Payroll is a large part of the day-to-day running of a business and has over recent years become burdensome on businesses with the introduction of regular electronic filings and auto-enrolment compliance for pensions. There are also many penalty provisions available to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to penalise for incorrect and late filings.
Having a well run payroll process brings many benefits and this article is intended to look at just a few of these, and perhaps not the ones which immediately spring to mind.
Reputation
Everyone knows how easy it is to tarnish a reputation by an innocent oversight. Whilst it might seem odd, your payroll can cause reputational damage because of the very sensitive information it collects, the employees expectation to have everything correct and HMRCs requirements for considerable data to be accurately supplied. Each of these areas can expose a business to errors which in turn can damage reputation with staff, the public sector and potentially customers.
Having a well-structured payroll process is imperative to help protect data, ensure compliance with regulations and limit risk.
Employees
Employees make a business. They are one of the most valuable assets and key to success. This being the case the upkeep of morale leads to better performance and prolonged service.
When employees know they can trust their employer, to pay them accurately and on time, they are much more likely to be engaged with their work. Money is, for many, one of the biggest motivators, and to get this to employees, you need a payroll process.
An unreliable payroll process risks upsetting the people who matter most and they could start to question if other parts of the business are run the same way. These are all negative forces and can be stopped by ensuring an efficient payroll process is run.
Compliance
Keeping up with the ever-changing payroll legislation and regulations can be challenging. To add to the pressure, the watchful eye of HMRC is always looming leaving no room for error. There are multiple legal obligations that employers must comply with and so it is important that these are recognised and considered when processing payrolls.
Failure to comply comes with heavy financial penalties therefore it is extremely important for business to adhere to each and every regulation. Ensuring that legislation is met will continue to establish your company as a reliable and reputable employer.
Having a well-managed payroll system in place can help reduce stress and streamline the process.
Having a mixture of payroll experienced personnel and robust, relevant, payroll software overseeing the function will ensure obligations and time limits are all met.
Summary
By integrating a dependable and successful payroll process will help the efficiency of your business in so many ways. Countless people rely on consistency; they rely on payroll to deliver them the right amount of money at exactly the right time. But do they understand the process? They don’t see the spreadsheets detailing all the variable data, or the HMRC deadlines on the calendar.
Getting the payroll process right, and suitable, to your business is of upmost importance. The answer to this issue is not formulaic but rather moulded to the needs of the business. If you spend some time understanding this, and engaging experts to get it running correctly you will see many future benefits.