The time when the payroll process was handled manually, it used to be a tedious, error-filled, and labour-intensive task. While using payroll software was previously considered to be a luxury but with time organizations have started tagging it as a business necessity.
Almost 25% of employees go through their W-4 forms once a year. It has been reported that 60% of businesses had seen fluctuations while processing payroll from one pay period to the other. According to HBR Org, 60% of the employees feels assured that their paychecks will be accurate.
From the above statistics, one can ascertain that integrated payroll software is the only solution, businesses are looking for to achieve accuracy in the payroll process.
What are the Goals and Objectives of a Payroll Process?
The basic objective of any payroll process is to release appropriate and timely payments to the employees. If this has not been achieved for quite some time, then it is high time that you should start re-considering your payroll process.
Most Important Features that a Payroll Software Must Have.
It is very likely to presume that all payroll software features are identical to each other. Besides, several businesses purchase a payroll system based on only the price and not on any other factors.
Now this is so inappropriate! Purchasing the payroll system at a lower cost could seem profitable for the business owners, however, they later release that, it does not meet the necessary payroll requirements of the organization.
So, when you are about to own a payroll system, take into consideration, the following features and check if they are available in the payroll software you have selected.
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Employee Time Tracker
This feature is very essential for companies that are paying workers on an hourly basis. So, if businesses having hourly workers need a payroll system, they must ensure that it has the time tracking module or can integrate with the existing time tracking software.
Having this will remove the burden of keeping a check on the manual attendance entries and can perform their respective payroll duties with efficiency and accuracy.
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Direct Fund Deposit
Direct deposit features help employers to transfer employee paychecks directly to the employee’s account. Every employee would like to access their paychecks conveniently and instantly, so payroll software can make this possible.
Moreover, having a feature like direct deposit means employers do not have to take the headache of printing and distributing paychecks anymore.
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Manage the Expenses
Payroll software with an expense management feature is very essential for those businesses that have a reimbursable clause for their employee’s expenses like lodging and traveling.
It helps automate the expense reports and process the payment which eventually saves time and maintains punctuality of the reimbursement. Lastly, all the records are stored so, in case of any need for records, they can be very easily located from the system.
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Managing Compensation
Companies with a well-calculated budget could able to have a better and more calculative allocation of funds for specific purposes like recruitment, training, salaries, and other organizational goals.
Payroll software with a compensation management feature is specifically for managing compensation. It helps in monitoring the compensation budget and makes it easy for the business to pay their employees bonuses from the adjusted budget without disrupting the bottom line.
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Self-Accessing Employee Dashboard
There are two benefits of having an employee self-service feature.
- Employee can access their dashboard and make certain changes as per their flexibility.
- It provides the employees direct access to multiple documents like W-2 forms, leaves balances, and pay slips.
This gives HR the time to focus on matters like dealing with the office culture and other crucial responsibilities instead of clerical work.
Conclusion
So, keeping in mind the above features, I hope you will not be doing the same mistake by purchasing a payroll system just by comparing the prices. What is important is to create a checklist of the functions that your organization runs on, and based on that, go for the software. This way you can be clear in your head, about the features you will look for while choosing. Similarly, list down what your HR department functions are and compare the best payroll software.
