Payroll is one of the most intricate processes during which the risk of errors and mistakes always exists, especially when you are handling it manually. However, with the use of the right strategies, expert onboarding, and investment in digital tools like payroll software, you can easily streamline it.
Managing payroll not only means employees’ payment calculations and keeping track of their work hours but it is also about complying with the state and federal regulations. Making a simple mistake or miscalculating a single digit can prove to be fatal for the financial health of your company.
Do’s and Don’ts of Payroll Management
To ensure smooth and seamless payroll management, you can use our guide ” Do’s and Don’ts of Payroll”.
Do’s
1. Simple Payroll Strategy
Keeping your payroll policy simple, constant, and shorter is the very first and most effective approach to ensure hassle-free payroll management. It not only eliminates unnecessary steps or procedures but also makes it easy to understand for all types of employees.
Having a simple payroll policy will also enable you to focus on what is important and bring a positive impact on the overall growth of the company.
2. Provide Employees Self Service Portal
Poor tracking of employees ‘ performance and working hours is the main reason for payroll ineffectiveness. Though keeping an eye on all employees is a difficult task, the use of a tracking tool and providing employees with a self-service portal can help you to achieve this task.
Tracking tools provide you with real-time data and enable employees to keep track of their working hours, payment, and bonuses. It not only helps you to detect employees’ work progress but also boost employees’ potential
3. Creation of Killer Payroll Team
Another important aspect of the payroll management process that all companies must do is the creation of a killer payroll team. Regardless of the size of your business hiring one or more payroll experts and handover complicated payroll tasks to them is crucial to avoid human errors and mistakes.
Having experts and providing them with essential training and tools to handle the payroll stress will provide you free time to focus on other crucial tasks that are necessary for the growth of your company.
4. Complete Paperwork
When hiring new employees, they have to fill out various forms. These forms are required by the state and federal management to ensure the implementation of employment and tax laws.
Most organizations failed to complete and submit this paperwork which resulted in heavy fines and penalties. Therefore, proper completion and submission of paperwork is crucial to avoid payroll fines.
5. Employees Classification
Another smart approach to improve payroll management is employee classification. Payroll experts always advise employees’ classification depending on their job type and payment policy.
You can distribute your employees into four main categories: permanent employees, seasonal workers, contractors, and third-party laborers. It will help you to pay all employees accurately according to their work hours and state rules.
6. Regular Audit
When talking about important tips to improve payroll efficiency, you can also perform a regular payroll audit. It’s a transparent source to differentiate between the strong and weak zones of your current payroll policy. Therefore, you can easily make important decisions to bring evolution and reduce the cost of fixing human errors and imperfections.
7. Automate Payroll process
Shifting to digital platforms is also a must-do job in the current era to ensure smooth payroll management. Make sure to choose a reliable platform like Netchex to buy payroll software for your company.
Don’ts
1. Complex Payroll Policy
Make sure to not have a complex payroll strategy. It consumes more time and is prone to errors because payroll staff and employees find it difficult to understand.
2. Different Payment Schedules
Another important thing to avoid is multiple or varying payroll schedules. It not only creates troubles for payroll staff but also causes dissatisfaction among employees.
3. Old Manual strategies
The use of old manual strategies is another thing that you must avoid. The use of credible payroll software which allows you to integrate with HRM software can enable you to make exceptional progress as a payroll manager.
Key Takeaway
Payroll management is not everyone’s cup of tea but taking help from payroll professionals and digital tools can help you to reduce its hassle. You can also use the above-mentioned tips to bring positive change in the payroll management process.
Make sure to rely on professional services and credible tools only to avoid further destruction and risk of scams or fraud.
