Six Ways to Streamline Your Payroll Department

If you’re in charge of managing payroll at your company, then you know how time-consuming and labor-intensive it can be to keep up with all the latest IRS regulations, employee earnings and deductions, and more. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways you can streamline your payroll department to save both time and money! Try these six tips to transform your payroll department into an efficient machine that saves money and keeps your employees happy.

1) Eliminate Manual Data Entry

The biggest time sink in payroll is data entry—and it’s totally avoidable. Thankfully, there are new software programs that can handle most of your calculations and errors on their own. Ask your payroll software provider about setting up automatic direct deposit, which deposits employee checks directly into their bank accounts. You’ll save time and money by not having to worry about sorting checks or organizing direct deposit payments. If you haven’t already implemented electronic paystubs, do so now—if only as a way to cut back on paper waste. Finally, consider using an outsourced provider for electronic signatures for documents like I-9 forms; if you do all your business online anyway, it should be relatively simple to bring new documents online too.

2) Enable Direct Deposits

Direct deposit (also known as electronic payroll) has a number of benefits: employees get their paychecks on time, you don't have to worry about running out of checks, and employees save money on check-cashing fees. To enable direct deposit in your company's payroll system, enter each employee's bank account information into your HR database. The bank account should be an active checking or savings account; although some banks let you register retirement accounts for automatic payments, other banks won't.

3) Automate Employee Self Service

Implementing a comprehensive employee self-service solution is one of the best ways you can boost your employees’ productivity. That’s because most HR processes and requests—from onboarding to time off management—can be handled online. This frees up your HR staff for higher-level work and allows your employee's direct access to their benefits, too. As an added bonus, it also reduces costly call center traffic and helps reduce stress around deadline-driven tasks like time card processing or enrollment in payroll services.

4) Improve Reporting Accuracy

There’s no way to know how many hours an employee has worked without detailed and accurate reporting. When time tracking software is introduced, it helps employees focus on getting their work done efficiently instead of watching the clock and ensuring they are clocking in at exactly 8:00 every morning. It also makes it easy for companies to see where they can make changes or cut costs if they are overpaying employees or paying staff members too much in overtime. Before you implement time tracking, evaluate your payroll management process and consider other productivity-enhancing tools like software that automates expense reporting, electronic signatures or even a mobile time clock app for on-the-go employees.

5) Streamlines Payroll process

There are many ways to cut your payroll costs. The first step in streamlining your payroll process by getting rid of all redundant tasks and automating those that you can’t. The days of paying employees via check are long gone, but there are still some paperwork-heavy processes that are far easier to automate than they should be. It’s important to make sure you can offer employees a streamlined process for everything from payroll deductions to time-off requests and even wage garnishments (if applicable). Implement an online portal for communication between employees and HR representatives, reduce payment processing time, and standardize forms whenever possible.

6) Minimize Errors by Implementing Compliance Standards

The biggest pain points for employers are payroll-related mistakes. The best way to eliminate these mistakes is by developing policies and procedures that remove human error from your payroll process. After implementing standards like mandatory double checks, writing down every action in a detailed log, or requiring multiple signatures for any high-dollar transaction, you can rest assured knowing all of your employees are being paid correctly and timely. Compliance standards give employees a clear understanding of what is expected from them on a daily basis and who they should go to if they have questions about their paycheck. For employers who want nothing more than paying their employees correctly and on time each pay period, it is well worth it to implement standards that streamline payroll!