports which could even be downloaded into CSV files including Excel. These reports can be tabled to potential partners and investors to convince them to invest in your business.
Get good Hr Payroll software for your business
Payroll processing is a sensitive task that eats on your time and energy resources. But, adopting good payroll hr software helps you save time and cut on costs required to run Hr administrative tasks.
If you don’t want to make pricey errors, look for the best payroll software that suits your business needs. If you are in India and are an advocate for open-source software, there are a couple of good free payroll software in India you can take advantage of.
