Automating your life makes it easier. Automating your electricity bill will make it impossible to miss any payments. Your phone’s calendar syncs automatically with your computer so that you never forget appointments. Netflix plays the next episode automatically, even if you don’t wish it to. However, the next episode has already begun, so it might be worth watching.
Although these little tasks may not seem important, they can help you save time and effort. Automated payroll software can help your company save time and headaches.
What is Automated Payroll?
Automatic payroll helps you to pay your employees accurately and on time. An automated payroll system is a great option for payroll workers because it saves time and eliminates the headache-inducing tasks like filing taxes in federal and state tax jurisdictions, processing direct deposits, creating reports and calculating withholdings.
Payroll managers cannot work all day crunching numbers or managing spreadsheets. Others have other responsibilities, such as recruiting, hiring, employee relations, training, development, and benefits administration. Maybe payroll is part of their job as office managers or executive assistants. This is a list of all the duties that a payroll manager has to perform (and it doesn’t include any other tasks).
- New Hire Tasks
- Demographic information
- Information about banks
- Pay schedules
- Withholdings
- Benefit deductions
- Weekly Tasks
- Hours Calculator
- Hours for a holiday and PTO adjustment
- For overtime and garnishments, adjust pay
- Submit payroll
- Employees can be provided with pay stubs or checks
- Make any payroll corrections mid-cycle
- Periodic Tasks
- Payroll reports
- Open enrollment benefit changes
- Workers’ compensation
- Filing federal, state, and municipal taxes
- Filing and distribution of employee tax forms
It is a waste of time to complete all these payroll tasks manually. Fuhgettaboutit!
While an automated payroll system cannot do all the work for you, it can make a significant difference. You might be wondering if your payroll software is expensive. Or if you are just curious about automated payroll.
What are the benefits of automated payroll?
Automating your payroll process is a great way to simplify things, as we have already mentioned. Let’s now look at some specific benefits of automating payroll.
#1 Reduce Errors
According to The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated, 49% of Americans will look for new jobs after having only two issues with their pay. Pay is something you don’t want to ruin.
As human brains are better at math than calculators, payroll software is much better at calculating correct deductions, overtime, PTO, and commissions that impact an employee’s salary. You can also avoid mistyping numbers or copying incorrect data if you don’t enter it manually.
#2 Save Time
We have already looked at the tasks that a payroll employee must complete. Some of these tasks can be automated to save significant time. BambooHR payroll specialist Tamerra Sedacy estimates that an automated payroll system can save me three and five hours per week. It can replace most manual data that I would normally need to enter.”
#3 Increase Security
Not many places are as secure as spreadsheets and paperwork to store your payroll data. An automated payroll system protects your data by making it encrypted and password-protected so that only you and your team can access it.
#4 Create Reports Quickly
Automated help can make it easier to make strategic payroll decisions and predict labour costs. It isn’t easy to go through all the manual work and find your payroll information, then assemble it manually into a report. You can trust that your payroll software is working properly and that you are making the right decisions for your company.
#5 Reduce Tax Filing
Taxes can be complicated. Many tax jurisdictions across the United States and tax rules often change. You have more to manage if you operate in multiple states. It can be difficult to keep track of all these changes, proving costly. Automated payroll tracks these changes in tax policy and calculates withholding taxes for each employee. You can be confident that your taxes will be filed correctly on time.
#6 Complete Record
Employers must keep three years’ worth of pay records under the Fair Labor Standards Act. You should include hours worked, pay rates, payroll dates and other pertinent data, depending on the state laws. These data can be organized automatically by payroll systems, which will help you to stay compliant and ready for an audit.
#7 Employee Self Service
Employees can view their paychecks and update their personal information easily, streamlining the payroll process and reducing errors. Many automated payroll systems give employees the ability to:
- Modify their personal information
- Print and view pay stubs
- Check their direct deposit.
- See benefits statements
- Take a look at the deductions
- Access and print W-2 forms and 1099 forms
Payroll managers can have a much easier time managing their day with fewer emails, shoulder taps, or pings.
#8 Get Money
Although an automated payroll management system may seem expensive, the American Payroll Association estimates that it can lower your payroll processing costs by up to 80 per cent. Automated payroll can bring down your overall costs. You can reduce your overall costs by eliminating the most costly errors. Businesses especially benefit from the fact that time is money.
