Payroll can be a huge burden for small businesses. Not only does it take time, but mistakes can be expensive. A good payroll app will help you avoid these issues by staying up-to-date on the latest regulations. It will also ensure your employees have early access to their paychecks via direct deposit.
Streamlined Time Tracking
Time tracking is critical to ensuring business owners and managers have the accurate data to make informed decisions. This can help identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and underperforming processes that can be addressed to improve productivity levels throughout the organization. With clear and consistent employee time tracking, it can be easier for small businesses to maximize their resources and ensure that employees are compensated fairly for their work. This can lead to costly mistakes, including losing revenue and missing company growth opportunities. A mobile payroll app can help prevent these errors by streamlining the process of recording hours worked and ensuring employees are paid on time. It can also be used to keep track of important information like vacation requests and shift changes. In addition, some apps have additional features like screenshot monitoring and app tracking, making it easy for small businesses to boost productivity and stay compliant. The best payroll apps provide high transparency and accountability for employees by allowing them to see exactly how many hours they are expected to work during a given pay period. Some even allow employees to record their hours and shifts in real-time, which can be more accurate than relying on stained paper schedules or recalling information from memory. Additionally, many of the best payroll and tax apps offer an industry-standard calculation guarantee, which can greatly relieve small businesses.
Paperless Payroll
If you’re still printing payroll reports, paying employees with paper checks and handling other tasks that require paper records, your business isn’t leveraging the most modern trends in employee management. Many online payroll services can help you turn these paper-heavy processes into a more modern, efficient, and cost-effective digital solution. Most paperless payroll solutions offer a unified platform and secure cloud storage where all records are stored, eliminating the need for hard-copy documents. They also make it easier for you to comply with federal and state payroll recordkeeping regulations. A paperless system can also reduce or eliminate the costs associated with paper forms, printers and consumables, lost and stolen checks and document distribution. It can also minimize the amount of paper clutter in workspaces, which may improve focus and productivity. And, if your team receives payments by direct deposit, there’s no need to worry about checks getting lost in the mail or being delayed by postal service delays. Most mobile payroll apps that support paperless processes also integrate time-tracking tools, which allow workers to track hours worked and their corresponding pay for each period. This streamlined process eliminates the need for employees to manually enter their time into two different platforms, reducing human error that could lead to payment discrepancies. In addition, most paperless payroll solutions automatically calculate and file federal, state and local taxes on your behalf. This saves you from the hassle of filing paperwork and can even help your business avoid costly errors that could result in penalties and interest.
Reduced Errors
While payroll may seem like a minor back-office function, mishandling it can devastate small businesses. Beyond angering employees who receive inaccurate or late paychecks, improper payroll processing can lead to tax penalties and legal action by labor boards and the IRS. A payroll app can help you avoid these issues by keeping employee hours, deductions, and other important data records. While it is possible to run payroll manually, doing so requires a lot of attention to detail and is time-consuming. In addition, mistakes are common, and even small errors can have major consequences. For example, one wrong calculation could result in a missed deduction that pushes employees below the poverty line. Using payroll software with a built-in time tracker and automatic calculations will save you time and prevent mistakes. A good mobile payroll app will allow employees to access their pay stubs and W-2s online. This makes it easy for them to verify their information on the go, a big perk in on-the-go industries such as trucking or construction, where it takes a lot of work to get to a desktop computer. The best payroll apps offer various features to suit different needs and budgets. You can find free apps that provide basic functions or paid ones with additional features such as facial recognition, geofencing capabilities, and more. Whatever you choose, ensure the software is reputable and offers security to keep your business’s sensitive information safe.
Increased Sustainability
With the ever-increasing use of mobile devices, it makes sense to streamline payroll processes to a more efficient and accessible system that employees can access anywhere. As a bonus, smart payroll apps keep sensitive information like banking accounts and social security numbers safe from hackers and other data breaches. This keeps employee trust intact and shows that the company takes their privacy seriously. A good payroll app will allow small business owners to log timesheets for streamlined payroll processing quickly, offer pay stubs via a secure cloud server, and enable employees to track their hours and expenses. Some apps also have features that make calculating overtime and managing vacation time easier. And some apps guarantee that they will file taxes accurately, helping businesses avoid IRS penalties for late payments and other miscalculations. Several payroll apps on the market offer an affordable solution for small businesses that do the basics, automatic federal, state, and local tax filings, and pay salaried and hourly workers (and even 1099 contractors).
