Outsourcing the Hosting of Your Payroll System - The Right Choice?

Whether you look at short-term economic trends or long term demographics, the payroll profession has rarely faced such a challenging environment.

Tightening economic conditions are putting pressure on organisations to maximise productivity. That's why businesses are now looking at creative ways to become more efficient and at the same time save money.

Outsourcing is an immotive subject, with arguments for and against. However outsourcing is becoming more and more accepted in most industries, whether it is the HR function, marketing and design or IT.

Due to increased demand and ever changing legislation, the outsourcing of Payroll and HR functions are ever-increasing. Paying your staff correctly and on time is vital to ensuring they remain productive and motivated. You can't afford to get it wrong!

Web-delivered software is becoming more and more popular and a clear choice if your organisation wants to outsource but keep control in-house. By using intuitive software, payroll departments can work with greater effectiveness and provide a better service to employees, both with minimal change to existing operating procedures.

Payroll software can bring significant time and cost efficiencies, allowing your business to focus its resources elsewhere. By using a fully integrated HR and Payroll software solution, the organisation can produce statistics and meaningful reports that can be used to improve the business.

Just recently, a new phenomenon known as a Hosted Bureau Service has entered the payroll industry. This solution gives companies the best of both worlds and is ideal for high-volume payroll processing. The Hosted Bureau Service enables companies to have full access to a payroll system without the costs of purchasing it. The supplier hosts the payroll system on a server and processes the payroll on behalf of the client. The client retains all the benefits of an in-house system, enabling them to still analyse data from their own office.

The Hosted Bureau Service is growing in popularity allowing Payroll departments to run reports and obtain real time data but with the added benefit of minimal set up and up front costs. Eradicating IT costs and internal IT support are good news for Managers who can inherit systems that they are not always familiar with.

Further savings can be made by outsourcing the processing of the payroll data to the supplier. Professional, qualified personnel, who are up-to-date with all the latest legislation, and who look after a number of clients, are able to offer this service at a reduced rate to the end user as well as providing fast turnaround times. Most payroll outsourcing organisations offer a personal working relationship with their clients, assigning a project manager who will provide guidance and reassurance every step of the way.

Other benefits from using such a service include disaster recovery and the knowledge that you will always have someone there attending to your payroll. This can provide peace of mind that this important business function is always covered even when in-house staff are absent due to sickness or annual leave.