Find the Perfect Payroll Partner: 5 Questions to Consider Before Choosing a Payroll Services Provider

4 May 2023

Timely and accurate remuneration is critical for businesses and their employees, however, payroll management is becoming increasingly complex. To ensure that every employee gets paid on time and accurately, many companies choose to outsource payroll responsibilities to professional firms.

It’s easy to understand why – processing your payroll can require a substantial amount of time. Understanding the complexities of proper procedures to pay your employees (time that could be used to focus and grow your core business) or committing to hiring in-house payroll specialists can be challenging and expensive.

On the other hand, choosing to outsource your payroll to an established vendor will provide service benefits including reduced errors, time savings, and cost efficiencies. A myriad of additional benefits, include:

Dedicated access to experts in payroll processing
An assurance of payroll compliance with government regulations
Information security and confidentiality of your sensitive employee’s payroll data
Modern technology offering various modules like payroll, leave, claims, time & attendance, and Employee Self-Service

This article will explore 5 questions that you should ask yourself before deciding on the payroll service provider for your business.

1. How large is my organisation?

Payroll scalability is a consideration that is often overlooked. While it may work as a temporary approach for SMEs and startups to manage payroll with in-house finance or HR personnel, processing payroll can become an administrative burden as your organisation expands.

As your team may not have the required expertise, mistakes, and oversights can occur regarding compliance requirements. That’s why businesses typically seek the assistance of a payroll expert like BoardRoom. A long-term strategy for your growth needs to be considered since managing payroll in-house not only is a burden but also carries an increased risk.

2. How good is my payroll provider’s technology?

In a world where technology is constantly evolving, it’s important to partner with a payroll service provider that stays up-to-date.

A good payroll service provider offers a flexible and centralised platform for managing payroll, including confidential payslip issuance through electronic means and easy access to payslips and data. Date-driven software is also crucial for accuracy and practicality.

Many payroll services today allow employees to access a secure site to view their individual payroll history, as well as provide an avenue for the submission of claims and leave applications.

Good payroll technology should offer features such as employee self-service, mobile applications, and an integrated platform. Without these features, you may risk compromising your employees’ experience.

Ensuring that your payroll service provider is tech-savvy is vital, not only for the convenience of your employees, but crucial if you want your company to scale to the next level without payroll being cumbersome.

3. How secure will my employees’ information and payroll data be?

The process of outsourcing your payroll to a provider may seem intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. To assess the level of security a payroll service can offer, it’s essential to conduct sufficient research beforehand.

When searching for a trusted payroll vendor, look for a company that boasts a strong track record, experienced staff, a robust IT team, secure hardware, redundant backups, and a disaster recovery system. This ensures that they are prepared in case of any unforeseen events.

4. How important is customer service to you?

Unexpected business problems can arise at any time. That’s why it’s important to have a payroll partner who can offer superior support during a moment of crisis, and one who sees themselves as an extension of your business.

This type of support can take the form of an account manager or a single point-of-contact executive who will grow with your company over time, becoming intimately familiar with your organisation and how it functions. This will enable a quick and seamless resolution of any potential issues that may arise, without the need for you to spend time re-educating a new representative each time you reach out.

When choosing a payroll service provider, be sure to ask if they will assign a dedicated manager to your account.

5. Do they provide other complementary services?

When running a business, payroll is just one of the many services that could be outsourced. While choosing to outsource your payroll, also consider if the payroll provider offers a range of complementary services to handle your other non-core business functions. Additional services can include employee equity plan management, corporate secretarial, corporate actions, and registry services.

By selecting a comprehensive provider that can handle a suite of related services, you can save time and synergise the various aspects of your business, leading to additional benefits.

Looking for an established payroll partner in Australia & beyond?

BoardRoom offers a boutique payroll service with the help of our team of local payroll experts. We take a consultative approach to managing payroll, with a keen focus on compliance and risk management.

Whether you require local payroll services or have substantial payroll obligations across the Asia-Pacific region, our team is here to help you take care of your people while increasing productivity.