5 time saving tips with payroll automation

You probably have a million things to do as a business owner. If you’re like most businesses, payroll is probably the most important and the most time-consuming!

Payroll automation can fix that. Also known as automatic payroll software, payroll automation can save you time, money, and stress when it comes to paying your staff. Say goodbye to manual calculations and spreadsheets.

If you’re looking to simplify your payroll system, and maximize profits with payroll processing, this article will show you what payroll automation is (and why you need it), as well as tips that will save you time when you start automating payroll. 

Payroll automation basically means that you can process staff payments automatically.

Depending on your payroll automation software, this will take over tasks like:

• Timesheets for hourly rate workers 
• Calculating gross wage total based on hourly rate 
• Calculating tax deductions like PAYE, student loans and KiwiSaver 
• Withholding tax from employee paychecks to pay tax on their behalf 
• Creating payslips and transferring money to employee bank accounts 
• Submitting payday filing data to IRD within two days of paying employees
• Keeping easily accessible records for your business and individual employees

Of course, you will still need to click the buttons and sign off as the manager. 

However, payroll automation can drastically reduce the amount of time you waste processing payroll. This means no more digging through timesheets, no more guessing what you owe IRD, and no more little mistakes that add up to a lot of time and money over a full financial year. 

Smartly is all about making payroll easier for New Zealand businesses. Let’s go through our top tips for saving time with payroll automation. 

If your employees are still filling in paper time sheets, it might be time to upgrade to payroll software.

The more paper you use, the more steps there are that could lead to human error (e.g. employee - filling in the sheet, not signing it, not giving it to you in time, transferring the data to payroll, mixing up names, that’s five steps right there!). 

Payroll automation reduces the amount of paper you need and makes it easier for both you and your employees. 

For example, Smartly lets employees update their digital timesheets within an app on their phone. This then directly links up to your payroll system. It even lets employees apply for leave, reducing the need for paper even more!

Payroll software keeps everything neat, and has the added bonus of keeping a document trail for tax purposes. 

As an employer, your two main obligations are paying your employees and paying IRD.

Every pay cycle, you need to calculate how much each employee has earned, and how much of it you need to deduct and pay to IRD on their behalf. 

Payroll automation means that you will never miss a payday filing, and you are much less likely to deduct the wrong amount (as long as you input all the correct information for your employees, this will be a breeze!). 

Unless it’s in your employee agreements, employers don’t have to provide payslips to employees in New Zealand.

However, the benefits to sending out payslips through payroll are that it;

• Lets employees inform you if there are any errors in their hours 
• Reduces payroll admin with employees inquiring about their pay 
• Gives employees proof of employment and income 
• Shows employees how much annual and sick leave they have accrued before applying
• Keeps employees informed with a document trail 

Although you are not obligated to create and send out payslips, it is easy to do with a payroll system like Smartly (and keeps your employees informed). 

If you have people on salary or working the same shifts every single pay cycle, payroll automation takes their paychecks off your plate. 

With the right software, you can set and forget their payments because you know that it will automatically go out each time. That way you only have to double check it if they have been on leave. Too easy! 

Once payroll expenses go out, it gets added to your general accounting ledger as a bulk expense. 

Using an automated system makes this simpler for a few reasons. 

Firstly, with automated payroll software like Smartly, you can connect directly to your accounting software. If you are using a service like Xero, you can automatically add payroll expenses. 

Secondly, it lets you break down deductions more easily.  

For example, you might want to know what percentage of payroll is employer KiwiSaver contributions. With automatic payroll software, you can easily see how much of the total payment is your contributions versus employee wages. This is useful for EOFY budgeting and tax time! 

Payroll automation and digitisation is the key to taking the stress out of payroll processing. We know payroll can be a headache. At Smartly, we make it simple to pay your people on time, accurately and in line with legislation. 

Ready to see just how easy payroll and payroll automation can be? Get started with Smartly!