Stop babysitting, start processing: Moving beyond the "angry email" payroll culture

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I understand completely. Payroll is often treated like a distant family member or the neighbour we never talk to unless there is a serious reason.

People usually only contact payroll when there is a problem or if they need something: an error in their salary, updates to banking details, questions about deductions, or what wage legislation changes will cost the business. Meanwhile, payroll staff must constantly chase timesheets and request other information.

This dynamic can become very stressful, especially when preparing payment runs or tax filings. The responsibilities never end, because salaries are a business cost, a legal responsibility, and tie closely to people's sense of security.

Expanding payroll into the business

Yet, payroll staff aren't destined to always chase paperwork and jump to every request. We cannot change the nature of payroll, but we can change how it runs and how others contribute to its processes. People in charge of payroll don't have to be babysitters.

I've worked in the payroll world for decades. I enjoy the satisfaction derived from meticulously producing accurate salary runs. But that passion could only do so much to compensate for the job's demands. This contradiction drove my interest in payroll technology, which has since become my major career.

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Payroll's demands primarily stem from its importance to finance and human resources functions. Modern payroll technologies address those demands in at least three ways.

• Integration: Payroll staff often manually source and capture information such as timesheets and accruals. Integrating information flows between business systems reduces the errors that lead to angry emails and phone calls. It also supports payroll processes, drawing finance information directly from business systems and syncing with timesheet and HR databases.

• Self-service: Payroll teams spend much of their time fulfilling information requests, such as onboarding. This is where self-service makes an enormous impact. An employee uses a portal through their computer or mobile device to access things like payslips or leave applications. Chatbots help them find what they need and answer pertinent questions. Managers and executives generate reports and process approvals directly, even if they are travelling.

• Auto compliance: When laws change, payroll staff need to know what is different and update affected calculations. Leading payroll platforms fix this through auto-compliance or compliance-as-a-service. The payroll software provider takes responsibility for updating its platform with any legislative changes, pushing the outcomes to its customers. Payroll staff don't have to do anything because their calculations update automatically.

Change with modern payroll software

These three examples are standard features in the best cloud-native payroll software platforms. They move responsibilities such as compliance updates to the software vendor, share information between business systems, and give access to payroll documentation and knowledge. Modern software puts the passion back into payroll, saves time, and increases its value to every business, from an SME to a global enterprise.

Get rid of babysitting others and return to accurate processing, thoughtful problem-solving, and meaningful interaction. When you modernise your payroll software, it brings back the satisfaction of seeing your good work have a real impact on your co-workers.