The power of automation – how you can speed up your payroll practices

Streamlining business practices using automation to ensure maximum efficiency is a wonderful way to make sure your staff time is utilised properly. Payroll is one area where outdated practices and manual work can take up significant time, but it is also a delicate area of business where everything should be done correctly and thoroughly.

So, how can you speed up your payroll practices, without cutting corners?

Integrate employee timekeeping as standard

Something that payroll services are able to do is integrate employee timekeeping as standard. Imperative to payroll, employee timekeeping keeps a record of staff working hours, and also discrepancies like sick days. For some businesses, these are kept separate, and employee timesheets are only looked at once completing payroll, being manually entered into a datasheet or system. However, by integrating the two staff pay can be automatically calculated and the room for manual error is minimised.

Utilise your payroll product to its fullest extent

Ensure you get the most out of the software by keeping in touch with regular product updates and releases – integrated products such as iTrent, CoreHR and Resourcelink are common in the mid tier in the UK.

Ensure the process is transparent for all

One of the largest issues when it comes to payroll, and something unavoidable are unique staff situations. From working overtime to taking a sick day, it’s small things like this that can mean payroll staff are taking time to manually adapt number and ensure that all of the data going into the system is accurate.

Although each member of staff across your business doesn’t need to know the finer details of how payroll works, it can be beneficial to ensure the process is transparent and all staff know exactly what is expected of them. Make companies policies clear, for example, if your business offers overtime, make sure staff know exactly how to log their overtime so no amendments should need to be made further down the line. By ironing out smaller issues before they arise, you’ll be able to save trouble down the line.

Consider outsourcing

If payroll is taking up too much internal time you can always consider outsourcing your payroll. There are myriad payroll outsourcing options which can help free up staff time and can also take on more complex situations, for example, large taskforces that are split between multiple offices. Outsourcing payroll can also help to alleviate manual entry errors, and the experience of professional payroll staff means that problems can be tackled from a uniquely informed place.

How to speed up payroll practices:

• Utilise payroll services
• Integrate employee timekeeping as standard
• Have one consistent pay calendar
• Ensure the process is transparent for all
• Consider outsourcing

With these tips, you should be able to introduce automation to your payroll practices and not only speed up but streamline the task. If you are looking for business-specific advice and guidance on payroll, then get in touch with our professional team today to learn more about our Payroll Services.

For more advice on payroll, HR and other areas of people management, explore our blog