Five Payroll Features that can Drastically Simplify Your Life
Five Payroll Features that can Drastically
Simplify Your Life
So you’re company is making the switch to a newer software application. Now it’s up to you, the IT manager, to ensure that the
process runs as smoothly as possible without too much interruption. Here are some key things to consider for an efficient switch,
and to keep your IT team sane.
1. Direct deposit
Direct deposit is a tool that allows you to transfer pay electronically to employee bank accounts. More and more employers are
offering direct deposit as an option, or even paying employees only via direct deposit because of simplified processing and
money saved. Since direct deposit advices can be printed on plain paper, the employer saves money on the cost of the check
stock, printer ink, envelopes, and the manual labor of putting them all together. Transferring pay electronically via direct deposit
can shave off hours every week of a payroll processor’s workload.
2. Advanced Earning Matrix
If you have employees working at different pay rates for different shifts, departments, locations, profit centers and more, payroll
data entry can become complex and cumbersome quickly, since your list of pay codes becomes so long. With an advanced
earning matrix, you set up parameters for each of the variables needed within a grid for each employee. Paying employees
becomes a snap with the ability to simply choose employee parameters from that grid to enter pay rates. All earnings and
deductions are then calculated accordingly when time is entered, solving the very difficult problem of finding the right pay code
within a sea of other available codes.
3. Electronic tax filing
If you manage payroll, you are aware that employers are required to file quarterly and yearly taxes. It wasn’t so long ago when W2 forms were filled out by typing in triplicate on a manual typewriter! Nowadays some programs offer the ability to print the tax
forms on plain paper, saving on the cost of purchasing the tax forms, and also the time associated with printing them. To take
the simplification a step further, some payroll companies also allow you the option of filing the tax forms electronically online,
which eliminates several steps including the steps of printing, collating, stuffing, and mailing the forms. File tax forms
electronically can sound daunting, but an average of 98% of customers who try online tax filing continue doing so year after year
because it makes their job so much easier.
4. Custom Checks, Stubs and Payroll Reports
Your business is unique. Perhaps you want your employees’ vacation to show on the check stub, or you want their employee
number to print out on their check. Maybe you want a column of information to show on your payroll register report. If you use a
payroll system that allows you to modify and save your version of checks, stubs and payroll reports, you will always be able to
see and show others information in the way that is most useful. It will also cut down on copy and pasting into Excel and making
manual edits.
5. Electronic Time Clock
Reading hand-written time sheets can be a difficult chore with the challenge of various handwriting types, and the re-entry of
that data into a system can also result in human error. By implementing an electronic time clock, you can save yourself the time
and also eliminate re-entry errors by pulling the data that was entered electronically by the employee into the payroll system.
Many payroll software programs offer standard import utilities, so that you can set up and pull in the data you choose from the
electronic time clock, making the job of entering payroll a much easier and faster task. printing them. To take the simplification
a step further, some payroll companies also allow you the option of filing the tax forms electronically online, which eliminates
several steps including the steps of printing, collating, stuffing, and mailing the forms. File tax forms electronically can sound
daunting, but an average of 98% of customers who try online tax filing continue doing so year after year because it makes their
job so much easier.
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