Payroll | Paying Correctly

The importance of paying employees correctly!

Sun glass hut to back pay part time staff 2.3 million

Bunnings underpaid staff super for almost 10 years

Ensure your business

pays correclty

If you run a business, you have to pay your employees and ensure it is done correctly. It’s that simple. Your payroll staff are human, so mistakes are likely to occur from time to time. However, habitual errors may foster mistrust in your employees and cause them to file a complaint against your business with the ATO and the Fair Work Commission.

Under Federal and State Laws, you must compensate your employees by the established payday and as per legal requirements, so if you make payroll errors, resolve them promptly and effectively. For best results, employ knowledgeable and reliable Government Licensed payroll companies and use up to date and accurate software to process payroll, super and meet Government reporting obligations.

How you decide to pay is complicated. There are seemingly endless payroll solutions and services out there for all types of businesses. From comprehensive solutions such as outsourcing to in-house payroll software providers, it’s hard to figure out what’s right for your business. Processing payroll by yourself can be difficult, and if it’s something you’re doing for the first time, it’s crucial that you consult with an expert before you get started. The challenge with processing your own payroll comes with what you may miss – if there are deductions or tax-related issues that you file incorrectly, you can expose your business to serious liability.

What to look out for

Failure to comply

will result in fines

When managing payroll, you must record, track and monitor your company’s payroll expenses. Your system must be able to accurately track all wages and salaries paid, allowances, deductions and other requirements thus ensuring compliance is met.

Fair Work states that you must pay your employees the required minimum wage for their time worked. The modern awards are in place to ensure areas such as overtime, allowances, termination payments etc are paid correctly. Failure to compensate employees and pay applicable taxes / super according to federal and state law may lead to audits and penalties from the ATO and Fair Work.

When it comes to reporting, businesses should ensure they understand their obligations. Single Touch Payroll, Tax File Declaration, PAYG and Payroll Tax are some of the few reporting requirements businesses need to make in terms of Payroll.

HR Pay Solutions can provide your business with expert knowledge in the payroll field ensuring your business pays employees correctly. When assessing your payroll situation, we recommend the following:

• If you are aiming to manage payroll in-house, you use the right software to ensure your business is paying employees correctly.
• If you are aiming to outsource, use Government registered payroll providers who are experts in their fields.

Why do you need outsource?

Outsourcing will

ensure compliance

Not every company has the budget to hire staff as and when they need them. For any company, outsourcing can help keep costs low. With outsourcing, you only need to pay for the services you require, unlike a permanent employee, who requires payment, regardless of whether they’re constantly working or whether it’s tasks that only needs doing every so often. It makes sense that outsourcing is probably going to be a better option.

Outsourced payroll services can be relied on to maintain a consistent approach to payroll management and ensure compliance is met, while keeping costs low. In summary, outsourcing achieves three main goals:

• Frees up time and resources therefore allowing a greater focus on core business activities.
• A reduction in costs and risks.
• Gives your business access to better technology and expertise

The importance of using the right payroll system

Payroll is directly associated with employee compensation. If the system you use to process your payroll has a weakness, it could affect accuracy. Payroll involves more than simply compensating your employees for time worked, and inaccuracy may lead to severe consequences.

It’s easy to pay employees once a job is completed, however having a proper system in place mitigates risk and vastly improves your business operations.

It may sound counter-intuitive, but payroll systems aren’t just about paying employees. Payroll processing is a detailed documentation system that tracks who is working for your company, how long they’ve worked for you and how much money you’re spending on labor. Terms like “payroll processing” and “payroll system” can make this sound complicated, but it’s actually quite simple. If you work with a payroll provider, your “system” will be automatically set up through the company. If you’re on your own, you’ll have to set up your own system.

HR Pay Solutions can provide your business with a leading cloud payroll software that ensures you remain complaint with payroll practices and legal requirements. Our software is customised to your business requirements thus ensuring compliance is met.

How we can help

We believe that Outsource providers and or in-house payroll representatives should understand how payroll works, calculations are made, not only to ensure accurate input and compliance, but also so you can explain to employees how their pay is calculated.

HR Pay Solutions has worked with a wide array of Australian businesses across many industries. We are a Government licensed Payroll provider and can assist your business with all payroll services. Our staff possess over 15 years in this field and have the “know how” on how to deal your payroll requirement.

We provide our customers with a platform and services to mitigate compliance risk, deliver business insight and gain operational efficiencies. From software to outsourcing solutions, organisations of all sizes take advantage of HR Pay Solutions deep expertise to free their team resources and help them focus on driving greater business results.

Information provided in this blog is not legal advice and should not be relied upon.