Payroll is an integral part of a business, because it is what facilitates the payment of salaries to your employees. And bigger companies would need to manage a global payroll system across different tax regimes and policies. To ensure that the payroll functions without any interruptions globally, it is important that you have a set of universal procedures and policies in place you can rely on to conduct your payroll smoothly. Let us now look at some best practices that will help you streamline your payroll process. Here are ten things you can do.
1. Select the different components of payroll
To begin with, your payroll must define a few things very clearly and ensure that the following components of payroll are all accounted for. Here are five key things you must keep track of in addition to payroll security, making it a total of six.
- Payroll schedule
- Payroll deductions
- Compensation and Benefits
- Record Keeping
- Payroll Security
- Reporting and Monitoring
2. Plan with Dates and the Schedule in Mind
Nothing is hard if you plan beforehand. All the dates for public holidays are issued by state and central governments well in advance, which makes it easy to plan dates and schedule for the payroll. This will help avoid any technical difficulties and prevent any confusion later. It will also help ensure that the government does not levy any heavy fines for non-compliance.
Some of the dates that you must set are:
- Paydays as per the payroll schedule
- Non-operational days or holidays for banks
- Deadlines set by the Government to file taxes
3. Notify Yourself of the Crucial Deadlines
Once you have a set of dates and deadlines, you must then find a way to notify yourself of the crucial deadlines. There are a few ways of doing this:
- Automate the notification system to receive notifications after a set period, daily or even hourly.
- Create a payroll calendar and make sure to invite all the employees in your team to meetings scheduled on it.
- Make note of any changes in the dates as advertised by authorities and update it accordingly.
4.Proper Classification of Employees
Proper classification of employees helps prevent any errors in calculation of payroll. Misclassification can lead to incorrect salary credits and transfer of benefits or deductions made. It can also invite penalties from the government if not corrected in due time.
5. Automate your payroll system
As part of implementing good global payroll practices, you must try and have payroll management software ready. Payroll Software is one of the most important inventions of recent years and will help define the world of payroll in the years to come.
Most payroll outsourcing partners will have a payroll management system. A payroll management software will ensure that there are no inaccuracies in payroll, employee data is safe and accessible only to those with the right authority, and that there is tight integration with the HRMS too. Some of the crucial things a payroll system can help with are:
- Classification of Employees
- Integrating and Verifying Attendance
- Pay slip Generation
- Easy Declaration and Filing of Taxes
6. Incorporate real time tracking and analysis
Track all payroll-related transactions in a single window and derive insights from it in real-time. By integrating analytics solutions into payroll, you can get intelligent insights that will help you respond to any issues you may face. You can also ensure that compliance is on track and that you do not have to pay hefty fines to the government, state or center.
7. Set up easy payment options
Easy payment options such as a direct credit to the bank account can save you a lot of time as an employer and keep the employees happy and satisfied as well. Other payment options can be a check on the due date, given that is more acceptable for the employee or if the employee has joined newly and does not have a salary account.
8. Create a Portal for Mobile Self-service
Mobile self-service portals can be very useful from the perspective of not just general HR activities or tasks but also from the perspective of payroll. These will help assist the employees in filing taxes on time or tracking their leaves and in general posting any queries they may have related to payroll. Most payroll outsourcing partners have self-service portals accessible from a mobile.
9.Implementation of a strong data protection policy
There is a lot of payroll data that you need to protect as an organization. These could be employee details, payment schedules, type of payment method used and so on. Modern cloud-based solutions are very similar to on-premise solutions, in the sense that they will help ensure that the payroll data is safe, secure and accessible to only those with proper rights to do so. Also, opting for a cloud-based solution can help save you a lot of money, time and effort.
10.Outsource your payroll to an expert global payroll service provider
That list is very overwhelming as a business that has not handled payroll for too long, or even if you are growing rapidly and expanding to several countries around the globe where the laws governing payroll are very different. To manage all these requirements at once, and to ensure there is compliance management in payroll at every step, you must outsource your payroll to an expert global payroll outsourcing service provider.
Conclusion
Access to a global payroll outsourcing service provider can give you people with good expertise, save a lot of time, and still ensure that compliance is addressed. If you are a startup or another company which for some reason cannot avail the services of a payroll outsourcing service, then it is hoped that this list helped you.
Please take this with a pinch of salt, that what has been mentioned here may or may not work for you. One solution that always helps, especially if you find the right payroll partner, is to persevere with one, as they will guide you through everything that is to be done in payroll and help you avoid any issues, especially in compliance related to payroll or payroll processing itself.