1. Why Choose a Small Business Payroll Software?
When setting up the admin side of your business, one of the key steps will be to decide how you’ll process payroll for your team every month.
You have three options:
- Process payroll yourself through a free payroll or accountancy tool: free but complex and time-consuming
- Outsource your payroll to accountants: expensive but hands-off
- Use a payroll software: paid-for but cheaper than accountants, you have more control of your payroll
We’re of the opinion that choosing a payroll software specifically built for small businesses' needs will get you the best of both worlds.
Reason 1: A small business payroll software will be built specifically for their needs
Payroll software for small business will have been built their product around these exact needs - to save you time and money. A few examples could be:
- Payroll compliance will be taken care of for you. There won’t be a need for you to research how to deal with obscure payroll scenarios - this will be taken care of by the product directly, or the software support team.
- Because you’ll be guided through running your own payroll, you won’t need to collect all your payroll every month and submit it to outsourced payroll accountants: the software will already have all the information collected and calculated for you.
- Accountants will often ask for you to double check payroll figures before submitting them to HMRC, or ask for additional context on some changes. This again doesn’t happen with an automated payroll software
Small business payroll softwares will also work hard to be easy to use by non payroll specialists. It is likely you won’t yet be in the position to hire someone to run payroll or look after HR, so this aspect will be key.
Payroll software aimed at larger companies will be more complex to use because they’re targeted at payroll specialists within these companies.
Reason 2: It will combine payroll, time off and HR in one place
What better way to save money and time than having one tool (just one!) to manage everything relating to your team - pay, employment, documents and time-off. This is an HR and payroll software combined in one!
In our opinion this is a huge win for small businesses:
- Payroll is almost fully automated, compliant, all the while keeping you control of it
- Only one system to update, and all employees’ pay and employment data is always synced
- Time-off management is synced with payroll, no complex calculations needed every month on allowances or half days off.
- One place for both you and your team to go to for everything employment-related (payslips, time-off, employment information and documents).
2. Benefits of Payroll Software for Small Business
The biggest benefits are saving time and money, and being compliant with HRMC's payroll regulations (with little effort).
3. Payroll Software vs. Outsourced Payroll: Making the Right Choice for Your Business
4. What to Look for in Payroll Software for Small Business
It is recognised by HMRC as an official payroll provider
A HMRC-recognised payroll provider is one that can report PAYE figures to them on your behalf. Without this stamp of approval, you cannot be sure they’ll report your payroll figures to HMRC, let alone accurately or on time.
See HMRC’s list of all recommended payroll software companies.
It specialises in payroll for small businesses
Making sure your payroll software focusses on the needs of small businesses will make your life easier (save you time, money and be easy to use). Going for a payroll provider targeting larger companies might be unnecessarily complex to run, and potentially more expensive too.
The payroll software includes a HRIS and time-off management
Go for a payroll software that doubles up as HRIS and time-off management software. This way all your team's pay, documents, employment, records, time off is in one place and always up to date.
It provides fast and reliable customer support
Although most of the product will mostly be automated and self-serve, having good customer support available when you need it is key. This is because you’ll probably need to reach out right before payday - short SLAs for response times is what to look for here.
Are You Looking For The Right Payroll Software For Your Business?
Onfolk is a modern, cloud-based platform built specifically to solve the needs of small business owners. It combines a HR software, time-off management and an almost fully automated payroll, so all your employee and pay data is in one place, accesible at all times.
On top of being simple and fast to use, Onfolk provides you with other tools key to building your team effortlessly: 2-click employee onboarding and offboarding, customisable task lists, integrations with Xero, Quickbooks and your pension provider, fully customisable people metric dashboards and reports, and so much more.
Running a business comes with so many hats - Onfolk takes care of payroll and people admin so you get precious time back to focus on growing your team and business instead.
1. Why Choose a Small Business Payroll Software?
When setting up the admin side of your business, one of the key steps will be to decide how you’ll process payroll for your team every month.
You have three options:
- Process payroll yourself through a free payroll or accountancy tool: free but complex and time-consuming
- Outsource your payroll to accountants: expensive but hands-off
- Use a payroll software: paid-for but cheaper than accountants, you have more control of your payroll
We’re of the opinion that choosing a payroll software specifically built for small businesses' needs will get you the best of both worlds.
Reason 1: A small business payroll software will be built specifically for their needs
Payroll software for small business will have been built their product around these exact needs - to save you time and money. A few examples could be:
- Payroll compliance will be taken care of for you. There won’t be a need for you to research how to deal with obscure payroll scenarios - this will be taken care of by the product directly, or the software support team.
- Because you’ll be guided through running your own payroll, you won’t need to collect all your payroll every month and submit it to outsourced payroll accountants: the software will already have all the information collected and calculated for you.
- Accountants will often ask for you to double check payroll figures before submitting them to HMRC, or ask for additional context on some changes. This again doesn’t happen with an automated payroll software
Small business payroll softwares will also work hard to be easy to use by non payroll specialists. It is likely you won’t yet be in the position to hire someone to run payroll or look after HR, so this aspect will be key.
Payroll software aimed at larger companies will be more complex to use because they’re targeted at payroll specialists within these companies.
Reason 2: It will combine payroll, time off and HR in one place
What better way to save money and time than having one tool (just one!) to manage everything relating to your team - pay, employment, documents and time-off. This is an HR and payroll software combined in one!
In our opinion this is a huge win for small businesses:
- Payroll is almost fully automated, compliant, all the while keeping you control of it
- Only one system to update, and all employees’ pay and employment data is always synced
- Time-off management is synced with payroll, no complex calculations needed every month on allowances or half days off.
- One place for both you and your team to go to for everything employment-related (payslips, time-off, employment information and documents).
2. Benefits of Payroll Software for Small Business
The biggest benefits are saving time and money, and being compliant with HRMC's payroll regulations (with little effort).
3. Payroll Software vs. Outsourced Payroll: Making the Right Choice for Your Business
4. What to Look for in Payroll Software for Small Business
It is recognised by HMRC as an official payroll provider
A HMRC-recognised payroll provider is one that can report PAYE figures to them on your behalf. Without this stamp of approval, you cannot be sure they’ll report your payroll figures to HMRC, let alone accurately or on time.
See HMRC’s list of all recommended payroll software companies.
It specialises in payroll for small businesses
Making sure your payroll software focusses on the needs of small businesses will make your life easier (save you time, money and be easy to use). Going for a payroll provider targeting larger companies might be unnecessarily complex to run, and potentially more expensive too.
The payroll software includes a HRIS and time-off management
Go for a payroll software that doubles up as HRIS and time-off management software. This way all your team's pay, documents, employment, records, time off is in one place and always up to date.
It provides fast and reliable customer support
Although most of the product will mostly be automated and self-serve, having good customer support available when you need it is key. This is because you’ll probably need to reach out right before payday - short SLAs for response times is what to look for here.
Are You Looking For The Right Payroll Software For Your Business?
Onfolk is a modern, cloud-based platform built specifically to solve the needs of small business owners. It combines a HR software, time-off management and an almost fully automated payroll, so all your employee and pay data is in one place, accesible at all times.
On top of being simple and fast to use, Onfolk provides you with other tools key to building your team effortlessly: 2-click employee onboarding and offboarding, customisable task lists, integrations with Xero, Quickbooks and your pension provider, fully customisable people metric dashboards and reports, and so much more.
Running a business comes with so many hats - Onfolk takes care of payroll and people admin so you get precious time back to focus on growing your team and business instead.
