Taking The Pain Out Of Your Payroll Process

Paying staff is an essential task for any business owner with employees.

It’s also awful, and detracts from doing the important things that an owner needs to do (like those things that only you can do to bring in money at this stage of the game.)

Fortunately, there are ways to make the payroll process less of a chore.

Use the right payroll software

If you’re still running your own payroll, it’s time to make the shift to software. By using payroll software, you can automatically calculate wages, tax, bonuses, holiday pay and all manner of other employee expenses. All pay checks will be created speedily and accurately, saving you time and preventing errors that can land you in some serious trouble.

There are a number of programs to choose from, each with their own advantages. Some may even be specialized to certain industries with complex regulations (such as this API Healthcare payroll software.) Make sure to do your research to find the best suited program for your needs.

Encouage employees to clock their own hours

Tracking employee hours can be difficult in certain trades, especially as some employees may work overtime or be allowed home early. Enabling employees to clock their own hours can make it easier to keep track. Traditionally, time stamp cards were used – but now many companies use electronic clocks. Dozens of apps (Deputy’s time clock app, for example) allow employees to clock in and clock out from a range of devices. This can then all be linked to your payroll software, automatically calculating everyone’s wages based on their hours.

Even better, you can skip the hour tracking and use the honor system.

Set reminders

It’s important to pay employees on time, as well as completing tax filings for your employees on time. Setting calendar reminders can help to ensure that everyone is paid at the right time – most companies will have two pay days per month, but some may have different pay dates for different employees.

You can also set reminders for employee tax filings including your annual federal tax file report and quarterly state tax file reports.

Keep your pay policy simple

The most simple pay policy is to have a monthly wage – however this doesn’t work in all industries. An hourly wage may work out better in some companies, whilst in some jobs you may feel its pay better per specific task… though this is where is can get confusing and employees may not enjoy this pay system, as it could mean a less predictable wage. 

It’s also possible to overcomplicate things by offering too much variation in work benefits. Whilst benefits are important for keeping your employees motivated, try to keep to a handful of benefits and try to keep these equal for all employees. For instance, feel free to offer health insurance contributions and pension contributions (as you should,) but make sure everyone is getting the same amount and that you’re not going through different insurers for different employees. 

Outsource support

It’s also possible to outsource your payroll to an accountant or a HR finance company. By letting someone else take over the task, you can free up the task entirely – letting you focus on the money making tasks you should be focused on.

When doing this, you need to make sure that you work with someone who you can trust – they may need access to sensitive financial information and you could still be liable for any mistakes they make. 

You may even want to outsource HR professionals simply for advice on employee benefits or wages. They may be able to help you find ways of simplifying your pay policy or they may be able to recommend software based on your needs.

This is a contributed post.