Is payroll a hassle? Integrating payroll and time tracking solves payroll problems. It also makes life easier for your employees, managers, and HR team.
Today’s message is for companies that have separate payroll and employee time and attendance systems.
What’s the problem with separate systems?
If your systems are separate, you are duplicating work. And if someone is doing manual data entry, mistakes are sneaking through.
This was found on an online discussion board:
“Every 2 weeks, I run payroll for 200 employees. 39 of them are salaried, and about 50 of the hourly employees work in 24-hour programs. I copy each employee’s regular and OT hours from the software into an Excel spreadsheet. Without breaks or interruptions, this process would take about six hours. I’ve never done it in less than eight. It’s exhaustive and exhausting.”
Why is manual entry a problem?
In this story, the payroll manager does manual data entry. The hours must match up with the correct employee. He could mistakenly enter an extra number, omit a digit, or transpose two digits.
Let’s see what happens when there is mistake. A conservative estimate of the error rate would be 2%. For 200 employees, that means four employees could get an incorrect paycheck. If you cut checks twice a month, this amounts to 96 incorrect paychecks annually.
When a number is off, it starts a chain reaction of problems…
If you pay your employees by the hour, your payroll is based on the hours entered. Either you short that employee or pay too much.
If the employee hours are wrong, the paycheck total is incorrect. If the paycheck has an incorrect amount, the withholdings are wrong. This could be due to inaccurate clock ins or corruption during the manual import.
Using paper time cards provides more opportunity for error. An employee can enter an incorrect shift start time. The staff member could do a math error when totaling hours. The manager who approves it could misread the handwriting.
If the hours are off, accruals follow suit. Employees might not earn vacation time or sick days that they are rightfully due.
It gets worse. If the deductions are wrong, the employer portion of the taxes is wrong.
Let’s get to the point: “What is a better way?”
You need automated time tracking that syncs to payroll. It will also reduce mistakes in processing payroll and help you stay compliant. A biometric time clock synced to an advanced employee time and attendance system is the best way to go.
Here’s how it works:
It all starts with tracking staff member time. Recording time and attendance automatically is the first step for better payroll. A biometric time clock is the best way to ensure that punch times are correct. It’s virtually impossible to fake a biological identifier to buddy clock for another employee.
“What if I have mobile and offsite workers?”
If you have mobile employees, they will need another clock in method. TimeWorks Mobile with GPS the geographic location when an employee clocks in on the web portal. This is not as fraud-proof as a biometric clock. But it beats taking their word for it.
It’s not just time theft that can mess up payroll…
A biometric clock and advanced automated time tracking lets you enforce schedules and set overtime alerts. Some biometric clocks have tools that present employees with logical prompts so they don’t make common punch mistakes. Make sure your time and attendance system has a mobile app for offsite punches.
Payroll Solutions can help you speed up payroll. For more information, call us at 608-837-2590.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHR/comments/4nx4af/payroll_how_long_does_it_take_you_to_process/
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