As a business owner, it is your responsibility to ensure that your employees get their salaries on time, without any discrepancies. But, payroll is an area that is laden with issues. Employees usually get their salaries late or have unexplained deductions, or have the wrong salary credited altogether. These mistakes end up reducing the employees, accounts team, and overall business productivity.
So, how can you improve the efficiency of the payroll process? In this blog, we have provided you with five tips that can help better manage the payroll process, reduce errors, and improve the process’s efficiency.
Make It Organized
Being organized is the key to making the payroll process highly-efficient. The more organized the payroll management will be, the easier it will be to carry out the processes involved. Here are some tips to help you organize the payroll process:
- Make a payroll calendar and mark important dates regarding the payment processes. For instance, if you pay independent contractors, ask them to send the invoices by a specific date and make their payments on a single, specific date.
- Set a deadline for important payroll-related tasks well in advance, such as tax forms, to get the tasks completed on or before time.
- Ask employees to submit any documents that can affect their on time before the salary is calculated.
- Similarly, ask employees to communicate their exact leaves and absences to the HR or payroll team to avoid confusion.
- If you have outsourced the payroll management process, ensure that every information related to employee payment is provided to the company at the earliest.
Stay Updated with Rules
You need to be updated with the latest state and federal payroll laws to avoid any non-compliance issues. For example, the federal minimum wage for employees in the USA is 7.25 dollars per hour. Also, every state has its separate minimum wage that you need to meet. For instance, the minimum wage in Illinois is 11 dollars per hour. Non-compliance with these rules can land you in legal trouble.
If you do not have the required knowledge related to various payroll and wage laws, you can hire an expert to take care of law and legal issues related to payroll.
Be Transparent
How often has a lower than the expected paycheck, wrong classification of employee role, delay in the payment, and other issues caused problems? Many times, right? To solve such issues, you need to be transparent with the employees regarding the payroll process. For instance, if there is some technical issue preventing the salaries from being processed, convey the same to the employees at the earliest.
Additionally, create a payroll policy that defines employee roles, salary structure, the payroll process, the mistake correction procedure, and other aspects related to payroll. You can also create a portal where employees can get details about their salary, bonuses, deductions, etc., to increase transparency.
Implement Technology
Technology has helped simplify various business operations, and payroll management is no exception. You can use accounting and ERP software to calculate employee salaries easily with minimum errors. Similarly, you can use biometric authentication, like fingerprint scanners, to log employee check-in and check-out times. This helps get an exact time of employee work hours and proves highly beneficial if you pay your employee wages based on work hours.
Cloud-based and mobile-based payroll technologies are already making inroads, simplifying the process. Similarly, integrated systems such as HRMS are simplifying various interconnected business operations, including payroll.
Hire Payroll Service Providers
There are many aspects related to payroll, like check payments, online transfer, tax deductions, FICA, etc. Keeping track of everything can become impossible, especially for startups and small businesses. Thus, it would be better if you outsourced the payroll management task.
Outsourcing the process can help you save time, money, and human resources and simplify and reduce the time taken in various payroll tasks. Additionally, it can also help you save from penalties and legal actions due to payroll mistakes. Although you might end up paying more for a payroll service, it is worth it, as you get a hassle-free payroll process.
Payroll is an important part of any business. Inefficiencies in the process can cause various issues and even lead to lower productivity and employees leaving the organization. Thus, if you have an inefficient payroll management system, you must take immediate steps to solve all the challenges and problems plaguing the system. We hope that the tips mentioned in this blog will help you solve most of the problems you might face with your payroll system.