In this digital era, no entrepreneur or organization can risk relying on error-prone, inefficient, and time-consuming, manual payroll processes. Even small organizations with few employees are using digital payroll software to ensure unmatched payroll experience and retain potential employees.
Despite the ease of use and multiple benefits of digital payroll solutions, most payroll managers face a lot of troubles in payroll processing. There can be multiple reasons but one of the most common and major culprits behind this trouble is the lack of some critical payroll features.
By using this guide you can explore the features that are mandatory to elevate the performance of your payroll software and get rid of expensive payroll mistakes.
Must-have Features in Payroll Software
1. Time Tracking Integration
Different companies have different types of employees. Most of them distribute employees in different classes depending on their working hours and payment policies.
Having payroll software with a time tracking feature or the ability to integrate with time tracking tools is an absolute must to ensure timely and accurate payment of all employees. It helps you to keep track of employees’ working hours, their tasks, pending work, leaves, and extra working hours.
2. Tax Filing
Another must-have feature to ensure exceptional performance if payroll software is tax filing. Whether you have multiple workforces or only a handful of employees, you need to calculate and pay taxes according to the latest rules and regulations. A slight miscalculation or delay in tax compliance can result in heavy fines and other penalties by tax regulation authorities.
Payroll software that has an auto tax filing feature, eliminates this stress. It calculates, detects, and fills taxes according to the latest rules or laws automatically.
3. Direct Deposit
Every employee loves to be paid timely and directly. Printing and distributing payment checks not only cost you time and money but also carry the risk of errors. Moreover, employees also find it a source of trouble due to the risk of false checks or fraud.
Make sure the payroll solution you are selecting for your company must have a direct deposit feature. It helps you to win customers’ trust without spending hours to ensure the correct and timely distribution of checks. It will also eliminate the cost of printing and correcting errors.
4. Employees Self-Service
Managing multiple workforces, keeping track of their work progress, and paying them timely is a hectic task. Having an employee self-service portal in payroll software can eliminate this stress.
Employee’s self-service portal provides employees with easy access to all the details of their working hours and payment records. It boosts their confidence in the company which ultimately results in more working potential.
5. Compensation Administration
Rewarding employees with bonuses for exceptional performance and making deductions due to excessive leaves and poor work is a key strategy to keep employees productive. The payroll process is responsible for taking care of both tasks. Therefore, it must have a compensation administration feature.
6. Payroll Reporting
Keeping track of the financial health of the business and record of payroll costs is also an important payroll process. Netchex and other credible vendors always provide payroll software equipped with this feature.
Payroll reporting features allow payroll managers to keep a record of all data and easily access it when needed.
7. Integration
Another feature that reliable payroll software must have is integration. It helps payroll managers to easily communicate with other concerned departments like HR to transfer data and other crucial information.
Integration features ensure a smooth workflow without spending time and money on managing both departments individually.
8. Scalability
Credible payroll software must have a scalability feature. This feature helps it to scale with the growth of your business and fulfill both the current and upcoming payroll needs of the company. Therefore, It eliminates the need of upgrading payroll software after a short duration which automatically reduces your stress, and saves time, and money.
Bottom Line
The use of digital payroll services or software is the most economical and wise decision to ensure seamless payroll processing but the selection of an incompetent or wrong tool can ruin your whole effort and investment.
You can use this guide to ensure what features your payroll toll must comprise to perform exceptionally and perfectly. It helps you preserve your precious time and efforts with multiple financial benefits.
