Running payroll is one of the most important responsibilities of any business owner, but it doesn’t have to be the most stressful.
When you work with a payroll service provider, you get the peace of mind of knowing you have the resources to help you pay your employees and taxes accurately and on-time. And you get to focus on more important things, such as growing your business.
A full-service payroll provider goes way beyond the basic of payroll calculations, they can also handle, for example, third party deductions.
Here’s a practical summary of services that you could expect from a payroll service provider.
Payroll processing
A high-quality payroll service provider can help you drastically reduce the time it takes to run your payroll by automating the most labour-intensive aspects, like calculations, tax withholding and payment options. These days, most good providers offer web-based interfaces that allow you to store your employees’ information – names, wages and any required statutory deductions – so all you have to do is enter their days or hours for the pay period and hit “Run.”
Many providers also offer time and attendance solutions that sync with their payroll programs to make the entire process quick and seamless.
Calculate, withhold and pay taxes
Errors in calculating and paying taxes are among the most common – and expensive – payroll mistakes. A professional service provider helps to eliminate mistakes by automatically calculating and withholding the right amount of taxes for your employees and your business, then forwarding those funds to the appropriate agencies at the proper time.
Compliance
A high-quality payroll service provider takes the lead in developing a payroll system that meets the ever-changing employment laws and taxation landscape.
Absence management
Keeping track of your employees’ absence – including annual leave and sick leaves – can be time-consuming and confusing. Payroll service providers can offer automated and integrated systems to help you stay organised with tracking and managing employee absences.
Employee mobile access
With a payroll service provider, your employees should be able to access their pay details, manage their withholdings and look up their pay information from their mobile devices whenever they need answers. This way, they don’t have to wait for you to answer their questions. And, you are spending less time fielding their requests and more time on your business.
Integration
Payroll has many moving parts, and nothing helps them work in sync like partnering with a payroll service provider. By integrating related functions like time and attendance, payroll, third party payments, your experienced provider can save you from entering the same information over and over again and help to dramatically reduce errors.
Before you decide if a full-service payroll provider is right for your business, take a moment to consider your priorities including your payroll, compliance and benefits needs. Then, it would be helpful to write down a checklist or a list of questions – refer to services listed above – that you want to discuss with any potential payroll partner. This way, you will be able to make sure that the partner you choose offer the services your company really needs.
