Payroll is a quite a common word used in day to day life, but
not every one of us are familiar with its exact meaning. It
can be defined as a well maintained record of employees working
for the firm or the company consisting of wages, bonuses, net
pay and deductions. In layman language it can be defined as
simply a record containing the details of the amount or salary
paid to employees for a specified time period.
Looking few years back, the payroll was maintained and managed
manually. But maintaining a payroll manually is not an easy
task, since not only the chances of error increases but also
takes time. So to ease up this process companies began to look
for automated payroll systems. And nowadays you can easily find
payroll software programs in which ever firm or organization
you go, no matter how big or small it is.
These payroll software
programs not only make your work fast but also make it
easy to keep track of the data. These softwares are available
in many varieties depending on the number of features provided.
So you can choose the one which suits your need. If your company
doesnt have many employees then you can go for the basic version
of the software which comes equipped with only the basic set
of features. But if yours is a big organization then its recommended
that you choose the professional version of the software.
These softwares are quite user friendly and most of them have
user graphical interfaces (UGI) to make your job easy and simple.
So to understand them is not a big deal. They usually available
in two versions depending on the number of users i.e. single
user and multi-user. The installation process of these softwares
is quite easy and can easily be done by just following the installation
guide. These days payroll
software programs comes with auto updating facility that
means the tax rate and other factors gets automatically from
time to time. So you can be sure that the pay calculated is
consistent with your current rates.
Some of the features worth mentioning here are: comprehensive
reports, automatic tax computations, can compute multiple incomes,
reports and applies tax deductions, handles fringe benefits,
quarterly updates, imports employees information, imports time
card information, exports payroll data, invoicing and many more.
In short it consists of each and everything you need to maintain
a payroll.
But before you purchase any of these softwares you should first
figure out the number of employees in your firm or organization
since every software has its own maximum limit of employees.
There are some that can handle 500 employees then there are
also others that can handle thousands of them. So you have to
decide which one satisfies your needs.
One feature that you should check out before purchasing is the
secured logging. In simple words whenever you want to log on
to the software you have to enter a username and password and
then that username and password is authenticated. You will only
be allowed to enter the software if the information you filled
matches the one in the software. This feature is important from
the point of view of data integrity. The data of any company
is kept confidential and can cause problems if it gets tempered.
Taxes play quite an important role in payrolls. The payroll
software programs automatically calculate the taxes both
federal and state. Not only it applies taxes on employees but
if you want to exempt some employee from taxes then it can also
be done. If you want to withhold some extra tax then the software
will do that for you. As far as salary is concerned you are
provided with different hourly rates and you can even modify
them in whatever way you want.
You can also get the prints of W2s, W3s and the 941 on paper.
The software also provides you with a well prepared summary
of state reports. At any moment of time you can get the complete
information of any employee on paper.
Software companies also provide you with free technical support
for their software. If you face any problem while using the
software you can call at the support number at any point of
time. Another point which you should keep in mind is whether
the software you are purchasing is certified or not. Certified
software is in terms with all the rules and regulations.
After installing payroll software programs it will just take
you around five minutes to prepare the complete payroll. This
also saves you from all the tedious calculations. Once calculated
the data can also be stored for future reference. If you have
to retrieve any information the software have easy interfaces
which will make your search just a matter of seconds.
The prices of these payroll software programs vary from vendor
to vendor. The prices of these softwares start from as low as
10 USD and goes above 100 USD. Most of the time people are tempted
to buy the cheaper versions of the software but later on they
realize that the software doesnt provide them with all the
facilities. Different softwares have different system requirements
but most of them are made such that they are compatible with
maximum types of operating systems. But you should always check
before going for any.
Usually a free downloadable version all these payroll software
programs are available on the internet. So you can download
them and use it and then select the one which you like the most.
You can purchase these softwares either from the market or you
can also go for the online purchasing. Almost all companies
let you purchase their software online from their respective
websites. But you should be really careful while purchasing
them since their pirated versions are available in the market
that doesnt satisfy all the rules and regulations. So why to
spend on manual payrolls when you can get the same work done
automatically and with greater precision by using payroll software
programs.
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