Payroll software is a computer application that automates the payments to company’s employees. Advanced payroll software applications provide additional options to generate quarterly and annual reports. Payroll software can be a freestanding application or can be a part of business automation software. Both types of payroll software have their benefits and disadvantages for businesses. However one fact is clear and evident. Companies that are using payroll software sufficiently reduce the cycle periods and manual errors.
Great businesses give preference to develop their own payroll software desiring to get ultimate protection of data and finances, while smaller companies buy payroll software from market vendors and developers.
As average computer application payroll software can be of two types: standard and customized. Standard payroll software is developed with a basic set of options which cover the needs of most of the companies on the market. Lack of some features should be completed by human resources. Some payroll software applications do not generate tax forms or do not automatically calculate withholdings from payrolls.
Some companies give preference to delegate payroll processing to third party companies, however it is the riskiest way to manage the process as a business should provide all financial information and employees personal data to an unknown source.
Why a business needs payroll software?
When you hire only two employees then calculating their salaries is not a challenge. With growing needs of your business and staff increase you will face a greater challenge of getting payrolls done correctly and on time. Payroll software is able to solve the problem of proper calculating and payment of payroll to your employees timely. Remember that nothing stimulates people to work better than money paid on time.
Before choosing a payroll software application you need to distinctly understand the needs of your business. You do not need to have expert knowledge in the field of payroll legislation or in the domain of processing of money through bank accounts to the payroll cards of your employees. Modern payroll software is simply built and in most cases feature a user friendly logical and clear interface which can be easily read and comprehended from the first sight. Moreover advanced payroll software applications are built to ultimately calculate the salaries and withholdings with the minimal input from the business owner or an accountant. Minimal data input result in reduction of time spent for calculating the salaries, reduction of expenses for administration of the payroll processes in the company. But what is more, the payroll software minimizes the risks of mistakes. The recent research has shown that 67% of mistakes in payrolls are made by employees.
Precise and mistake free payrolls during the year result in exact and ready annual reports. Even if payroll software does not generate a report on its own, still you can be sure that all the data agree and you will not spend days and nights looking for a single mistake in reports and checking tons of the documents piled during the year.
Another benefit of a payroll software application is that it keeps all the digital copies of documents on employee payments, thus you will be able to restore any lost document and to get a copy at any time you will need it.
If you will choose one of the advanced versions of the payroll software then you will get a chance to track the efficiency of your employees within one software complex as payroll software automatically tracks the number of hours every employee has worked through the year, as well as the attendance of the employees. This means that even taking a look at the data, you will understand who of your staff is more effective and deserves career promotion. Is no it great?
We will list all the factors that determine the choice of payroll software.
In order to choose the best payroll software completely meeting the needs of your business you should answer the next questions:
• How many employees work in your business?
• Do you plan staff increase?
• What social programs do you run in your business?
Before choosing payroll software, pay attention to the next features offered by the developer:
• the data protection
• the support of the payroll software
• the customization or updates