What features are essential for payday payroll services?
All payday payroll services aren’t created equally, but they differ so much from one another it can feel like you’re comparing apples to oranges. Consider the following must-have tools when deciding which solution is best for your business:
1. Quality liability coverage
If your provider makes a payroll mistake, you could wind up facing disgruntled employees and steep fines. Make sure you work with a company capable of providing remedies fast. Don’t just look for services with liability insurance. Talk with references who’ve experienced issues and know first-hand how protection really plays out.
2. Customer service
It doesn’t matter what tools a service has available if you can’t access help in making them work. Are the training materials easy to understand? Is there live help available, and if so, is service available during hours you may need their help?
3. Easy set-up
Some businesses opt for an online or cloud-based automated payroll service similar to a local desktop solution. The only real difference boils down to support. Others completely hire-out their payday payroll services so they can dedicate all of their time to money-earning activities. Ease of set-up is important for either method.
4. Rich report functions
Some of the more basic programs can’t figure much more than year-end earnings and payment histories. There will be times when you’ll need to know what’s going into your payroll tax account, what’s going out and when those payments are being made, as well as a number of other reports needed to safeguard your business.
5. Choice of payment method
While direct deposit is very popular, the number of non-banking workers has never been higher. Your service should make it very easy to switch between bank payments, debit or credit cards, paper checks and payments made via online processors like Paypal.
6. Employee self-services
Does your service allow employees to check on and make changes to their payroll information? How much control does your service allow? Investing in ESS is a smart move as long as it’s done carefully. Both full access and unnecessary restrictions keep you from taking full advantage of the benefits.
7. Appropriate form inclusion
Payroll products and services should always include access to the forms you’ll need to securely hire (and fire) people. They should also provide some instruction on how to correctly complete them. These can be wrapped into an ESS platform or be HR-controlled, but either way, you should ensure whatever method you use provides updates to paperwork in a timely fashion.
8. Payroll tax payment assistance
The IRS has really begun to crack down on companies who mismanage their payroll. If you’re hiring, you’re obligated to cover certain expenses on a very strict schedule. Does your service provider know and help you stick to those dates? If not, you absolutely need a change. Filing late is one of the most common payroll errors, and it’s one of the costliest.
9. Checks and balances
Does your service do any kind of automated or manual assessment to check for errors? This is an essential part of the process. Without it, you can be sure you’ll run into trouble down the road. Ask potential providers about the methods they use to ensure your books are balanced.
10. Scalability
Is your system capable of growing as you hire more employees? If not, you may be stuck spending hours migrating your information from one service to another, creating plenty of opportunities to introduce errors.
Skip worries over updates, downtime or learning curves. Get to know the best of the payday payroll services today. Click here to download our free whitepaper on PEO.