7 benefits of using modern payroll software

Accurate and timely payroll is crucial for employee satisfaction, retention, and the overall financial health of your company. But, outdated payroll systems can slow you down and hinder business growth. Research indicates that small businesses spend more than six hours a month on payroll—not counting the time spent fixing human errors.

Why not simplify this time-consuming process with modern payroll software? With Rippling’s payroll solution, you can manage every tool your payroll depends on in one integrated system. Rippling automates your compliance work, eliminates manual data entry, and lets you pay employees and contractors around the world in a blink. 

Read on to learn more about the key benefits of implementing a modern payroll system.

1. Reduce errors by automating manual work

Many business owners run payroll manually to save costs, which can lead to time-consuming errors and even legal penalties. Two benefits of modern payroll software are:

• Payroll is automatically updated when there are changes in employee status. Employee information must always be accurate and up to date. Without an automated system, busy business owners and their employees must manage employee changes manually, resulting in missing information and critical errors. For example, the system should automatically reflect this change if an employee gets married and updates their W-4 with their new withholdings. Otherwise, the employee may be responsible for unexpected taxes and other IRS-related liabilities due to outdated payroll information.

• Detect pay run discrepancies in advance. Human error, employee changes, severance packages—the reasons for pay run discrepancies are vast. It's unrealistic to recall or detect every discrepancy between pay runs. However, a modern payroll system, like Rippling, can automatically compare pay run data and notify you of errors requiring confirmation or correction so you stay compliant.

2. Integrate with your general ledger to increase efficiency

The general ledger is a vital record for effective bookkeeping, documenting all financial transactions related to payroll, including employee wages, direct deposits, tax deductions, and expenses. Anytime a payroll transaction takes place, it’s recorded in the general ledger. Ensuring the general ledger smoothly integrates with your payroll management system is crucial.

Using a spreadsheet for the general ledger can be problematic due to errors, readability issues, and security risks. A payroll system can automate, integrate, and extract data from other systems: It eliminates the need for manual uploading and the CSV template import/export method.

With Rippling, you can integrate and sync data from other systems without manual uploads. With dynamic general ledger mapping, you can save hours of reconciliation work each month by creating custom policies that sync your payroll and expense data to your general ledger and automatically categorize each account's fields.

Rippling also automatically syncs with accounting software such as QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, and NetSuite to update and streamline your general ledger. To avoid manual manipulation during monthly close, you can sync payroll data with your general ledger and specific format, including class and job code details.

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3. Empower informed decision-making through robust reporting 

Making data-driven decisions in every department is vital to your company's future and health. Reporting from modern payroll software, such as Rippling, can assist in identifying cost savings, eliminating bias in compensation, ensuring accuracy in pay stub records, detecting suspicious activity, and maintaining compliance with regulations. 

Rippling's payroll analytics capabilities allow you to calculate, filter, and visualize the employee data on your dashboard, from payroll reports to IT application activity reports that are helpful during onboarding and offboarding. You can manage data visibility based on location, role, department, and more.

Rippling also offers pre-built, editable template reports, recurring report scheduling, and manager-specific permissions to help you make data-driven decisions quickly and confidently.

4. Customize job codes to more accurately estimate labor costs

Accurately estimating the cost of jobs is essential for your company's financial planning. To monitor and manage expenses from employee labor based on factors such as location and duties, many employers use job codes. These codes determine employee pay and may be assigned by the company’s HR team or third-party payroll provider.

Some payroll systems have preset job codes, while others don't allow customization, limiting your choices. However, with Rippling, you can tailor job codes to assess labor expenses better instead of being stuck with sub-par options.

Rippling makes it simple to keep track of your employees' attendance and work hours for specific job codes. It also can integrate smoothly with time-tracking software, such as Harvest or Toggl, for attendance tracking. If your payment structure for job codes is complex, you can effortlessly track payroll expenses assigned to various work areas and accurately report them to your general ledger system.

5. Automate complex tax filings to ensure compliance

Worker misclassification and payroll tax compliance are top of mind for your human resources team, regardless of where your workforce is. One of the key benefits of using modern payroll software is automatically calculating payroll tax during payroll processing, submitting your taxes to the appropriate federal, state, and local agencies, and staying updated on the latest changes in tax law.

Rippling helps you handle your tax and compliance work, from I-9s to W-2s, ensuring you’re always compliant with the right forms and regulations—even when employees relocate. The best part is your taxes are filed automatically. Going international? Rippling offers payroll and tax support for multiple countries so you can expand your business abroad seamlessly.

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6. Manage payroll for employees and contractors in one place

Many global companies choose to hire talented independent contractors for particular projects or expand their workforce's bandwidth. For a remote company with a distributed workforce, global payroll software is vital to manage payroll employer taxes and avoid worker misclassification. But, many companies prefer not to juggle various systems for managing employees and contractors or outsourcing a payroll service.

With Rippling, you can pay contractors and employees in a single pay run and ensure compliance with local government employment laws and regulations—which can vary depending on the type of worker.

Rippling also handles paperwork and benefits to keep you compliant and help you transition contractors to full-time employees.

7. Manage payroll for a global team

Rippling is the perfect global software solution for managing your company's international growth. You no longer have to worry about data silos or spending countless hours researching local labor laws to stay compliant as you expand into new countries. You can track worldwide compensation trends, including analysis by department and location, with currency conversion for easier comparison in reporting. With Rippling, you can:

• See all your employee data in one place. All employee and contractor data will sync to Rippling, along with details on deductions, time off, time tracked, and pay codes for processing payroll and more accurate reporting. 

• Automate local currency conversions. With remote work on the rise, you need to save time and money during payroll, and Rippling pays workers in their local currency without any friction.

• Keep your general ledger in sync. There is no need for monthly, hours-long reconciliation of expenses and payrolls on spreadsheets. Rippling's syncing integration is a key time-saving feature. 

• Comply with global tax filing laws. Tax laws are particular to each country and often complex. Rippling helps you calculate and file payroll taxes worldwide while also preventing worker misclassification.

• Delegate payroll tasks. Empower your HR team by delegating tasks with the right permissions and access to avoid data security risks within the company—from running payroll to time tracking.