Dealing with the many difficulties that arise in payroll processing
On the surface, it might seem like processing your company's payroll is a fairly simple task. How hard can it be? Your job is to collect everyone's information, as far as hours worked and wages owed, dole out their paychecks on time and then keep good records after the fact.
It's important to understand all the inherent challenges involved in payroll processing.
Unfortunately, it's never that easy in real life. The reality is little difficulties come up all the time. For businesses that want to maintain continuity and avoid being sidetracked by logistical hangups, it's important to understand all the inherent challenges involved in payroll processing and know how to prepare for them effectively.
Anticipating all the challenges
Many assume that as long as they have the working capital available to pay their employees, the rest will take care of itself, but that's not exactly the case. In reality, there are a lot of logistics to look after:
- Communication: Figuring out payroll involves a lot of discussions that include managers, HR reps and more. Everyone must be on the same page.
- Data quality: Are everyone's hours recorded correctly? Are their wages? You can never be too confident. A lot of double- and triple-checking is necessary.
- Managing hours: This includes not just working hours, but also time off for illness, holidays and parental leave. Everything must be accounted for.
- Other financial details: What about tax payments? What about contributions to super? The list goes on.
Preparing your staff for the unexpected
Especially for a larger business, figuring out payroll details can be messy and complicated, and it's worthwhile to devote a little extra effort to the process. The Australian Payroll Association recommends having not only a primary payroll specialist, but also backup people who can offer perspectives and help troubleshoot during challenging times.
A well-processed payroll means your whole staff is happy.
This way, when you're up against a complicated financial challenge, you can have multiple experts weighing in on how to proceed. For example, are you having trouble finding the necessary cashflow to pay your staff?
Getting financial help in a tough spot
It's a surprisingly common problem in business - you want to pay your employees, but you can't because you're looking at a stack of unpaid invoices rather than cash in the bank. In this situation, you'll need to reach out to the professionals for help.
At Earlypay, we're here to lend a hand. We offer such valuable services as debtor finance, which makes it easy to borrow money against the amount your customers owe you. This enables you to turn around and pay your staff in a timely fashion. Call us today to find out more about this process.
