Processing payroll can be complicated, especially for businesses that continue to grow. This typically leads to more benefits, employees with different pay methods, and complex tax filings.
Fortunately, there are ways to simplify payroll management and help your team save time and effort. The key is effective system integration.
Invest in a Cloud-Based Solution
The payroll management process is about more than just generating employee paychecks and tax forms. It also includes implementing policies, tracking employee time and attendance, ensuring compliance with regulatory authorities, and managing data by specific business goals. With the right tools, companies can streamline their payroll processes and reduce the burden on the finance department to deliver quality work.
Investing in a cloud-based payroll system solution is one of the best ways to simplify the process. It eliminates the need to maintain and manage expensive hardware and enables companies to avoid paying upfront licensing fees. Instead, companies pay a monthly fee for access to software operated and maintained by the service provider.
In addition, cloud-based solutions are more secure and can help to minimize data risk. Most offer encryption, firewalls, and multi-factor authentication, making it easier to comply with privacy regulations. Additionally, system integration allows the HR and payroll team to link their systems to work with a single system of record, which limits the risk of inaccuracies.
For example, it’s much easier for the HR team to enter employee time information into payroll when linked to their existing online time clock system. This allows the data to be automatically updated in the payroll system, minimizing double-checking and error-prone manual entry. It’s a great way to save time and improve accuracy for both the HR and payroll teams, which will help to speed up the entire process.
Make the Switch to Direct Deposit
When simplifying payroll management, one of the most important things you can do is switch to direct deposit. This will save your business money in the long run by eliminating the cost of printing and delivering checks. Plus, it will make the process much easier for your employees by allowing them to access their paychecks anytime, anywhere.
If you’re not already using this method, consider switching to it as soon as possible. Then you can start saving time and money on your processing costs and helping the environment by reducing the amount of paper used and trash generated.
To make the switch, you must provide your bank or payroll service provider with documentation of your employees’ banking information and the account numbers where they want their pay deposited. Once you’ve done that, your employees will be paid automatically by ACH transfer every pay cycle, and their funds will be available immediately.
This is especially helpful for salaried employees but also great for hourly workers like home healthcare professionals, tutoring companies, swim schools, personal trainers, and more. It can even be used for contractors that may not get paid on a set schedule but would otherwise be required to receive payment by check. If you have a hybrid payment structure, it’s still a good idea to standardize your processes as much as possible for consistency and efficiency.
Create a FAQ Document
A FAQ page is an excellent way to provide customers with answers to their most common questions, saving your customer service team time and resources. But it’s essential to ensure you have a clear set of frequently asked questions relevant to your product and service before creating an online FAQ page. An excellent place to start is by jotting down a list of the questions that have been most common in your business’s inboxes or that you have heard from your customers. Once you have a list of questions, organizing them into categories and subcategories is a good idea. This will help visitors navigate the information and quickly find what they want.
Many businesses take their FAQ pages one step further, turning them into full-fledged help centers or knowledge bases that provide self-service options. For example, cloud collaboration company Airtable’s FAQ page is critical to its helpful help center, including guides, recorded video webinars, and other valuable articles. Meanwhile, Ancestry uses its online FAQ to personalize the help experience for its customers by linking to content that matches their questions based on their account and DNA results.
Whether you’re using an online FAQ or a traditional help center, monitoring how well your self-service tools are performing and continuing to evolve them over time is essential. One great way to do this is by using the customer data you used to identify your most common questions and create your FAQs. Look for patterns like increased or decreased case volume over time, and make changes where necessary.
Automate Time Tracking
Time tracking is one of the most important aspects to consider regarding reducing payroll processing times. This includes implementing an automated time-tracking system that captures all employee activity without needing them to start a timer or manually write notes. This can save significant time as employees may be more inclined to fill out their daily timesheets without fearing losing out on pay or time off.
In addition, automated time tracking can be more accurate than manual systems because there’s less room for human error. It’s also easier to review and verify data with the help of built-in reporting functionality. This can allow employees to see how their work is progressing in real-time and ensure that they comply with project estimates and upscaling models.
An integrated payroll and time tracking system can also help reduce the number of rejected timesheets that cause delays in paycheck processing. This is because a single, streamlined process eliminates the need for HR staff to compare data from multiple sources. It can also ensure that all employees are adequately paid based on their hourly rate. Additionally, some employees may improve their work-life balance by seeing how much time they spend on non-work-related activities. Lastly, an automated time tracking system can simplify client billing for employees who bill by the hour.
