How Payroll Software Helps Small Businesses

Payroll is a complicated system for any small business to get right.  Some businesses choose to outsource payroll, but that can be expensive. There are easier ways to do it in-house, but it requires buying some business software.

There are plenty of options on the market that offer a slew of features. This post touches on the benefits of payroll software and how it can help you overcome some common small business challenges.

The basics

Every day, week or month, payroll is going to take a big chunk of time away from you focusing on growing and innovating your business.

Payroll opens the door for errors, which, come tax season, could be costly for you or your employees. A common mistake is forgetting to take out federal taxes of your employees’ check. This doesn’t impact you, but if your employee doesn’t catch it until they receive their W2 after the new year and see that they haven’t contributed anything toward their taxes, they could be in trouble if they don’t have that money saved in the bank.

Technology can help you with this. Payroll software helps you accomplish a slew of challenges when it comes to running a business and making sure our employees are getting paid on time.

Did you know it helps you save money?

Investing in payroll software can help you save money in the long run. Of course, you need to think long-term on this investment.

Even if you decide to outsource payroll, you end up doing a lot of the legwork. Think of accounting software as that outsourced person. You do a little bit of work to prepare to send it off and the software handles the rest.

This saves time, which saves money. Hours spent with a third party who is handling your payroll is wasted time that could be spent working with your employees one-on-one.

Payroll software often has the ability to sync up and integrate with your account software suite such as Xero. This imports your payroll data into your general ledger, reconciles with your bank accounts and makes sure everything is accurate and lined up.

Other benefits

Payroll software is secure. You don’t have to worry about a third party — as much as you trust them — to have a big chunk of your financial information.

Payroll software also allows for easy scaling. If your employee base grows you can easily add more employees. If it shrinks, you’re only a delete button away. It offers complete flexibility.

It’s also more accurate. Sure, any piece of technology has its moments, but payroll software offers that real-time, accurate financial view, spitting out properly calculated numbers. As a result, you’ll have more control over your bottom line.

It’s clear that in-sourcing your payroll to software run by your employees is a much wiser decision than outsourcing it.