The Brief Guide That Makes Automating Your Payroll Process Simple

With the most common payroll process in the USA occurring biweekly, every business needs to keep the payroll process simple and efficient.

After all, we’re talking about making sure workers can pay their bills on time as a result.

So to help struggling businesses, we’ve created a brief guide that makes automating your payroll process simple.

Choose a Suitable Payroll Processing System

If you want to automate your payroll processing, there are two main options available, a software-as-a-service system or an online service provider. Both of these have pros and cons, but ultimately they both offer similar functionality.

The key difference is how much control you get over the data processed. With SaaS systems, you typically don’t need any programming skills at all, so if you know what you’re doing, this could be ideal.

However, with online services providers, you do need some coding knowledge which means you’ll likely pay more than with a SaaS solution.

Create a Policy and Strategy

Before starting any automation project, make sure you understand what information needs collecting from employees. It would help if you also looked at where information should go and who has access.

That way, you’ll know what information you need to collect and why. You may also wish to consider using a third-party payroll processor, so you don’t end up with duplicate records.

Automate Data Collection

Once you’ve got a policy and strategy sorted out, you can start to automate data collection. There are many different methods available, including:

• Collecting employee details through forms
• Using email reminders to remind employees to provide certain documents
• Creating automated emails based on specific criteria

You can also look at creating reports using automated features. These reports can include things like:

• Employee salary history
• Payment history by date
• Paid leave balance
• Tax payments made

This report will allow you to see if your staff are missing tax payments. It might even give you enough evidence to take action against those who haven’t paid taxes.

Quantity and Quality of Details Are Vital

Once you’ve decided which type of payroll processing solution you’d like to use, start collecting details such as employee names, addresses, contact numbers, email addresses, social security numbers, tax ID numbers, and bank details.

Make sure you ask each person if they would prefer to receive paper statements instead of electronic ones. If not, ensure you provide them with a link to download their statement via email.

Use One Source for All Data Entry

It’s vital that you only enter one source of data into your payroll system at once. Otherwise, you risk entering incorrect information twice.

Also, make sure everyone uses the same name, format, and date—for example, John Smith 01/01/2018. And, to make things even easier, consider using a payroll card about payroll cards.

Don’t Overcomplicate Your Payroll Process.

In summary, the secret to success with your payroll process is that less is more. At least when it comes to operations.

Yet you’ll want to collect as much detail as possible and make sure it’s accurate. That way, you reduce the risk of causing any disruption to your team.

Keep reading for more smart business advice!