Feature insight - payroll software implementation
other software foregone, and opportunities gained. If two software products provide all of these identically, then price becomes part of the discussion. Start with price and you end up boxing yourself into an old- fashioned business structure. How often should organisations review their payroll software? SH: In the past I probably would have said every five to eight years. But I’d suggest it needs to be shorter than that nowadays. The reason is that technology is changing all the time, and changes are now happening so quickly that within three years you could be completely out of date. With payroll now, once you’ve made a decision and you’ve chosen the software, I’d say you should review it every three to five years to make sure that what you’re getting is still right for your environment and your requirements. You can have a perfectly serviceable product but there might be something out there that’s going to work better, faster or more efficiently, saving you time and increasing productivity. People think they have a routine and process that they’re running with and it works, but for some reason that particular process might take half a day, and there may be a better solution. It might not be payroll, but something that’s available alongside payroll, such as timesheets. And immediately, you might cut down your half a day to five or ten minutes. Unless you’re out there looking, you’re not going to realise that. What surprises me in the payroll market is there are people who have been using the same product for the last fifteen years and they won’t look anywhere else. To use the analogy of a car, fifteen years ago it would have had a cassette player. Nowadays you can’t even get a car with a CD player. If you’re using a product that’s ten or fifteen years old, it would have been built at a time when all software was bought in a box, and you loaded it from CDs onto your computer. So, for you to have some more modern-day applications in your product, whether it be the ability to do faster Bacs, or timesheet calculations, or linking with human resources (HR) systems, they’ve been built onto a platform that wasn’t intended to have those facilities in the first place. So it’s like having a ten- or fifteen- year-old car and taking out the cassette
player and replacing it with a DAB radio, and taking out the old speakers and fitting new ones, but they’re not going to look or sound as good as those in new cars that have just come off the production floor, because they would have been built purposely to have those facilities.
are likely to have moved on since they last did a review, with considerations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Competition is also moving on apace. In the last three years, most accountants have made a significant move to cloud accounting and the early adopters are now moving to solutions where they can provide fully integrated cloud solutions from timesheet entry, through payroll to posting their journals. How does your existing spreadsheet and desktop functionality compete with that? Do you want to compete with that? Similarly, skilled payroll professionals are at a premium like never before and removing manual data input tasks can reduce burden and help retain and attract staff on more competitive salaries. Having a defined list of non-negotiable business-critical functions and negotiable ideal requirements means the selection process will be significantly clearer and more focused. Practically, ask questions like: Does moving to the cloud remove a layer of unnecessary and inefficient internal IT support requirement? Does it improve your GDPR compliance? Can you reduce the number of different software solutions you operate? Can you reduce manual intervention such as transcribing timesheets and manually posting journals? Can your payroll team be liberated to focus on more interesting and profitable tasks? How important is integration with other functions, such as HR? SH: There are providers out there that claim to have a combined payroll and HR solution, with the whole thing as one. There could be an argument as to which one they are specialists in. Are they specialists in the HR arena or the payroll arena? Or are they really specialists in both? But I think integration is far more important today than it’s ever been. It’s really important nowadays that solutions have the ability to interlink with other products, no matter what they are. CD: The proliferation of standalone HR software in the UK for small to medium businesses would be the worst indictment of UK businesses, were it not for the proliferation of businesses managing leave
...important nowadays that
solutions have the ability to interlink
with other products...
CD: Ideally, organisations should be undertaking an annual check of the market, even when locked into longer term deals with their existing provider. The software market is going through a period of unprecedented change, with increasing numbers of suppliers launching fully cloud-based solutions with additional features. However, moving software is always a challenge for an organisation, with implementation, training and internal culture considerations, so a full market review every three years seems reasonable, even if the end result is to stay with the existing software. Any longer than that and an organisation risks being left behind. What are the important considerations when switching systems? SH: The first thing would be to have a very good project leader. They don’t necessarily need to know about payroll, but they need to know how to run a project, how to help you ensure you do all the things in the right order to get the task complete. The larger the payroll, the more important the project leader becomes. I also think it’s important to make a complete list of all the things you do on your payroll. That way, the people implementing the new system can ensure it’s set up correctly according to your requirements. CD: Before looking to switch systems, organisations should map out their existing requirements and, equally importantly, their short- to medium-term requirements. Regulatory and business considerations
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Issue 49 | April 2019
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
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