Unlock the power of payroll automation

Are you spending too much time on payroll? Discover how you can work smarter and faster with BrightPay

Every business needs payroll. Whether you run a small café or a larger company with hundreds of employees, your employees need to be paid. But the important question to ask is: are you spending too much time on payroll?

When it comes to payroll, automation is key. Not having the proper tools to simplify and streamline the process can result in a time-consuming and costly chore that you dread each pay period. But what if that wasn’t the case? By introducing the right tools, you can benefit from a quick and easy payroll that you hardly think about at all.

So, how do you choose the best software? The key is to find out what options are available, and then explore whether they can make your life easier.

Let’s look at four key things to consider when determining the best payroll system for your business to have a quick and easy payroll:

To reduce the time you spend on payroll tasks, it’s important to use a system that can communicate and send information directly to other systems, such as accounting software and pension providers.

This means that instead of using your payroll software to process payroll and then logging into your pension portal to upload auto-enrolment files, and into your accounting software to manually add payroll journals, you can initiate the instant flow of payroll information directly from the payroll software.

The need to manually export and import files, or even to manually re-enter payroll data into more than one system, is instantly eliminated. Processing times will be much faster as you will be able to submit data in just a few clicks.

One of the most recent advances in payroll is the ability to simplify payment workflows. Some payroll systems, such as BrightPay, allow you to pay employees, subcontractors, and HMRC through an integrated payment solution. This cuts out the need for separate bank files and all the associated admin that goes with making payments; providing you with a fast, connected, and convenient way to pay employees instantly. Plus, you can schedule payments to HMRC in advance so that you never miss a deadline again.

Another way to reduce your payroll workload is by introducing an online self-service portal for employees, allowing easy access to payroll and HR information, anywhere, anytime. With a smartphone and tablet app, such as BrightPay Connect, employees can access a payslip library, view their leave entitlements and calendar, request leave, and access HR documents – all without once contacting HR.

By introducing an employee app, the employees can do a lot of the admin-heavy tasks themselves, rather than coming to you, for example, for copies of lost payslips or enquiries about how much annual leave they have remaining.

What better way to spend less time on something than to delegate certain responsibilities to others. By introducing collaboration into payroll and HR processes, you can free up precious time to spend on other tasks that really need your attention.

Whether you’re a business processing payroll in-house, or an accountant processing payroll for several clients, your payroll software should allow you to introduce collaboration into the payroll process. For example, with BrightPay Connect you can allow managers to upload the hours for employees within their department and notify you of any new starters through their own secure online portal. Information entered by the user automatically synchronises to the payroll software on your desktop, ready for you to complete the payroll process.

It’s also worth giving these managers control over their employees’ annual leave. Department managers are likely to have a much better understanding of their project timelines and deadlines than the payroll and HR department. By allowing these managers to have control over leave requests, they can better manage their team’s schedule and workload.

If you’re looking for a platform that meets all your payroll software needs, we believe BrightPay should be top of your review list.

BrightPay is award-winning payroll software that makes managing payroll quick and easy. BrightPay automates many day-to-day payroll tasks and includes integration with other systems such as accounting software, pension schemes and payment platforms. BrightPay Connect is an optional cloud add-on with online employer and employee self-service portals, streamlining the payroll process even further.

Visit the BrightPay website or book a demo today to find out how you can turn payroll into the quick and easy process it can and should be.

Originally published on Business Reporter