For most people, May is a month for rejoicing; they say goodbye to the gloom of winter and welcome the season of festivals and holidays. However for many payroll managers, May is the worst time of the year; the time when they must file the payroll year-end return with the HMRC. Meeting the strict deadlines for Employer Annual Returns, P60’s and Expenses and Benefits Annual Returns can have some payroll departments and business owners literally pulling their hair out because everyone is well aware of the hefty fines which can result from incorrect PAYE deductions and the like.
However, in order to ease the anxiety of payroll teams and HR departments at this time of the year, it is necessary to streamline the payroll process the entire year round. Errors made during the rest of the year make huge contributions to delaying and complicating year-end returns, but payroll mistakes are not only limited to causing problems in May. They can have other serious repercussions on a business. When employees are not paid correctly or in a timely manner, their morale and productivity can be seriously injured. Moreover, the time spent discovering, examining and correcting these mistakes adds further pressure to the pressure on a business’s payroll department.
Payroll departments have to work meticulously and accurately, meeting non-negotiable deadlines all year round. The nature of the work is often tedious and time consuming, and no matter how proficient a payroll team is, it is inevitable that some human error will occur. Introducing specialised payroll software can dramatically streamline the intricate processes and reduce or entirely eliminate some of the most common mistakes, such as miscalculations and double entries. Furthermore, payroll software makes a wealth of data instantly accessible with a few strokes of the keyboard. For example, payroll departments can instantly calculate total employee earnings over a specified time or automatically calculate specific PAYE tax and national insurance deductions on monthly paydays.
A complete payroll software package may offer:
• Instant PAYE calculations for employee deductions for tax, national insurance, pensions and student loans every month
• Calculation of National Insurance Contributions as an employer
• Automatic generation of Employee pay statements
• Archived data on previous payments and deductions
• Automatic completion and filing of year-end reports
• Automatic transfer of necessary data for leaving and new employees
Overall, automating a payroll department adds greatly to the speed and accuracy of that department’s work. Many business owners often overlook the importance of this since it may not directly affect a business’ advancement. However, streamlining a payroll department in this way will have numerous advantages in the long run. Eliminating HMRC fines, improving staff morale and gaining data, which will help businesses manage their human resources much more efficiently will result in increased profit and productivity.
