Payroll software is a growing business, with more staff than ever receiving their pay stubs via online methods; online payroll software is booming. With more products entering the market, you will be forgiven for not knowing where to start when deciding the best software for your needs. To help you make that all-important decision, we have gathered some information regarding what payroll software is and how it can work best for your business.
Why Use Payroll Software
Payroll software can make your HR tasks a lot easier. It is a program that you can use to store all of your employee’s information on and calculate their wage and taxes. This is a much quicker process than completing payroll manually, as all employee information is stored for the next paycheck. Giving you less to do each time you complete payroll and making your business operations run on time.
Your legal obligations for payroll will vary depending on which state you are operating in, and the information you need to include on your employee’s paycheck could also vary. However, something that will not vary is your need to keep records of your payroll, either for tax or for HR. This is why we recommend you use a software program that will generate your employee pay stubs for you.
If your employees need to provide any proof of income, they will rely on the paystub you provide them with for this proof of income. It could be for a loan, finance package, to move home, or for several other reasons. Employees will rely upon accurate and easy-to-read information from their paychecks, and your business can provide this by using a payroll software package.
Cost Vs. Benefits
We know that running a business can be a stressful and costly endeavor. Therefore we have looked, for you, at whether or not a payroll system can be beneficial. We looked at the time it takes to use a payroll system to generate paystub compared to handwriting or typing them. We found that using a system significantly reduced the amount of time that we spent completing regular payroll.
Using payroll software to generate paystubs is also more eco-friendly. Instead of having paper ledgers and a payroll book, you can enter all information into computer software. The payroll software will store all information you need to create the paystub for your employees while keeping your business records at the same time.
Once you have created your pay stubs on the computer system, you have the option to either print the paychecks yourself to either give or mail to your employees. Alternatively, you can attach the paystub to an email and send it digitally to your employee, meaning less paper use.
The use of payroll software will also help to keep your financial information in better order. When using a software program, you are able to input all of the information as you go throughout the pay period and so paperwork does not get misplaced. Keeping your business records in good order is helpful for both business operations but also useful if the company is audited.
Payroll software will also calculate tax and any other deductions, which will further save you time, the time saving of using a program for payroll was the main benefit we saw for smaller businesses where there may be less staff in an HR role to complete payroll tasks.
When looking at the cost, we were surprised at how many different software programs are available on the market currently. However, as a result of oversaturation, there are some very competitive prices available right now. We have found that you do get what you pay for, so if all you need is a basic program that will generate your paystubs, then this will be relatively inexpensive.
If you are looking at a software program that will complete a range of finance tasks for your business, you will pay more. The benefit of a more complex system is that in paying more for the software, you could save your business the cost of another member of staff to complete payroll.
Taxes
We all know taxes are inevitable, and any way we can find to make them easier to complete is something that gets our vote. Completing the annual tax assessment is a quicker and more accurate process if you have all the required paperwork to send it off with. Paychecks are one of the most accurate ways to include all of your income for the year and any expenses included with your job, so receiving and keeping accurate paystubs is beneficial.
Accurate payroll software is also a big tax benefit for your business returns. As we said above, it will help you to keep all of your payroll information in one place. This will make business returns quicker and easier to file as some software programs will allow you to view cumulative reports for all employees for the year. You can also purchase software that, in addition to generating paystubs, will allow the entry of other business expenditures. This will mean that when filing your business returns, everything you need will be within one program, and there will be no looking through drawers for receipts from a year before.
Our view of paying for payroll software is this; if you are paying for more than you actually need or use, then you are paying too much. As with most business packages and programs, there is something on the market for everyone, so only pay for what you actually need to use regularly. Payroll software is a brilliant business finance tool and can help your business to run smoothly and efficiently. The downside of purchasing complicated software is that you may never see the benefit of the cost of this.
Due to this, we advise that when starting out, you purchase a simple software program to start and upgrade and enhance it as your business grows and you become comfortable with the use of the software.
