Timely payment of wages is necessary for employee satisfaction and to keep them motivated. The slightest lapse in this regard can prove very expensive. However, managing payroll is a difficult task for even the most proficient employee. Personnel changes, deadlines and changing tax regulations only worsen the situation leading to unnecessary delays and inefficiencies. A payroll service can take care of all your payroll requirements and free you and your employers of unnecessary stress and hassles.
Outsourced payroll services become even more important for start-up businesses. While you take care of everything from product development, to advertising and marketing and sales, payroll is one function that can be easily outsourced to a payroll service.
Over one-fourth of the companies are already enjoying the benefits of outsourcing payroll. Here are the main benefits you can expect from outsourcing.
Free payroll software
Outsourcing payroll eliminates the need to buy, install, support and maintain payroll software and reduces the IT labor needed, resulting in several immediate cost reductions. Several payroll companies also provide software integration into your office accounting systems along with customization. Further, payroll services regularly update their software giving you another indirect cost benefit.
Easy scalability at minimal cost
When you outsource to a professional service, you do not have to worry about adding new staff to deal with business growth. Similarly, they take care of reassigning tasks, lay-offs and unemployment insurance for contracting businesses, thus freeing the owners of this responsibility at affordable prices.
Focus on your core business
Payroll takes up a total of eight-ten hours of employee time, every pay period. Outsourcing payroll saves valuable employee time that can be devoted to core business issues for improving productivity.
Employees prepare and submit own payroll data
Payroll services use software as a service, which delegates to employees the responsibility of gathering and submitting work hours themselves. For this, each employee uses his login to enter information about work hours into electronic time cards on the providers website. After completion, these are electronically reviewed by the manager, who can either approve or send back any inaccurate time card. Defaults for submission, approval and correction ensure that employees get paid even when the manager is unavailable for reviewing the time cards. Variable pay such as bonuses, commissions and fines are also accommodated by most services.
Convenience of Paper Paychecks or Direct Deposit
You can ask for paper checks to be delivered to your office, or provide for direct deposit to employees. In either case, the payroll company takes care of statutory withholdings and contributions to health and retirement plans.
Onus of regulatory compliance shifted to payroll service
The biggest headache when processing payroll is keeping pace with changing tax regulations which lead to unnecessary fines and penalties for your company. Payroll services can better handle mandatory tax regulations and ensure compliance with them. Additionally, payroll services themselves pay for penalties, if any, saving you money and worries.
Outsourcing payroll can be one of the most profitable decisions you make. Go ahead and hire a payroll service to reap the benefits of increased business output and profits.
