Choosing the right payroll software can make or break your small business. The wrong software can increase your expenses and decrease your profits, while the right one can increase the size of your company without increasing the stress on you and your employees. Payroll automation will teach you everything you need to know and about choosing the perfect software for your company and getting it set up quickly and efficiently with minimal headaches or complications.
1) Saving Time
Automating payroll processing is one of many steps you can take to simplify your small business management. Not only does it eliminate a lot of tedious back-and-forth with clients, but it allows you to increase efficiency, free up time and save money too. In fact, in some cases by automating processes, SMBs can lower their overall payroll costs since things like filing taxes and making employee deductions are handled more efficiently. This can be especially useful when dealing with a small staff or fluctuating seasonal workloads.
2) Lowering Costs
The number one advantage of a payroll service is it takes away the burden of doing all of your payroll tasks in-house. Many businesses do not realize how much time they spend on these tasks until they try outsourcing them. Doing payroll manually can take hours out of your day, and often even weeks out of a year if you are processing paychecks monthly. Outsourcing your payroll frees up that time so you can focus on other areas within your business. Many businesses have lower overhead costs as well because they only pay for what they need rather than paying extra fees when their business is smaller.
3) Avoid Mistakes
The number one mistake small businesses make when implementing payroll automation is choosing too simple of a program. Remember, you are looking at this from a long-term perspective. You need something that can grow with your business as well as provide support if/when you encounter legal or accounting difficulties down the road. You want something that takes care of all aspects of running payroll and does it quickly, efficiently, and accurately.
4) Fewer Human Errors
The biggest advantage of payroll automation is that it eliminates human error. When you have a team member manually processing payroll, there’s always a chance he’ll make an error in calculating hours worked or pay rates. Not only are these errors time-consuming to fix and resolve, but they also cost businesses money. Payroll automation helps ensure all your employees get paid correctly and on time. Using technology like automated direct deposit removes human error from the equation completely. This not only makes life easier for your employees—but it also improves their perception of your company as fair and transparent.
5) Improving Customer Service
There’s no question that you need good customer service as a small business owner. The challenge, however, is how exactly you provide it. On one hand, having in-house staff to provide customer service gives you complete control and means your company can keep overhead low. But it also requires a lot of attention on your part and can make day-to-day operations more difficult. Fortunately, payroll automation helps take some of that pressure off so you can focus on running your business instead of answering calls or performing payroll checks manually every week.
Payroll services are only growing in popularity. To some, automating payroll is all about saving money. And to others, it’s a matter of convenience. However you look at it, however, automation is one of the best ways small businesses can keep on top of their finances and ensure that they stay compliant with government and internal regulations. By taking advantage of today’s technology and expertise, small businesses can have peace of mind—and go back to doing what they do best: running their business!
