|
Payroll is a business-critical operation for all companies it ensures that people are paid the right amount on time and many people's financial wellbeing can be affected if it goes wrong. It is therefore essential to implement proper systems to ensure that you company's payroll runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible, in terms of both proper staff training and software, and disaster recovery plans to ensure payroll system continuity should the unthinkable happen and something goes wrong.
In the recruitment industry, payroll software is primarily used by agencies who handle temporary workers, as it will usually be their responsibility to pay the temps on their books, but it can also be used by larger agencies who have a lot of employees to pay. Either way, the principles involved are the same. Payroll software greatly speeds up the process of calculating your payroll and can cuts down on the natural human errors that can occur when calculating a payroll manually. It can also have the advantage of reducing the burden on staff of having to understand constantly changing payroll legislation. All this can contribute to large savings in training and administration costs. Most payroll software programs designed for the recruitment industry work on a timesheet-based system where the user inputs the client, employee, contact and placement data, along with information about hours worked, and the software will do the rest. However, payroll systems can offer much more than just the ability to calculate statutory deductions. Timesheets and records should be fully customisable so that you can enter all the information relevant to the sectors you work in. You will need the software to automatically print out payslips as well as all statutory forms including P32, P45, P35, P14, and P60. You may also want to be able to customise the way you print payslips, and deliver them electronically. Financial year-end is one of the busiest and most stressful times in any business, and any decent payroll software package should handle your year-end returns automatically. Integration is also something to consider. If you use a front office system for you candidate, client and job management function, you will obviously like to link this to your payroll software to save re-keying information. It is important that your payroll software will integrate with your front office software, as well as any other software you might use, such as Sage or time and attendance software. Some companies offer all-in-one systems, which combine both front and back office functionality, so if you require software for both, this might be the way to go for your business. Another feature to consider is electronic Bacs payments, some payroll software packages designed for the recruitment industry come with this built in. It is extremely important to select a reliable payroll software supplier. Unlike most other business critical software, you are dependent on a payroll software supplier not just for training and support, but also for regular updates when there are alterations to legislation and tax and other statutory deductions change. Consequently, when you buy a payroll software package for your recruitment agency, you are investing into a business relationship for years to come. They will be supplying and supporting a system on which your business will rely, so you need to know that they will be around for the long term and if anything goes wrong, they will be able to deal with it quickly and efficiently. For this reason, you should look into the structure of any potential supplier and how long they have been operating before you make the decision to buy. Going for the cheaper solution may save you money in the short term, but if they go out of business, you will need to replace your payroll system at great cost. |
| Software | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||
