It’s difficult to know whether or not to outsource payroll services. While payroll functionality is critical, other considerations such as cost and compliance play a role in the decision-making process. It’s critical to comprehend the benefits of outsourcing payroll so that you can feel secure in your decision.
What’s the Difference Between Payroll in-House vs. Payroll Outsourcing?
When a company processes all aspects of employee pay in-house, it is known as in-house payroll processing. These responsibilities include:
- Calculating timesheets and wages
- Ensuring that the correct amount of payroll taxes is deducted from each payment
- Check printing and direct deposit setup
- Deductions and payroll taxes calculations
An individual administrator or a team is in charge of in-house payroll. Controlling sensitive company data and when paychecks are issued are two advantages of in-house payroll processing. However, there are still a few drawbacks to conducting payroll in-house. Payroll problems, erroneous deductions, and noncompliance are all potential hazards.
- Payroll outsourcing is when a corporation outsources the administrative and compliance activities related with employee pay to a third-party service provider. This may include paying payroll taxes and payments on your behalf, depending on the payroll outsourcing business.
- Due to the manual and time-consuming nature of these tasks, many businesses opt for outsourced HR and payroll services. This payroll processing automation frees up HR and payroll managers to focus on more strategic duties in their organizations.
What Are the Benefits of Hiring a Payroll Service Provider?
When opting on payroll outsourcing services, numerous considerations must be considered, including implementation time and return on investment. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of potential benefits and drawbacks of outsourcing payroll services that you should think about before making a final decision.
TIME SAVINGS
26 percent of small firms manually manage payroll three to five hours per month. A consolidated database for payroll and attendance data is available in several solutions. From time capture to paycheck, this unified approach automates the process into a closed-loop workflow. Payroll software accomplishes this by using the following methods:
- Employees use the payroll system to clock in, which causes the hours worked to be automatically recorded.
- Employees request time off through the same system, which combines attendance and time data.
- Eliminates onerous Excel spreadsheet formulas by transferring data from hours worked, multiplied by predetermined pay rates.
- The results of these computations are compared to W-4 withholding information to simplify tax compliance, and each pay period, an employee receives an accurate payment.
You may reclaim significant time in your workday by outsourcing payroll to a supplier. You’ll be more productive and have more time to focus on your company’s strategic initiatives. That enormous to-do list will no longer seem so daunting.
COMPLIANCE
In the first year of operation, business owners spend over $83,000 on regulatory fees. When a firm manages payroll tax compliance in-house, it increases the risk of overpaying or underpaying employer taxes.
When you’re already manually handling payroll and HR, staying on top of ever-changing federal and state rules is difficult. Reduced tax fines and risk of noncompliance provide a huge return on investment.
PTO
Manually processing time-off requests can lead to mistakes. Businesses that conduct payroll in-house, for example, have an average of three unreported PTO days per employee each year. If a company employs 100 people with an average salary of $45,000, that’s $36,900 in unpaid vacation time! PTO requests are streamlined using a payroll and HR solution, so days don’t go unreported, saving your company thousands of dollars.
Adherence
Compliance-related operations in HR and payroll departments take up about 36 hours per week, ranging from tracking regulatory proposals to developing and conveying new policies. That is a full-time position!
Reduced time spent on compliance and risk mitigation are two of the most significant advantages of outsourcing payroll. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) imposes millions of dollars in employment tax penalties each year. It’s critical to have a payroll tax compliance partner and expert on hand to mitigate that risk.
Tax filing and payments can be handled by a professional payroll and HR company. A corporation that follows this type of compliance will also be aware of any changes in tax regulations.
