Our special guest contributor this month is one of our Payroll Partners, Brad Rougeau of PayTickr, a cloud-based mobile time tracking with payroll system that offers small, mobile businesses a simple and affordable system for keeping track of their employees and automating payroll runs.
It’s that time of the month again – payroll. This may well be an exciting time for your team members who are anticipating a payment, but not for you, or whoever is responsible for payroll. You know exactly how much time and effort it takes, and if the process does not go smoothly, you could end up with some issues – including ornery employees. As someone who runs payroll for multiple companies with upwards of 20 employees, I can relate.
To manage this process efficiently and effectively, I use an online payroll provider, and I think everyone should consider this type of payroll service for their business. All you need to do is supply the system with relevant employee details. Once you input the data into the software, the rest of the payroll process will essentially take care of itself.
Why should you use an online payroll provider? Here are three compelling reasons to consider it.
1. It saves you time
Manually processing your payroll can be time-consuming. We already know that. However, in the grand scheme of things, that is just the tip of the iceberg. Frustration tends to trickle down to your employees when their cheque or direct deposit takes a surprising amount of time to clear.
Last year, the Canadian Payroll Association conducted a survey and reported that 47 percent of respondents said it would be difficult to meet their financial obligations if their paycheque was delayed.
Walk a mile in the shoes of your team members who are counting on that money to come through on the designated date. How would you feel if there was no money in your account when you expected it to be there? If you could not pay your bills on time, would you feel irritated, or worse?
Another consideration is the amount of time and energy it takes for someone on your team to do payroll. If they have other tasks and assignments to complete and need to finish payroll by a specific deadline, they may not get all of their work completed on time. As the CTO of PayTickr, I cannot be spending my days inputting time sheets or calculating overtime, as I need to focus on building our system.
By using an online payroll provider, I can put the process on virtual autopilot and have it completed for me in a timely fashion. This frees me (or you) up to work on more high-value tasks. This also reduces overhead, which is a crucial factor in the success of all businesses.
2. When people are paid on time, it improves your corporate culture
Again, for better or for worse, the statistics that show roughly half of your team members are living paycheque-to-paycheque. They are counting on that cheque for their survival. When the money does not come through for them, they begin to question your company’s integrity. Why is it that my company did not pay me on time? Do they have cash flow problems? What are they doing with the money?
These are the types of questions your employees will begin to ask, regardless of what is happening behind the scenes. If the procedure has not been adequately explained, and your team is expecting to see their money on a specific date, and it does not come through, their motivation level is going to go down. There are dangers to not paying on time.
By contrast, if your team members get paid on time without fail, it will improve your corporate culture, and motivation levels will soar. Your team members are happier working for you, and you will retain your best talent for longer. It is a win-win.
Another benefit of using an online payroll provider that may not be immediately apparent is data security. If you are processing data in-house, no matter how good your firewalls and other security measures are, there is a chance that sensitive data can be tampered with or leaked. A quality service provider will store your payroll data on a highly secured server to ensure it is properly protected.
3. You can leave deductions to someone else
As someone responsible for developing payroll software, I have dealt with the massive (and sometimes conflicting) amounts of documentation out there around how to handle deductions. If you do payroll for your company, I am sure you have seen it too.
However, no matter how much you simplify it and break it down into a step-by-step process, it is still a painstaking procedure. Plus, you do not want to make any mistakes, because you are going to be submitting your reports to the government. Mistakes, unfortunately, can cost you.
If your online payroll provider was handling this on your behalf, it could happen like clockwork and without your direct involvement. Would that not be a relief?
In summary, I have described how working with an online payroll provider can save you time. I have looked at how using a service like this can keep your employees happier. We also examined how you can leave deductions to your chosen provider. There can be other benefits, including reduced overhead and better data security. All of these advantages make using an online payroll provider a wise thing to do for my company and yours.
PayTickr, with its direct integration with Telpay for Business, can provide you with all of those advantages, plus time tracking and electronic bill payment services (including government remittances), taking the worry and hassle out of keeping track of and paying your employees.
Personally, it has reduced my payroll processes from half a day to 20 minutes, and I think it can do the same for you!
For more information on online payroll systems, you can contact Brad at brad@paytickr.com.