Increase Your Payroll Efficiency in 6 Simple Steps

Payroll used to take up a huge amount of time and money. Many large companies have a whole payroll department that is dedicated to making sure everyone gets paid correctly and on time. In modern days, there have been many improvements to this system. In this article, there will be 6 ways to improve your payroll efficiency. 

Use The Latest Software

Using or upgrading to the latest payroll software is always going to be step one for making payroll more efficient. Year on year, many of the complicated processes involved in paying everyone in a company have been automated and in turn so much simpler. The advancement of payroll software tools has allowed companies to downsize their payroll department and save themselves enormous sums of money. It also tends to reduce human error, which is a big plus. Inevitably you will still need to have some people working in the payroll department to oversee everything, but you should be able to downscale quite significantly. Using the latest software is step one of how to make your payroll more efficient. 

Try A Self-Service Model

 

A self-service model is another way to reduce the workload of the payroll department. It is a system whereby staff members are in charge of updating their personal details themselves, rather than having to go through HR and payroll. You would be surprised how often members of staff move house or change their bank account. Putting the responsibility in their hands is a smart move to improve efficiency. It is also easier for them to get it right, rather than having to relay personal details through emails for someone else to type in. A self-service model might just help your company make payroll more efficient, so this makes a great second step. 

Make Your Policies Simple

To make your payroll process as efficient as possible, you need to make sure that all your policies are super simple. Asides from paying main salaries, there are often additional things to work out, like overtime, expenses, and reimbursements. If there is some complicated formula for working out somebody’s overtime or expenses, try to revisit this and see if there is a way of making it simpler. Sometimes, there ends up being a solution that costs essentially the same but requires so much less time to work out. If all your staff members understand how your policies work, then you should be in a good place. Making your policies clear and simple should be step number 3 in making your payroll more efficient. 

Electronic Pay Slips

Paper payslips are definitely on their way out, but if you still use them at your company, you should consider switching to electronic payslips. It is so much better to have them stored digitally than physically. It is then super easy to have them emailed to staff so that they can have instant access to all their pay records. Having all payslips distributed electronically will also save the company loads of money on printing costs too. As long as your electronic payment system is secure, there are no downsides to switching over to e-payslips. This should be step four in making your payroll process more efficient. 

Direct Deposit

In recent years, direct deposit of salaries has become the preferred method for payroll. There was some confusion about this and anticipation that this might somehow cost more than the alternative. Thankfully, for most companies, this method of payment is much cheaper and more efficient. If you moved over to this method, then you would be able to automate the actual payment part of payroll, as it could be all done digitally. Moving to direct deposit should be step number five of making your payroll process more efficient. 

Payroll Calendar

The last tip for making your payroll more efficient is to introduce a payroll calendar. This is something that is more of an organizational construct and is good housekeeping. Everyone in the payroll department and in the whole company should understand exactly when all the relevant dates are for each part of the payroll process. If they need to get in their expenses claims on the 15th of each month, then they should be able to see a calendar with this date highlighted for each month. Setting this is up should be the sixth step in improved payroll efficiency. 

When working for a big company, it’s all about efficiency. It is really easy for large companies to end up burning money on inefficient processes and departments. Payroll is one such place that can easily be improved and made more efficient.  Hopefully, this article has helped make your payroll process more efficient.