Modern HR and HCM software has become a foundational piece of a successful business strategy. It brings automation across the organization, making the life of HR professionals easier. They no longer miss payment and compliance and with phone auto-sync with the computer, they don’t forget appointments as well.
We are all aware that workplace compliance and filing payroll processing timely are an integral part of effective business and make the HR department a more strategic unit. With online payroll services automation, business and HR leaders can fulfill hiring requirements efficiently and ensure that the positions are filled with the most suitable and qualified candidates. Technological advancement help companies find top talent who are fit for the workplace culture and support the goals of the enterprise.
Thanks to all-inclusive payroll systems, HR managers can reach their objectives effectively and help businesses manage their budget, ensure compliance, reduce payroll errors, enhance employee experience, and more.
Let’s understand each of the benefits of payroll automation in detail but before that, let’s get acquainted with the concept of automated payroll.
What Is Payroll Automation?
Automated payroll is an integrated and streamlined system to simplify the process of paying accurate salaries to employees on time. Companies and HR professionals prefer this computerized automated system for payroll processing as it saves time and effort on strenuous processes, such as generating reports, federal, state, and local tax filing, calculating withholdings, processing direct deposits, etc.
This HRIS software eliminates manual processing so managers don’t have to spend all day crunching numbers and handling spreadsheets. It speeds up slower procedures with an automated system, managing everything from hiring, training, development, employee relations to benefits management. It makes payroll simpler, hassle-free, seamless, and accurate which are not possible with traditional payroll methods.
Here is a breakdown of payroll automation benefits:
Faster Payroll Processing
If you have been involved in manual payroll calculations, then you must be aware of the complications involved in evaluating various payments, writing our check by hand, and ensuring to meet deadlines. Even with a small enterprise where you have to deal with a few employees, it demands a significant time commitment regularly. An automated payroll system has enabled HR managers to perform varied payments within a few minutes, be it basic salary, hourly wages, or more complex tasks, such as commission, overtime, raises, double-time, tuition reimbursement, wage deductions, retroactive pay, and more.
Online payroll software helps HR and accounting departments work together while simplifying the salary payment process at the right time every payroll cycle. Moreover, it eliminates the need for manual paycheck signing as it generates stubs automatically and deposits the amount directly.
Reduced Errors
A recent survey found that over 48% of the US employees would look for a job change after experiencing just two issues with their salary payments and paychecks. So, you have to be careful because messing up with someone’s pay can have serious consequences. Hence, payroll automation is the perfect solution to calculate salaries accurately.
Just like calculators that work faster and better than human brains, these software portals calculate deductions correctly along with commissions, PTO, overtime, etc., that affect the employee’s total pay. Also, as you don’t have to type or enter data manually, the chances of mistyping or double entries are reduced significantly. You no more have to worry about copying data incorrectly or omitting an entry. It also takes care of taxes that businesses pay by ensuring that the right amount is withdrawn from both employee and employer accounts. In case of tax code change, the automated system updates the changes automatically.
Simplified Tax Filing
There is no denying that taxes are complicated and you have to be meticulous while filing different types of taxes for your business and employees. Be it state, federal, social security, or Medicare tax withholding, they are time-consuming and difficult to calculate accurately, especially with manual methods. Adding to this challenge, you have constantly changing tax rules and regulations to deal with. If your company is operating across multiple states, then you have even more to keep track of. Even a small mistake can be incredibly costly and can hamper your brand image.
To stay on top of the tax filing requirements, there is no better way than automated payroll software that tracks all the updates in tax policy and makes sure that you meet all the deadlines while staying compliant. With integrated tax rates codes into the system, it calculates withholdings of each employee without any error and reduces the likelihood of omissions which can often result in penalties from government agencies.
Improved Accuracy
Do we need to emphasize the importance of payroll accuracy? There are a number of reasons that you must be efficient and precise when it comes to payroll and employee satisfaction, tax compliance are primary among them. With your outdated manual systems, calculating time clock data and hourly wages by hand is not only time-consuming but also prone to errors. Therefore, automated payroll and timekeeping systems are used that improve the accuracy of the payroll processing and save all the hassle of rectifying mistakes. It positively impacts your bottom line and attracts top talent to your company.
It calculates the time worked and makes necessary edits quickly if an employee forgets to clock in or out. Also, the Fair Labor Standards Act requires companies to keep pay records of three years for each employee. These records must include payment rates, hours worked, payroll dates, and more. The automated software keeps the data organized and assist employers to stay compliant and be prepared for a possible audit.
Easier to Make Changes
Making changes to employee information manually requires time and effort. You have to provide your employees with paper forms and wait for them to be returned. However, integrated payroll software makes it simple and easier to make changes directly into the system where the data is stored for easy access. These online systems come with an employee self-service portal that allows people to make changes and edits to their personal information directly. Be it regarding a significant life event, change in benefits plans, time-offs, etc., they simply have to log in to the system and update the details within no time. This keeps extra tasks off your payroll specialists and HR teams and they can focus on other core tasks.
They have access to:
- Update their direct deposit
- Edit personal information
- View deductions
- Access and print W-2 and 1099 forms
- View benefits statements
Conclusion
With so many benefits to reap, there is no doubt that implementing payroll automation into the HR department is one of the best decisions. Knowing all the aspects and pros of effective payroll software will help you pick the right software for your business. So, without any further ado, it’s time for you to outsource or deploy an in-house payroll system and relieve your HR professionals of stress and additional burden.
Author’s Bio: Scarlett works with the editorial team of Accomplish EP, a leading company offering employee benefits software. Exploring the latest technologies, reading about them, and writing her views have always been her passion. She seeks new opportunities to express her opinions, explore technological advancements, and document the details. You can always find her enjoying books or articles about varied topics or jotting down her ideas in a notebook.
