Five reasons to consider Cloud Payroll

Cloud accounting systems are common place in most accountancy practices. Now, more and more payroll professionals and small businesses are evaluating the pros and cons of running payroll on the cloud alongside their bookkeeping.

In the age of ever changing legislation on the fast-paced, non-stop business merry go-round, businesses are looking for more ways to streamline time consuming processes whilst ensuring compliance. As businesses attempt to ‘travel light’ on the way to the top, employing additional staff or taking time away from the shop floor to keep your payroll up to date could become a thing of the past. Business owners with little or no payroll experience now have the power to not only review, but control their payroll run simply and efficiently.

More and more professionals find that cloud payroll offers a genuine alternative to the status-quo of the desktop payroll system. With Automatic Enrolment approaching, bringing with it further compliance responsibilities, take the time to consider a move to cloud payroll to automate and mobilise your payroll. We look at five reasons to consider a switch to the cloud:

Accessibility
Picture the business owner hidden behind a monitor, PC tower and a mountain of paperwork come the end of the month, trying urgently to input vital payslip items before the curtain comes down on another pay period. The lights go out and whilst the rest of the country heads down the road for a pay day pint, the business owners finds themselves immersed in a complex help guide wondering why our figures don’t match.

A cloud payroll system gives you the freedom to access your payroll run wherever you are. Be it a short train journey, a pit stop at your local coffee shop or on holiday with the family, you can still access your payroll data online and review figures, finalise your payroll and distribute payslips at the touch of a button. Cloud payroll can be accessed on a laptop, tablet or mobile wherever an internet connection is available and remains completely secure on the Cloud. This means you can start working in real time, on the move and spend less time constrained by administration.

Automation
A business owner wishing to run their own payroll now faces a lengthening list of compliance duties and responsibilities within the process. Complex desktop systems will only serve to confuse and distract from the simple obligations that are required for an easy payroll run, happy employees and the HMRC giving you a well-deserved pat on the back.

Cloud payroll can simplify your responsibilities by taking the concern away, automating key duties in the payroll run. Real Time Information (RTI) submissions represent the chequered flag for many payroll professionals, yet it is common place to experience issues in transferring data at busy times or forgetting to issue a submission at all. Cloud Payroll automatically generates and sends your RTI submission at the click of a button.

In the case of KashFlow Payroll, our own cloud payroll offering, the automation continues with instinctive, direct integration with KashFlow Bookkeeping posting your payroll costs directly into your accounting software, removing yet another tedious transfer of data exposed to errors or the strains of a long day and a lack of caffeine.

Payslips
Love them or hate them, payslips are the law and are the single most important tool in keeping your workforce informed and smiling. Desktop systems of the past insisted that you purchase expensive templates and spend the last few hours of the month printing and sending payslips to each employee.

Cloud payroll not only generates your payslips on templates within the software, it will also email them directly to an employee’s self-service account to be accessed at their own leisure. Employees have their own login with which they can access current and historical payslips and P60’s and print at their own expense if required. Gone are the days of being harassed for historical payslips as your next budding cashier heads to the bank for a mortgage.

Simplicity
You will seldom find a system out there that doesn’t claim to be simple and efficient, offering ground-breaking progress in the art of making things easier to do. Very few systems, however, can actually measure such progress with visible results. Cloud payroll software takes payroll processing back to the bare bones, removing unnecessary, over-complicated procedures, making payroll handling almost child-friendly.

The language used is designed for those with little or no payroll experience, the login process is simple and a payroll run can be completed with the minimum number of clicks. Daunting tasks such as managing sick pay, reporting to the HMRC and distribution of data are all automated.

Collaboration with your accountant is key to any successful accounting operation. Constant communication and visibility means that mistakes are identified and corrected quickly and ultimately the removal of the need to transfer data means greater efficiency in the process. Whether the business owner, payroll department or accountant themselves control the payroll operation, information can be viewed by all parties, approved and actioned in minutes.

Price
Those with experience of desktop payroll systems will be well aware of rising renewal costs, expensive installation and setup charges and the unexpected upgrade costs for the latest features and compliance. The restrictions of having to install and update a rigid platform means that this shows no signs of changing, with expensive modules being offered as a vital cog just to remain compliant.

Cloud payroll offers an alternative. Priced per employee, per month on a rolling contract, cloud payroll gives you the freedom to manage your costs monthly, but also the flexibility to manage your employee numbers and avoid paying for functionality or capacity that you simply do not use. If you find yourself using a desktop payroll system at an extortionate price for 10 months of the year just to accommodate your seasonal staff for that busy 2 months, a switch to a flexible, affordable pricing model offers instant financial benefits.

The Cloud offers a genuine alternative for so many platforms and processes within all kinds of business in 2015. Cloud payroll is easy, intelligent and offers an insight into the future of compliance and communication within small businesses.

KashFlow Payroll is at the forefront of cloud payroll technology, offering the security, functionality and integration that is required for an effective solution. The product features direct integration with KashFlow bookkeeping, offering a unique opportunity to combine a fully functional payroll system and bookkeeping on the cloud without the use of a third party, plus a unique pricing structure for those running multiple companies, with an unlimited capacity for employee numbers.

KashFlow are running a series of webinars throughout early 2015 detailing the benefits of cloud payroll and a full demonstration of the KashFlow Payroll product, including its brand new Automatic Enrolment screen. For more information please visit www.kashflow.com/payroll