Let’s face it: running payroll isn’t something you look forward to. Sure, it feels good when you’re done, but manually moving through the process once or twice per month is anything but enjoyable.
Fortunately, an automated payroll system can solve many of your payroll-related challenges.
What is an automated payroll system?
Payroll automation is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the act of automating the payroll process so that you don’t have to spend an excessive amount of time and resources running it manually.
Automated payroll systems are designed to integrate seamlessly with your current payroll process, regardless of how many employees you have, where they’re located, or how often you pay them.
Now that you understand the basics of payroll automation, let’s review five of the top benefits.
1. Time savings
The larger your team, the more time it takes to manually run payroll. Soon enough, you may realize that you simply don’t have the bandwidth to manage this process on your own.
Payroll automation software does all the heavy lifting for you. All you have to do is review and approve payroll for the applicable period.
Even if you only have a handful of employees in your company, payroll automation can save you hours of time every month.
2. Reduced risk of errors
Payroll errors are a big deal. Not only do they affect your company, but they can affect your employees as well. For example, an error could result in you paying an employee too much or not enough. Another example is a mistake that leads to your company not paying the proper amount of taxes.
By removing manual data entry from the process, the risk of an error greatly decreases.
3. Self-service for employees
Do employees often come to you with questions about pay, benefits, time off, and other related HR matters? Without a self-service option, you’re forced to answer all these questions yourself. You end up wasting a lot of time.
A self-service platform gives employees access to everything they need, from pay and benefits information to pay stubs.
4. Simpler to measure payroll performance
With a traditional approach to payroll, you don’t have access to advanced metrics and data. For that reason, you could be missing out on opportunities to save time and money while also running a more efficient company.
Some of the top metrics to measure payroll performance include:
- Cost of payroll
- Time to run payroll
- Effectiveness and productivity of payroll
- Accuracy rate and the number of errors
- Overtime costs
- Training costs
- Employee leave
In our recent blog post titled “What metrics should you use to measure payroll performance?” we discuss the benefits of having payroll key performance indicators (KPIs):
With an understanding of how effective existing processes are, companies are able to set goals and track progress towards those goals through ongoing reporting. It is in the best interest of any business leader to improve these processes to avoid payroll inaccuracies and to save time and money in the long run. Ultimately, these metrics should align with your overarching business goals.
Automated payroll allows you to measure these types of KPIs, among others. The more data you collect, the more likely you are to pinpoint areas for improvement.
5. Pay your workers globally with minimal hassle
In today’s world, distributed teams are more common than ever before. In fact, you may no longer work in a traditional office as an HR professional.
There’s no shortage of benefits associated with remote work, but you must consider the impact it could have on your payroll process. For instance, payroll laws vary from state to state and country to country.
Without payroll automation software, you’re left to account for all of these variations yourself. And when you do that, there’s a greater chance of making a mistake (see above).
What do you think about these payroll automation benefits? If you’re ready to learn more about managing global payroll for your team, you’re in the right place. With the help of the Oyster's automated multi-country payroll system, you can begin to take advantage of these benefits.
About Oyster
Oyster is a global employment platform designed to enable visionary HR leaders to find, hire, pay, manage, develop, and take care of a thriving distributed workforce. Oyster lets growing companies give valued international team members the experience they deserve, without the usual headaches and expense.
Oyster enables hiring anywhere in the world—with reliable, compliant payroll, and great local benefits and perks.
