The right payroll software can make all the difference in your business’s success and longevity. It can help you save time and ensure you never make mistakes with your employees’ paychecks. If you’re still using pen and paper or outdated software, consider this:
Here are 7 reasons why small businesses need payroll software to empower them to grow rapidly without losing control of their financials.
1) Help with Legal Compliance
As a small business owner, you have to worry about maintaining compliance with dozens of different regulations. For example, if you’re an employer, there are payroll tax requirements for employees and other obligations you need to meet. The same goes for accounting processes; there are many rules that determine how you keep track of cash flow and what records you keep. Without payroll software, it can be difficult to stay up-to-date on legal compliance requirements—and even more difficult to ensure that your books are accurate at all times.
Although payroll software isn’t a substitute for professional assistance, it does make it easier for small businesses to ensure they’re meeting their obligations.
2) Easy Access To Financial Information
Having payroll software can help to give you full access to all of your data in real-time, so you can easily make adjustments. Especially in businesses where every dollar counts, having that up-to-the-minute view can be extremely valuable when it comes to making sure that payroll is properly managed. Not only will timely information lead to informed decisions, but it can also help you save money on costs like late fees and bad debt. When running a business, every penny counts; having payroll software in place is key.
3) Quick And Accurate Payments
When you use payroll software to create and process your employee paychecks, you won’t have to worry about errors creeping in. Doing payroll by hand is error-prone, not to mention time-consuming. As your company grows, it becomes harder to stay on top of everything—small mistakes can add up quickly when you’re doing all your business accounting manually.
No one wants their employees waiting for checks they’ve earned or worse, missing out on paychecks altogether. Using payroll software gives employees immediate access to their pay information. You’ll also be able to give them an accurate amount of pay with ease since mistakes are nonexistent when doing payroll through a computer system.
4) Automated Time Cards
Unlike manual time cards, automated time cards allow employees to log their hours simply by punching in and out. Employees don’t need to worry about filling out timesheets or collecting signatures, which can save you valuable employee time. It also ensures that your business is compliant with state laws on how frequently you must pay your employees. Regardless of whether you use an online payroll service or self-host your payroll software, automated time cards are an essential part of modern payroll solutions.
5) Direct deposit
If you’re like most companies, your employees don’t wait for their paychecks to clear before they spend it. Once wages are deposited, your company’s cash flow will improve dramatically. Direct deposit is usually free (depending on bank fees) and can be set up in under an hour. All you need is your employee’s information, including banking information, Social Security number, and federal ID number.
Most companies have options to directly deposit into different accounts or even PayPal accounts for workers who want their money sooner or want to save additional fees by avoiding bank services altogether.
6) Employee Self Service Portal
This gives employees access to their payroll information, making it easy for them to check their information and track down errors. This is especially important if you don’t have dedicated payroll staff who are available during traditional business hours. When you open up your employee portal, it gives workers 24/7 access to pay stubs, direct deposit setup, withholding amounts and more so they can check things whenever is convenient for them. This way your employees will be able to correct issues immediately instead of having problems that build up over time because they couldn’t get answers fast enough or right away.
7) Reduces errors
This is often cited as one of the biggest benefits of implementing payroll software. No matter how great your bookkeeper or accounting department is, mistakes happen. By using a system that can be customized and branded for your small business, you eliminate human error and streamline processes to save both time and money. And because you’re eliminating human error, you’ll likely increase employee morale and retention.
