These 5 questions will help you decide if it’s time to outsource your payroll

But the most important thing is getting people paid correctly and on time.  

Every. Single. Time.   

If you’ve been wondering if outsourcing payroll is right for you, ask yourself these 5 simple questions and you’ll likely have your answer.  

Q1: How much time are you spending processing payroll 

Even though you pay your staff on the same day every week or fortnight, some businesses still struggle to find the time to get payroll done. It may seem simple, but payroll can be time-consuming and while it’s a large administrative task, it’s very detail oriented, especially when new people start, employees leave, annual leave needs to be processed, someone is off sick or there’s been overtime.   

Are your employees used to not getting paid on time? Or even worse, they’re not being paid correctly. You already know this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be and it’s already hard enough retaining staff without giving them a reason to quit.  

Q2: How much does payroll processing cost your business? 

It’s easy to make mistakes and, if your HR team is under constant time pressure, it’s even easier. A 2018 Industry Super Australia article suggested that 2.4 million Australian employees could be affected by payroll underpayments, at a cost of $3.6 billion.  

Did you know that, in Australia, business owners and management are held accountable for pay mistakes? There could be hefty fines from a Fair Work Ombudsman or the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). Not counting any interest or legal fees. 

Even when things are running smoothly, your HR team is still spending time every week or fortnight sorting out pay. They also need to be kept up to date on regulatory changes and compliance, which will cost your business more money again. And if your business has complex payroll needs, it could potentially cost you more to keep payroll in-house than it would to outsource and free up all that time and all those resources.

For more cost information, read our guide: How much does Payroll Outsourcing Cost?

Q3: How do you keep on top of compliance and regulatory updates? 

Managing the complex, ever-changing nature of payroll compliance is critical if your business is to avoid costly fines and damage to your brand. Although it’s possible to manage compliance in-house, it requires the skill and technical expertise of an experienced payroll manager. If you don’t have such a person on your HR team, outsourcing payroll may be the answer.  

If you decide to outsource payroll, remember employers still remain accountable for any instances of non-compliance. That’s why it’s important to do thorough due diligence on potential suppliers to ensure they have an excellent reputation for keeping businesses compliant. 

Q4: Is your payroll data secure? 

Australians were recently reminded just how important data security is when major telco Optus suffered a cyber-attack - protecting your employee’s data has never been more important. Due to the highly sensitive nature of the personal information you need to have on record to administer payroll, your IT infrastructure needs to be secure and your HR team compliant with Australian data protection laws.  

External threats from hackers or other cybercriminals aren’t the only risk as people inside your business may also expose personal and sensitive information either by design or accident. Find out the features that equip our payroll solutions with the best payroll security measures in the market. 

Q5: Will outsourcing payroll give you peace of mind?  

When you outsource your payroll, by default you’re accessing highly trained professionals who may be able to advise you on other financial or accounting matters. They may see issues or problems ahead of time, alerting you so you can remedy the situation before it even happens. 

There’s also the peace of mind that comes with knowing payroll is being handled by experts. People will be paid on time, paid under the correct awards or pay bands and their superannuation will be right.  

Your HR team will have more time to focus on their core responsibilities which will ultimately help grow and scale your business.  

How outsourcing to an expert can help your business 

Outsourcing your payroll can help:  

• your Human Resources (HR) team claw back time spent working on payroll, freeing them up so they can work on more strategic tasks.  
• reduce labour, administrative overheads and compliance risk. 
• eliminate payroll software management, administrative upskilling and the payroll IT infrastructure. 
• control labour costs and better understand their impact on your business. 
• forecast your labour costs before you commit to rosters. 
• streamline the entire employee lifecycle from onboarding to retirement.  
• your teams focus on workforce efficiency and the core business of serving your customers. 

Access Payroll Outsourcing can deliver the payroll data you need to drive better business outcomes. Other benefits include removing non-compliance risk, labour costs, IT overheads and security breaches, all delivered via a cloud-native solution, managed by a team of qualified Australian experts. 

Download our eBook Outsourcing payroll to help you decide if outsourcing is right for your business needs.