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Selecting Payroll Software: Best Tips on Software and Support

Published on

Dec 10

Sheri Blaho

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Selecting a software or service to handle your payroll requirements can be overwhelming, but there are ways to make the choice clearer. When making this decision, you have three major areas you will need to analyze:

  1. What are the key functional requirements that are a “must”?
  2. How much responsibility do you want to carry related to tax management and payroll processing?
  3. How do you best compare pricing?

Functionality

This is the most important part of your analysis. Pricing should be secondary. Compare pricing only with products that pass the functional test.

With today’s technology, most employees expect easy access to paystubs and W2s, as well as the ability to make demographic changes to their master record online. Administrators should expect the tools to manage garnishments, special payroll runs, payments to vendors (i.e., 401k, benefit carriers, government agencies). Administrators should also expect tools with automatic notifications to assist with one-off payroll exceptions as well as routine activities. Managers will want an easy way to access their direct reports’ timesheets and salary history.

Tax Management

All payroll software leverages a few payroll tax services to update and maintain tax rates (local, state and federal). Some tools offer this as a seamless service, requiring no action on your part to keep the rates current. Many products also provide full tax filing services, and some even handle the payments to the appropriate authorities. You may elect to have these services without having to outsource your payroll. This option is new to the market.

Price Comparison

In today’s marketplace, most payroll software and service are priced on PEPM (per employee, per month). Although you may receive a PEPM price, you may still be able to pay annually, saving a few dollars. PEPM pricing typically excludes the one-time fees that all products will require, such as implementation, training, clocks and badges.

Advantages of Scissortail HCM

A few years ago, CS3 Technology added Scissortail HCM by UKG, formerly Kronos, to our portfolio. We used the same three criteria mentioned above to find a product with broad functionality, unlimited user license, flexible tax services, outsourced or inhouse processing and competitive pricing. Check out Scissortail HCM to learn more about this product.

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