A smooth-running payroll system requires overcoming daunting challenges throughout human resources. Often the responsibility of finding solutions for the payroll problems lies with a few people, which makes it difficult.
Payroll has to comply with company guidelines and labor laws. Also, given that a company will have potentially complex in-house salary packages, payroll problems become even more challenging. Even the most complex payroll problems can become easy and less time-consuming with a proper strategy in place.
We have listed the most commonly encountered payroll problems and practical solutions. This is a useful guide for any accounting managers, HRs and CEOs who are looking to streamline payroll at their organizations.
Table of Contents
1. Problem: Incorrect employee information
Managing a payroll database with correct employee information is crucial to ensure that your employees get paid.
If there is incorrect or missing employee information, it can result in payroll processing errors resulting in delays in paying workers. This in turn can lead to frustration and dissatisfaction among affected employees.
Also, incorrect employee information raises statutory compliance issues that can result in potential significant fines and penalties. To avoid payroll tax issues, there must be a way to keep employee information updated and accurate.
Solution
The solution is to make it possible for employees to view their payroll information and suggest corrections wherever necessary. HR managers must be trained to periodically audit employee information in company records to ensure it is accurate and updated.
A software solution can automate most such audits, which in turn helps the organization stay compliant and keeps the employee information accurate.
2. Problem: Late or inaccurate payments
Payroll processing is essential in workforce management and must be done accurately and promptly. If you fail to pay your workers on time, salary delay can potentially lead to dissatisfaction and cash flow issues for employees. This in turn can affect their productivity and relationship with employers.
Delayed payments can also result in workers forming an opinion that either the company is not doing well or that they are being exploited. Affected employees could also discuss this with their colleagues, post it anonymously on the web thus severely denting your company’s reputation in front of other potential job seekers.
According to a CIPP study, when asked how they felt after getting paid late:
- 48% of workers responded they felt their employers don’t care about their wellbeing
- 40% felt the risk to their financial condition
- 47% of employees felt due anxiety and worry
- 25% of workers were less engaged and productive
Evidently, late payroll processing can have adverse effects, so appropriate actions must be taken to ensure workers are paid on time.
Solution
A simple solution for this problem is to choose the right payroll solution for your business that can take care of the calculations and checks before payroll can be processed. Manually handling the payroll of hundreds of workers is tedious, results in errors, and delays payments.
With a software solution to accelerate payroll processing with automation, managers no longer have to spend hours on work-hour calculations.
3. Problem: Compliance and regulatory issues
Staying compliant with the law and running the company within the prescribed legal framework is crucial. Keeping in sync with the latest labor laws, state regulations, legislations, and regulatory requirements, which at the same time running a company can be challenging for any business owner.
Unless you have a legal team in place, it is not uncommon for companies to miss or fall foul on some intricate rules. This oversight though can have grave legal consequences attracting significant fines and penalties.
Another challenge is to keep the staff updated with the compliance requirements. As the laws are amended from time to time, you will have to provide frequent training to ensure they are on the right side of the law.
Solution
An easy way to ensure compliance is to adopt a software solution that can keep checks in place to ensure regulatory requirements are met in payroll processing. It also serves as an easy way for HR to keep track of changes in laws and makes compliance a lot easier.
Truein for payroll problems
Truein is a cloud-based employee time tracking and attendance system with several payroll automation features. It uses AI technology to identify and clock in workers accurately. With its GPS geofencing capabilities, it can be deployed at remote sites as well thus eliminating the need for maintaining manual timesheets.
Calculating the attendance automatically generates data that can be integrated into your existing payroll software. It ensures that the payroll process is always on time and workers are paid accurately.
There is also a self-service feature in the Truein app that allows employees to view their information in the company records and request corrections or updates if required. Managers can view all the employee details in the dashboard that can be integrated with the payroll system to strengthen accuracy further.
Truein also offers 70+ policy templates that companies can customize as per the local, state, and federal labor laws and other regulations. If you are medium, large business looking for a solution that could automate payroll processing & attendance management and save the business thousands of dollars every year, then schedule a free demo today and give Truein a try.
