Both startup business owners and established entrepreneurs strive to keep their company’s payroll accurate and steady. Wages and salaries account for 70% of total costs, notes the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics. The following are key strategies to assist you in lowering the cost, increasing productivity, and simplifying the process
1. Keep All Payroll Records
First, record the basics about all employees, such as social security numbers, bonuses, overtime, and anything else that will affect their payslip. Then store this information digitally using M.S. Excel and keep on updating it. Tell your staff to notify you of upcoming changes to their payslips days before the supposed day.
2. Manage Your Expenses
Payrolls are expensive, and employers find it challenging to manage these costs and, at the same time, pay employees their salaries. But, you’ll eventually save a lot if you manage your payroll effectively. First, analyze the expenses for every employee and department to spot unequal sharing of costs.
Then record payroll expenses such as employees’ benefits and bonuses in a spreadsheet or M.S. Excel. Use this data to develop a plan that will reduce payroll processing fees and increase levels of employee performance. In addition, understand the services of your restaurant payroll software and the cost of each transaction. Seek help if you don’t understand some charges to prevent unforeseen bills in the future.
3. Note Down the Steps in a Checklist to Reduce Errors
Create and use checklists to reduce errors regardless of whether your payroll allows automation. They ensure nothing is left behind even when you are in a hurry. By creating a checklist, you get a chronological order of the process and objectives in each step. Moreover, you’ll know what processes to add and those to remove.
4. Adopt the Latest Business Technologies
The other excellent way to streamline your company’s payroll processing is by adopting the latest business technologies. You can automate certain tasks, making it easier for workers and departmental managers to deal with several projects simultaneously. You can achieve this by leveraging online systems that enable you to gather data swiftly while automating some payment processes, including invoicing and reporting. Here are some of the new business technologies you can try out:
- Leverage automated notifications apps to keep team members in the loop regarding submitting leave requests and such tasks.
- Automate your company’s timekeeping by leveraging a time recording application. Alternatively, you can preload devices with employee timesheets accessible by workers. Adopting such a solution will eliminate the manual calculation of worked hours and timestamps, simplifying the process.
- Embrace the latest technology that can assist in creating and sending out invoices automatically, minimizing time spent on administrative tasks, including the issuance of payroll and billing clients.
However, if you’re planning to adopt new business technology, make sure you train your workforce on using each tool. Doing so will reduce resistance while optimizing the benefits you gain from such technologies.
5. Integrate Your Payroll Function with Other Business Functions
You can also streamline payroll processing in your company by integrating it with other business functions. You can achieve this by leveraging software with enhanced integrations, including FreshBooks, Xero, etc. Nowadays, most software solutions are available with integrated payroll services, enabling you to import financial details from this software into your company’s payroll system. Thus, this helps eliminate the need to enter data manually.
This facilitates a more accurate payroll process, minimizing the probability of making errors and making it easy to file taxes. Integrating your payroll system with other business functions can assist you in minimizing the time and effort needed to finish payroll-related activities. In turn, this allows you to concentrate on business development activities. For example, as a small company owner, an integrated payroll processing system can enable you to concentrate on expanding your business.
Concluding Remarks
Your company’s payroll processing should be simpler and optimized if you follow these strategies. Therefore, with these tips, you’ll be able to get your payroll completed whether you do it in-house or outsource. However, remember that outsourcing your payroll function doesn’t mean you forgo your responsibility for HR compliance. Ultimately, you should leverage these and other strategies to streamline your payroll.
