Payroll automation is becoming popular amongst businesses in all industries to help improve employee satisfaction by replacing repetitive tasks with manual processes. Accounting and payroll teams are then free to focus on value-adding tasks, increasing the value of your organization. According to recent studies, between 20% and 60% of baseline full-time employee costs could be saved by automating work.
Before investing in payroll software, you must understand what features will benefit your business most to avoid wasting time and money. Here are three payroll automation features that make your life easier right now:
1. Automatic tax updates
Tax season is stressful for everyone, especially small business owners. There tends to be lots of paperwork involved and documents that must be resurfaced including credit card bills and invoices. According to a recent survey from Freshbooks, up to 80% of small business owners feel stressed during tax season. Additionally, almost 63% of small business owners rate their stress level at a three or more on a scale of up to five during tax season.
To alleviate this stress, invest in tax software that automatically calculates tax tables. Many payroll software includes modules to support multiple regional requirements and tax structures, making filing your taxes a breeze.
2. Monitor compliance
Many businesses want to remain ACA-compliant but lack the right monitoring tools. Payroll software allows you to utilize automated tools for tracking and monitoring regular and variable-hour employees. For example, payroll software helps notify you of penalty notices which you must respond to by correctly tracking employee eligibility and maintaining accurate tax data from previous years.
Don’t wait to try out these tools because small to medium-sized businesses are 72% more likely than larger organizations to indicate that maintaining compliance is a big deal to their workforce management.
3. Accurate retirement reporting
It makes payroll more manageable and more accurate when employee 401(k) plans are integrated with payroll. Employee contributions are automatically processed, meaning that a portion of their wages is deposited into their 401(k) account as a specified dollar amount or percentage.
Retirement reporting also helps you synchronize your employee census data (date of birth, address, name, social security number, employment information, etc). This tool comes in handy when it’s time to complete your year-end census report without the hassle.
Our team at Payroll Office of America is here to help you simplify your payroll process through our accurate and affordable services directly tailored to your needs. Visit our website or call (904) 596-2847 to learn more.
