Payroll is challenging, and it is a critical process. A manual approach to payroll is tedious as the current market is competitive and agile. Organisations need to gain an edge over others and stay ahead. Although the name payroll sounds simple, the process is not. A small error leads to ponderous problems.
Outsourcing payroll management from a third-party vendor raises security concerns. To maintain the integrity of the process, it is important to switch from paper-based to paperless payroll management. Cloud-based payroll management will eliminate the risks and challenges entailed.
Challenges of a Manual Payroll System
1. Security
Employee data contains critical and important information. When the data is stored in excel and documents, sensitive information is not protected. Manually processing the payroll or outsourcing it to a third party gives access to business details. The risk of data reaching the wrong hand is highly possible. This would create a threat to the company. Henceforth, cloud-based software will automate the process and ensure strict compliance.
2. Human Error
Manual administration of payroll complicates the process for the HR and finance team as it contains a lot of documentation. They have to keep track of everyone’s pay, taxation and deductions and cross-check multiple times. This will lead to a delay in the process, miscalculations or incorrect payments. As the company upscales, the challenges increase.
3. Time and Attendance
Payroll includes managing and calculating leaves manually every month for each and every employee. Piles of documents comprising a manual recording of attendance and time tracking of employees are inefficient and prone to large errors. It is time-consuming and difficult to keep track of. Miscalculations can lead to employees getting less or more than they are actually entitled to.
4. Employee Productivity
The payroll cycle requires the employees to upload leaves, reimbursements, and overtime submissions manually. Although the data is maintained digitally via spreadsheets, the data is exhaustive. A slight change can disrupt the entire process. This repetitive process requires employees to spend a lot of time on such mundane tasks. This interrupts their productivity and workflow.
What is the benefit of a cloud-based payroll system?
At Springworks, we use a cloud-based payroll system through “Keka” to eliminate challenges and errors. Keka contains payroll software that helps us to automate the payroll process.
It helps us in the following ways.
Payroll activities
Keka helps us to gather information and employee data from their activity and claims.
- Leave: The payroll will be accurate when the HR and finance teams are able to calculate the time and activities the employees have invested in the company. The integrated leave management system facilitates this process and avoids errors.
- Payments and Deductions: The employee can claim expenses from the Keka based on the categories that are available. This feature helps us to track and generate the salary and payslips accordingly.
3. Income Tax: The employees can easily declare their taxes at the start of the financial year. Based on the declarations, the tax is deducted on a monthly basis and salary is generated.
Once the payroll process is initiated, the employees can also view their payslips from Keka. It not only allows them to view it but it can also be downloaded and saved. Keka also helps us to keep track of the new joiners and exits, which helps us to process the full and final settlement.
Conclusion
Keka helps to improve employee productivity by offering the employees an uninterrupted workflow. It also helps us to encrypt our payroll process and reduces human error.
