Payroll Software Features and Benefits

Payroll is a necessary process for any business of any size. Even businesses with only one or two employees still need to properly run payroll and pay taxes. Payroll software can make every aspect of running payroll much faster and more accurate.

Payroll Management and Processing

The top feature that any payroll software should offer is the ability to process and manage your payroll. It should be able to accurately calculate how much each employee is owed. The payroll software should also be able to issue payments to those employees in a variety of methods, including direct deposit.

Filing Taxes

Taxes are also an important factor in payroll. Your payroll software should be able to accurately calculate how much tax to withhold from employee paychecks. It should also be able to produce correct W-2 and 1099 forms for employees and contractors. Many payroll software systems can also help you to file your taxes as well.

Managing Compliance

It’s essential for a business to stay compliant with all laws and regulations. It can be difficult to keep track of different regulations based on local, state, and federal laws. This is even more complicated for companies with multiple locations across different states. Payroll software can help companies to remain compliant.

Employee Self-Service Portal

 An employee self-service portal is a popular feature that can free up a lot of time. Employees can manage their own data, check on the status of their paychecks, and more. With employees able to manage changes and requests in the self-service portal, HR staff don’t have to spend time handling those changes and requests.

Time and Attendance Syncing

Some payroll software may include time and attendance features. If it doesn’t, payroll software should be able to sync with time and attendance software that you may already have. This way, the data is taken directly from the time tracking feature or software rather than having to be entered manually. This helps to reduce possible inaccuracies that could occur if data had to be manually entered into the payroll system.

Administering Compensation Packages

Pay isn’t the only form of compensation that companies may owe to employees. Workers’ compensation, pay adjustments, bonuses, and certain benefits may also be administered by payroll software. Your payroll software should be able to handle non-traditional methods of payment on top of standard payroll.

Payroll Reporting

Reporting is a vital feature that helps companies gain insights into their payroll and its processes. These insights can offer information about budget, workers’ compensation, taxes, and more. A payroll software system should offer reporting capabilities for these insights, which can help to inform strategic business decisions.

Automated Payroll Tasks

Running payroll manually can be a time-consuming, arduous task. Payroll software can help to make this process not only faster but also much more accurate. Automating payroll tasks such as tax filing, employee tax withholdings, direct deposit, reports, and more can save a lot of time. It can also save companies money by helping to avoid costly errors.