Helpful Ways to Enter Payroll Data

When your business started, you probably gave no second thought to entering payroll data for employees. That's probably because it was all so simple. But as your business grows, pay day entry becomes much more varied by employee, shift, job and pay types. Some employees are paid a salary, others are hourly, and still others are paid via piece work, and so on. Thankfully, good software programs have grown to accommodate the growing payroll needs of a business. By using a good program you can keep your payroll accurate and also save time on data entry. Here are some helpful pay data methods payroll software can offer.
Salaried and Hourly. Entering salaried and hourly pay is fairly basic, since most employees fall into one of these categories. Payroll systems typically come with pre-defined codes for these pay types, and you set up each employee with the code as needed. Some programs also allow you to change the standard codes to meet your needs.
Piecework. Businesses such as fruit growers and manufacturers often pay employees via piecework, and having a tool to handle those calculations can save significant time and improve accuracy. This not only helps your business, but keeps employees happy too.
Minimum Wage Calculations. If you have employees who are paid by piecework, you need to verify that you are paying them at least minimum wage. Minimum wage calculation is a tool that allows you to calculate what employees actually did, and then verify they are being paid minimum wage. This ensures that you comply with minimum wage laws.
Time Clock. Using a time clock allows you to pull in information from cards or electronically that the employees have entered and managers may have approved. Pulling in this information directly can save significant manual entry time and can also help avoid errors.
Time Entry Formats. You may want to have different methods of entering pay available, and multiple time formats give you this option. Using time formats, you can enter actual hours worked, or you can enter a start and stop time and let the software calculate the actually hours worked based on that.
Shift Differential. If you have employees who work different shifts at your business, you likely pay a differential, for instance, an added hourly pay amount depending on the shift. Some systems allow you to set up these shift differential pay amounts within the system, so that paying those employees the correct rate is as easy as choosing the correct amount from a list.
Copy Previous Pay Runs. Some systems save you the time of having to enter pay data each pay period by copying a previous pay run and using it as a starting point for a new pay run. This allows you to quickly select the same employees paid the previous week.
Using software tools can help streamline the payroll process and can also ensure data accuracy.