How often do you review your Payroll Software?

Non-HR professionals may think that payroll is simply about ensuring employees receive their salaries on time. However, HR and payroll professionals know that payroll is more than just the list of people that the organisation employees and ensuring that employees receive their due wages. It also involves tax computation, complying with legal regulations and safeguarding confidential employee and salary data.

Payroll may seem simple at its core but it becomes a highly complex issue because of the various deductions that come into play. Payroll professionals need to be highly adept in payroll processing, withholding taxes from employees’ paycheck, paying insurance premiums or even depositing the correct amount of funds into employees’ retirement accounts.

With the complexities of payroll processing, this can create a huge burden and can also be overwhelming for both small and large businesses. To avoid these issues, businesses, regardless of whether they are large or small, should use payroll software.

What is the role of payroll software?

A payroll software management system is designed to organise all of the payroll management processes and tax filing. This includes keeping track of employees’ working hours, wage calculations, attendance tracking, and tax calculations and deductions. Some payroll software also handles salary disbursement and tax filing to the necessary agencies.

As payroll is something that has to be done accurately and regularly, it makes sense for organisations to invest in a payroll software. Payroll software can mitigate errors, drive compliance and automate administrative payroll tasks.

Payroll needs may evolve over time

Implementing payroll software within the organisation is a herculean task and involves numerous parties besides HR – the IT team, senior management, payroll vendor and even employees. However, the benefits that payroll software brings about are numerous.

Before deciding on which payroll software to go with, the organisation is likely to identify key payroll and HR needs. Ideally, the payroll software should be able to meet the organisation’s payroll needs and support. Most payroll software are also regularly updated to ensure compliance with changes in legislations or labour laws.

While payroll software is regularly updated to keep up-to-date with employment laws, is the existing payroll software still working well for the organisation?

Most organisations fall into the trap of being too comfortable with their existing payroll software that they fail to see that it is no longer enhancing their payroll processes as compared to before.

Processes and features that have worked well in the past may no longer be relevant now given that the organisation would have likely expanded over time. Payroll needs are likely to evolve in tandem with the organisation’s expansion. As such, it is only natural that the organisation’s payroll software changes to meet the organisation’s evolving payroll needs.

Maximise the potential of your existing payroll software

To get the most out of your existing payroll software, it is crucial to review your payroll software regularly to identify the organisation’s payroll needs and ensure that the existing payroll software are able to address these pain points. Conduct a thorough annual evaluation of your payroll software with your payroll vendor to assess if the existing features in your payroll software is aligned with your organisation’s payroll needs.

For instance, you may create a list of requirements in a Request For Information document where your payroll staff list out key payroll priorities. This can then be used as a checklist with your payroll provider to determine which functionalities are good to have or can be upgraded.

Recognise when there is a need to upgrade your payroll software

A good payroll software should be able to provide you insights on your employee costs to drive strategic decision-making. When you find that your payroll software is no longer able to support your organisation’s payroll needs, then perhaps it is time for an upgrade.

System migrations and change can be a scary affair for some, particularly for those who have become so familiar with the existing payroll software. However, with proper change management and training, upgrading your payroll software to a new platform can be done seamlessly.

With the evolving business landscape, organisation’s HR and payroll needs are likely to change over time. Along with technological advances, this means that organisations’ payroll software has to evolve in parallel with payroll and business needs. Payroll software is designed to streamline mundane and administrative payroll processes. Review your payroll software functionalities and relevancy regularly to maximise its’ potential. That way, your organisation will be able to truly benefit from a payroll software.

Based in Singapore, i-Admin offers world-class, easy-to-use payroll solutions using technology and systems infrastructure that exceed industry standards. Our proprietary technology platform provides a singular web-based service that delivers electron