As long as you have employees, managing your payroll process is likely quite demanding on your most valuable resource, which is time. Thankfully, streamlining the payroll has become a lot easier than it used to be even a few years ago and by implementing all of the five tips mentioned here, employers can save multiple hours of productive time every month.
- Minimise the Number of Pay Schedules by Combining them
The number of different pay schedules you have, the higher the chances are of there being errors in the system, so it’s best to simply reduce the number by combining those that can be combined. For example, if you have full-time employees, you are likely paying them out on a monthly basis, but many places that have some employees working with them on an hourly basis also, and usually pay them out on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. This creates multiple pay schedules, which in turn, creates a complicated, time consuming and inefficient pay out system. Preferably, fix a single pay schedule for all employees, irrespective of their current status in the company to streamline the payroll process and reduce the chances of errors.
- Use a Same Day Payments Process
The delay in-between sending a payment and the money actually appearing in the intended bank account can be a real nuisance as it often leads to delay in business and ultimately, the productivity and time utilisation. On the other hand, if you do use CHAPS for same day transfers, there are charges on every transaction that ultimately eats into your business expenses far too much. The solution is to go for a same day payments system like AccessPay, which does not eat into your profit by charging on every transaction, but provides you with the satisfaction of a fixed annual fee which does not increase when your business begins to see a much higher volume of transactions than before.
- Make Sure that the Payroll Software is Up-To-Date
You have probably already shifted to a paperless process for payments, but in case you have not, it’s really way past time that you did! Even then, modern businesses often have the tendency to stick with decade-old payroll processing software because they do not realise how much they are losing out on. By simply updating to a newer version of your current payroll software or by just moving onto something new altogether, you will be streamlining the entire procedure into a much faster and more efficient system that will not only save time but will also reduce the chances of human error significantly.
- Beware of Taxes!
Every businessman in history has been troubled by his taxes at one point or the other, but we live in a time when maintaining records of your taxes should no longer be as much of a problem as it used to be. Nevertheless, HM Revenue & Customs and other government agency implemented rules & regulations regarding taxes are no joke and you need to understand them well or hire someone who does. If you fail to file your payroll tax and fill out the necessary forms within the stipulated deadline, it can cause a lot of problems. There might also be some changes to the tax system every now and then, so staying updated is also important.
- Categorise and Organise
Finally, we come to one of the most important and manual part of the payroll streamlining process; which is figuring out which employee should be on what payroll and how to make the system more effective by solving current problems in the payroll system. Audits are an important tool for this because something like a simple flow chart should help you in figuring out where the bottlenecks are, who is being overpaid/underpaid and how you can minimise the unnecessary payroll expenses, without jeopardising the integrity or the productivity of the company.
An important point to remember is that the tips mentioned so far are sure ways to streamline the payroll process, but you will need to repeat some of these steps every few months or years or they will lose relevance in the long run. For example, frequent audits are a must, and your payroll software will get old and outdated if not updated regularly. Also, the size and nature of these steps will also change as your business continues to evolve and grow.
