Important Aspects of Payroll Software
In payroll management, a payroll simply is the compilation of all employee information of a certain company which is then distributed to all employees who are entitled to get various work related benefits and other payments every month. It also includes the details about the salaries and allowances given to every employee under their respective classifications. Thus, payroll management is very essential for every business and its success because without proper payroll management, there would be no room for any improvement or growth within the company.
There are different payrolls in existence and one of them is called the gross pay roll. The gross pay roll simply refers to the payment received by the employees as salaries, benefits, taxes and other charges from the employer. It also includes the gross value of the cash withdrawals and deposits made by the employees during the course of their employment. The gross amount is all that the employer receives minus the deductions. Hence, it is termed as the net amount or the gross amount.
One important aspect of payrolls is the pay period and the number of hours an employee is supposed to work during the pay period. In other words, the pay period is the time period between when the employee first receives his wages and the last moment when he gets his check for the final pay. Generally, it is believed that the employees should be paid for the entire period of hours during which he has worked for the company. However, this is not true because there are certain companies that pay an overtime premium to its employees irrespective of the total number of hours he has worked during the pay period. Therefore, running payroll is really a balancing act between how much to pay the employee per week and the number of hours to which he is entitled as an employee.
Payroll software programs are available in the market that assist in handling payroll efficiently and thus reducing errors and maximizing the pay calculations. These programs are designed to make payroll management, auditing and calculating payroll a very easy job. Moreover, most of these programs are designed to be compatible with the Small Business Administration format and so can be run on the local computers of the owners and employees. This also helps in reducing payroll processing cost. These programs are used to generate payroll reports, which include all the information needed by the employer such as the number of employees, salaries paid, tax payments received, number of days’ notice required, etc.
While using payroll systems, there are several important aspects that need to be considered seriously. It is important to choose a payroll system that is simple to use and easy to understand. It is also important to select payroll software that stores and manages the payroll data without requiring too much memory from the computer. Most importantly, the software should allow the employee to update his records online by clicking on a ‘pay check’ icon from his desk.
To be on the safe side, all the payroll systems should come with fraud protection features like password protection and coding. The employees should also be given an option to send their remuneration by prepaid postpaid checks or debit cards. The other aspect that employers should consider is whether they should keep the payroll records at their place or maintain it in the premises of another company. If they maintain the records at their place, then there is no question of privacy because the employers have control over the access to the data. However, this option can prove to be very costly for small enterprises and so most of them prefer to keep the records at another place.