outsourced payroll

Discussion in 'Starting & Running a Business' started by Excalibur1, 29th May, 2017.

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  1. Excalibur1

    Excalibur1 Well-Known Member

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    Hi all

    I think payroll is hated by everyone. Not if you are getting paid, but if you are doing it!

    Just wanted to gauge if anyone had experience with outsourced payroll. You like it / dont like it? Its worth it? Was it a big saving for your business, how much were you charged?

    I guess it is volume based business, the more employees they look after, the cheaper it can be? At the moment everyone i spoke with they all seem to charge standard monthly fee + $5-$6 per employee per payrun.
     
  2. Propagate

    Propagate Well-Known Member

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    I LOVE it, but i only have 4 employees.

    I use Xero for all our book keeping and payroll, it's so easy.

    I love it because as soon as I hit OK on the pay run I see my company tax bill reduce ;-)

    No doubt it would get to a headache if you had tons of employees under all different terms, but with Xero, if you set it up and use it properly it's a piece of cake. Even automates Super payments.
     
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  3. Excalibur1

    Excalibur1 Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for that feedback :)
     
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  4. Peter_Tersteeg

    Peter_Tersteeg Mortgage Broker Business Member

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    It's really not a big deal if your payroll is fairly simple and consistent.

    Using your accounting package, figure out how much money each employee is paid (the net figure) and how much their super is. Then set up an automatic direct debit for these figures to the appropriate accounts.

    From an accounting perspective it's usually the same every pay period, but when there's leave or public holidays,we enter that into the software. If this changes the amounts to be paid, we make those adjustments to the direct debits.

    I also only pay monthly, rather than fortnightly. It makes my life a lot easier.
     
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  5. Excalibur1

    Excalibur1 Well-Known Member

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    Thanks Peter, I guess thats why a lot of businesses now days tend to make payments monthly.
     
  6. Ross Forrester

    Ross Forrester Well-Known Member

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    If you set up payroll properly it is not that hard. Look at the Xero program. If it is hard then their is a range of add-ons.

    Getting these things to work upfront is hard. From there on should not be so hard.
     
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  7. Excalibur1

    Excalibur1 Well-Known Member

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    it looks like Xero wins here.... anyone use any other software besides xero?
     
  8. datto

    datto Well-Known Member

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    What I don't understand is why the payroll errors are always in the boss's favour and never mine.
     
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  9. Biz

    Biz Well-Known Member

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    I use MYOB essentials for one and also Lightning Payroll for something more complex. Really depends what kind of payroll you have to do. Something simple with a few employees you can use any of the cloud based accounting programs. If it's more complex (lots of allowances, redundancy schemes, different super funds, tallying RDO's etc) you would need to look at something more comprehensive.
     
  10. Peter_Tersteeg

    Peter_Tersteeg Mortgage Broker Business Member

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    I've used MYOB in the past. It was fairly straight forward with that package as well. As Ross suggested, the hard part is getting them set up properly. After that it's very easy.
     
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  11. Excalibur1

    Excalibur1 Well-Known Member

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    Thanks everyone for your input :)
     
  12. datto

    datto Well-Known Member

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    Anytime.
     
  13. dabbler

    dabbler Well-Known Member

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    Funny that, and across many sectors and roles but usually those not on high income, where the error may be in the remuneration package amount on initial employment !
     
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  14. Ross Forrester

    Ross Forrester Well-Known Member

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    If you want something more complex do not forget the Xero add on programs. These allow for time clocks, meal allowances, time and a half, double pay and stuff like that.

    Also the QBO program is good.

    I am not a fan of myob but it works for payroll.
     
  15. geoffw

    geoffw Moderator Staff Member

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    If you have time clocks you may need a rostering application. A good one should be able to allow clocked times to be entered over rostered times, and to load times into your bookkeeping program.
     
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  16. Propagate

    Propagate Well-Known Member

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    If you need to track time and projects I totally recomned Harvest too. It is perfect for us, it allows all staff to have their own online time sheet that they easily book hours against each job number and task, (predetermined by what we input for a project). Projects are tracked to the nth degree this way which makes it great for me to dissect afterwards and see what we did right/wrong. Invoices are raised easily based on project/client and tracked time and copied directly into Xero as soon as you hit "send" to the client. Great system.
     
  17. Ross Forrester

    Ross Forrester Well-Known Member

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    Yeah I have seen harvest.

    Tried to get a client on it.

    They went sap - the cfo knew sap and thought Xero was only for mum and dad coffee shops.

    It cost them a fortune and to do anything they need to get a 26 year old over who charges 300 an hour plus 200 callout.

    These big fancy systems are just a money pit. Go cloud and keep the costs down.
     
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