Regardless of your employees’ commitment and passion, the promise of a salary is a powerful incentive and motivator. This makes payroll essential to every company. While managing payroll is arguably the most crucial transaction in a business, it involves mundane and tedious administrative tasks. Besides, preparing the correct payroll involves calculations and following stringent regulatory requirements. Any mistakes can cause problems and lead to disgruntled employees.
Technology has reinvented payroll management by eliminating repetitive administrative tasks and improving accuracy. Today, human resource departments and company management must decide how to manage their payroll services. If you are still at crossroads on the best solution for your business, read on to find out how the payroll service bureau software works.
What Is Payroll Service Bureau Software?
A payroll bureau specialises in providing payroll functions to other companies. The outsourced payroll service takes care of all the activities, from processing salaries, sending checks to employees and filling reports. Payroll bureau software for accountants takes over the calculations and repetitive tasks, freeing you to focus on other businesses. It is a full-service package that handles employee taxation and provides relevant support.
The payroll service bureau software gives you a self-service platform that employees can access and check for payslips. The accounts team can also use the platform to disburse funds from any device on a secure network.
Any business that doesn’t want the hassle of payroll tasks or needs to save costs can use a payroll bureau. Its reliability gives you peace of mind by ensuring tax compliance and accurate payments to all staff every payday. That way, you can avoid fines or penalties and dealing with disgruntled employees. The bureau can handle any number of employees; whether your company is scaling up or down, the software can accommodate your needs.
What Does a Payroll Bureau Do?
The payroll service bureau software accomplishes the following tasks:
1. Online payslips
The payroll bureau software simplifies sharing of payslips and other pay-related documents with employees. They can access the payslips from the platform with their secure login details, eliminating printing and postage. The self-service access allows employees to download the slips anytime as soon as they are generated in the system. They can also search for previous payslips if they need to reprint or review the salary figures.
2. Timesheets
Payroll specialists often need timesheets to process salaries. This often leads to tedious manual data capture that may be inaccurate. However, the payroll bureau software automates data collection by generating timesheets based on each employee’s check in and out times. When the generation of timesheets is complete, the HR department approves them before processing salaries.
3. Online documents
Instead of manually going through employee files every time you are processing payroll, you can store them in the payroll service bureau software. The online portal is secure for sharing, storing, and transferring data files between departments. It reduces exposure of sensitive information by tracking stakeholder authorisation to access information. Besides, GDPR compliance is adhered to, and an audit trail is generated with every information access. Managers or business owners can also set up an email notification whenever someone attempts to view sensitive documents.
4. Filing annual payroll returns
When processing payroll manually, you must calculate the tax payable by each employee and ensure you complete the necessary deductions. A payroll bureau automates filing monthly and annual returns from taxable income. The software completes the calculations required, making the entire process hassle-free. This saves the company from penalties and fines that may arise from delays or mistakes when submitting tax returns.
How Can Standard Outsourced Payroll Bureau Service Be Helpful for Your Business?
Apart from easing the headaches from manual payroll processing, payroll bureau software for accountants has the following benefits:
1. Cost reduction
Your expenses pile up fast when handling your payroll functions in-house and manually. For instance, you will need additional workers to compute salaries and manage employee worksheets. The labour associated with payroll activities increases as your company scales. However, when you outsource payroll functions to a payroll bureau service, you will automate most of the repetitive administrative tasks, and you don’t need to hire a specialist. The reduction in salary expenses from minimising employees working in payroll is significant. Since employees can access their financial documents from the self-service platform, your company can save on postage and printing costs.
2. Direct deposit services
Employees prefer direct payments and deposits to their bank accounts. It saves them time spent visiting the bank every month to cash in a cheque. Besides, the company avoids the risk of resolving issues arising from issuing the wrong cheques. Providing direct deposits is usually challenging when you don’t have an external payroll service since it requires bookkeeping software and high setup costs. With an external payroll service bureau software, you can organise direct deposits for employees and save the company some transaction costs.
3. Frees up time
Processing payments manually is a lengthy and time-consuming procedure for many businesses. However, if you outsource payroll activities, you can free up time for revenue-generating functions in the company.
Most business owners often make tough decisions whenever technology advances. You must decide whether you need the latest payroll software and tax charts set up on your computer. When you don’t have expertise in choosing payroll software and tax charts, you could make the wrong investment or use incorrect charts and attract penalties. Outsourcing payroll saves you the trouble of paying fines. You also avoid dealing with regular changes in technology and upgrading your payroll software.
4. Ensuring payroll compliance
Human resource regulations, salary policies and tax laws are constantly changing, and it is hard for companies to keep up with the changes. Sometimes implementing those changes can be problematic due to the lack of expertise. However, with the help of an outsourced payroll bureau service, you can stay on top of payroll compliance. You also have access to expert services that you can leverage to improve your company.
5. Accurate payroll reporting
Payroll service bureau software introduces automation for payroll reports, timesheets, and payslips. Hence, you won’t find errors due to inaccurate data entry and miscalculations. The accuracy extends to tax filing since the software updates all payroll operations in real-time.
What Are the Main Points to Consider in Payroll Service Bureau Software Reviews?
Finding the best payroll services bureau software for your company can be an uphill task. Fortunately, payroll service bureau software reviews can help you pick the best fit for your needs. When choosing the payroll service provider, ensure they are a reputable firm with high professional standards. They should also be a perfect fit for your business needs. For instance, a service provider that is flexible and dynamic can scale with you. The major considerations before you settle on a bureau include:
• Credentials and experience
• Costs and services provided
• Security and safety of information
• Customer service like responsibility for tax filing errors
Why Choose Payroll Bureau?
Payroll bureau software for keeps your internal reporting up to date. The certified payroll reports are error-free and save you a lot of money and time. The attendance tracking feature generates accurate timesheets and allows employees to check in or out remotely, which means you can track the performance of various employees in real-time. With the self-service portal, employees can receive feedback promptly and access their payslips any time without visiting the accounts office. Apart from payroll services, the bureau improves every aspect of your business by providing expert advice on various issues affecting productivity in the company.