How Can A Payroll System Help Boost The Efficiency Of SMEs?

Although payroll systems may be obvious and simple, they’re rarely thought of unless something goes wrong. Yet, tracking employees’ pay, pension payments, tax contributions, and bonuses, while also ensuring that salary payments are made regularly and on time, is vital to maintaining staff morale, not to mention maintaining effective business operations. 

Businesses that are in the process of expanding and that are considering further automation need to bear in mind how their payroll system will work at scale across their organisation. A system that is highly functional when only managing a small number of employees may not necessarily scale up well for use by a larger organisation.

The evaluation of the processes involved in payroll management also involves taking a closer look at the other workstreams that surround payments. As an example, a business may want to integrate elements such as holidays, time tracking, and performance management together with their payroll data.

Furthermore, the requirements of HMRC must be considered too. Records of pension contributions, payslips, NI payments and taxable benefits may have to be produced regularly and on request, and penalties will be applied if filings take place late, not to mention interest capitalisation should they remain unresolved.

Making sure of payroll compliance also couldn’t be more important, especially as HMRC now has a requirement that payroll information is no longer submitted in arrears but in real-time. 

Payment technology trends have also played a key role in this sector, with payment aggregators, real-time accounting, and APIs having initiated the move from a payroll only system to that of organisational management.

Like many types of enterprise management softwares, payroll software has now undergone an upgrade to the cloud, and with this shift to cutting-edge technologies, payroll has seen a move from the back office to being a services provider for the entire company.

Strategic Partnership Benefits

SMEs will be able to take advantage of a brand-new offering that allows them to take control of payments while moving away from the traditional bank. Caxton, a digital payment service provider, has just launched its first ever product for payroll payments.

With Caxton Payments acting as a platform for Service API, it’s possible to easily and quickly integrate new services for payment into core products. Thanks to a partnership with bookkeeping software, SMEs will also be able to address their significant burden from inefficient existing payment processes.

With a service that is fully integrated, there is a reliable, simple, and speedy alternative to having to process payments through corporate banking and traditional business.  

Cutting-Edge Technology

For many years now, Excel has been the bane of companies both small and large, with issues with version control, manual inputs and macros making it difficult to depend on when undertaking sensitive processes. 
These days, many payroll bureaus, owners of small businesses, and accountants manage the payments they make to suppliers and employees in a process that is often extremely manual and involves the transference of insecure files between different systems and software solutions.

Payroll bureaus and accounts that handle the process on several clients’ behalf across several bank accounts typically find the process manually intensive, error prone, and time-consuming. For any third parties that receive payroll instructions, this problem is especially acute. Therefore, the opportunity for Caxton to introduce its new technology into the marketplace has never been more ripe.

Once reserved solely for “big boys” in finance and banking, FinTechs have now emerged that are taking advantage of the current payment architecture. The innovative technology harnessed by Caxton is opening up fresh avenues for all SMEs, with the “sandbox” of API allowing developers to precisely tailor software to meet different needs, thus empowering Caxton’s clients to directly make changes or to harmonies with their existing software.

Essential for all finance firms, straight-through processing or STP is standard for making payments. Payments can be automated by Caxton, and since it’s a CHAPS, Faster, Bacs, MasterCard and SWIFT payment system member, it can live up to its promise of one platform for every payment. 

The Importance Of FinTech

Reforms in Open Banking together with the fact that APIs are now accepted across the traditional networks such as SWIFT mean that new opportunities within the field of enterprise payments have now been presented, and companies now have more choice of payment providers, analysis, and aggregation.

When choosing a software provider, every company must bear in mind the platform’s data security, as well as how it will integrate with their own internal procedures and policies for data protection. This has never been more crucial since GDPR has now been implemented.

Managing The Basics

Perhaps the most essential aspect of any business is its ability to pay its suppliers and employees. Business growth plans and necessities must be taken into account alongside the new technologies that are available when choosing the best kind of payroll systems to implement.

Although a lot of companies are still operating their payroll software system in silos, many SMEs are now keen to optimise the processes they use, and expect transparency, data analysis, and automation.

Accountants and customers alike will be able to reap even greater benefits from being able to see payments in real-time, and being able to reconcile payment data seamlessly into payroll and accounting products so that tracking and managing audit activity trails relating to outgoing and incoming payments and gaining complete control over a key element of their company becomes possible. 

One Platform – One Attractive Offering

It’s clear that SME demand can rapidly outstrip the services that standalone providers can provide. That’s why bigger companies are increasingly looking towards integrated payroll and HR software across their whole enterprise.

The payment technology offered by Caxton is especially attractive since it comes under one platform. Customers are able to open multiple payment accounts and make payments at any time they wish. No longer will they have to switch between software applications in order to complete the task.

Through the enablement of our accountant partners and SME customers to directly automate their key financial processes from the products we offer, we’re able to not only meet but exceed expectations, saving time on vital administrative processes, improving data security, reducing costs, and taking full control of money flow through this innovative software.

Caxton Payments is an alternative to traditional banks, established over 20 years, we help businesses make faster payments more reliably. We offer streamlined processes, automation through API and a collaborative solution to complex payment issues all from a single platform. Our payment capability extends from business expense management, to payroll payments, supplier payments, and currency risk management. We also offer personal prepaid travel cards and international money transfer.