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Getting Organised with your Payroll systems

In these "challenging economic times" some businesses see it as an opportunity to focus on ways in which to operate their business with even greater efficiency, taking time to "sharpen the axe". One such way, which can bring immediate benefit is to l

Whilst many businesses have moved in the direction of automating the production of staff payments and the producing of the payment summary at the end of the year, we find that there are still many opportunities for refinement of these systems. The following list is just some of the functions that a well organized payroll system can provide, which has immediate benefit of saving administrative time in your business and also ensure that you are covering all of the payroll bases to minimize any exposure the business (and you) may have in relation to your legal obligations when it comes to employing staff.

Your current system should be able to provide you with an immediate snapshot as to where you are up to with all of your payroll obligations, such as;

• How much do you  owe the Government (Payroll and PAG withholding Taxes)
• The current status of your leave entitlements for all employees (Long Service Leave, Personal Leave, Annual Leave, RDO’s etc)
• Would you be able to calculate and produce an Employee Termination Payments (ETP’s) if required
• Are your Pay Slips complying and contain all of the necessary information to satisfy an industrial relations audit?
• Are your annual Payment Summaries produced electronically, with the annual reconciliation sent to the ATO electronically
• Can you allocate your employment costs between various divisions within your business automatically
• Is your system setup to handle Superannuation Choice, including all of the various Superannuation Compliance, Reporting and Payment obligations
• Can you produce information to complete your Annual Workers Comp declaration at the touch of a button (potentially reporting on information across multiple financial years)
• Are you able to Email Pay Slips and Payment Summaries direct to your employees
• Are you performing a full Reconciliation of payroll records to your General Ledger system and BAS on a regular basis
• Are you taking advantage of paying your employees (and their super funds) Electronically – directly out of your payroll system – this may also include the splitting of pays to multiple bank accounts for your staff
• Do you have Salary Sacrifice (calculation & Payment and reporting) requirements that are setup correctly
• Is your payroll information feeding automatically to your BAS & IAS forms when required
• Does your payroll system further track information that can assist you with your OHS / Workcover compliance
• If you charge your employees time for jobs – is this process automated so as to ensure that no time is missed being tracked to a job
• Plus much much more

Whilst this list contains just some of the functions that can be simply implemented into a small business, and even if you think the answer is yes to all of these it still could be worthwhile to check – just in case there is an opportunity for improvement in your business.

We have seen many situations where a small investment into your business systems in this area of payroll pays off many times over.

An effective payroll system is one that is accurately installed and setup, one in which your staff are fully trained and supported in.

Article Contributed by Clayton Oates from QA Business
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