Small Business Guide to Outsourcing Payroll

While occasional errors are bound to happen, payroll experts are also particularly good at verifying accurate data, finding mistakes, and correcting them before penalties what is par value of a bond or fines are assessed. Look for a PEO with both extensive international experience and robust integrations with your existing software. This scalability eliminates the need for additional investments in HR infrastructure, enabling your team to focus on your core operations. Using a full-service solution that combines payroll, HR, and more in one platform—like Deel does—will provide even more valuable insights. With many services you will pay a monthly fee plus a per employee fee.

What Is Payroll Outsourcing?

Alternatively, to make things easier again, you can simply partner with an all-in-one global HR provider, like Remote, and have everything under one roof. "Our CSM — in fact, the whole Remote team — are clear when they offer guidance. I’m not a native English speaker, and the style of communication is so pleasant. I don’t feel alone in the process." When a company keeps everything internal, these types of risks tend to go down.

Whether you have three employees or 30, having to track every employee’s pay rate, hours, and employee status can be stressful and can lead to inaccuracies. Additionally, understanding employee deductions for federal, state, and local taxes — as well as programs like Social Security and Medicare — can be challenging. These mistakes can lead to audits and penalties — situations no business wants or needs. According to the IRS, audits on 1,014,090 businesses resulted in the assessment of civil penalties totaling over $3.4 billion in fiscal year 2022. Even if these errors are caught before they are submitted, they can still cause countless hours of reprocessing employee paychecks and tax returns.

How to choose the right payroll outsourcing partner

This is why you need to pick a payroll partner with ironclad security. Your partner should use encrypted systems, follow the strictest data security practices, and comply with all relevant data protection laws (like GDPR in Europe or the CCPA in California). Remote ticks all these boxes, and is in line with GDPR, SOC 2, and ISO27001 standards. This is why it’s absolutely crucial to do your homework and partner with a payroll provider that is proven, reliable, and trustworthy. Payroll software is a tool that helps you manage payroll yourself.

What are the benefits of payroll outsourcing services?

It may also lead to a hard time complying with the IRS or labor laws, and employees may experience frustration due to long wait times for paychecks. The cost of outsourcing payroll can depend on several factors, including your business’s payroll schedule, the size of your business, and your exact payroll needs. If you decide to help streamline your payroll process using payroll software, you can spend as little as $22.50 per month. Outsourced payroll companies typically offer online portals where employees can view their take-home pay, benefits, and tax deductions. Directing them there rather than to a live support center is a great way to reduce corporate spending.

If a company is outsourcing internationally, it shouldn’t assume that it can ignore employment regulations in the provider’s country, as these can be very different from those in the United States. In many cases, companies outsource payroll because they’ve determined it to be more cost-effective than managing payroll in-house. This has historically been one of the main incentives for any kind of outsourcing, and payroll functions are no exception. A professional payroll company employs individuals who know payroll processing inside and out. These individuals specialize in the complexities of payroll processing and taxes. It’s what they’re trained to do and part of the service they provide.

When evaluated on a per-payroll period or a monthly basis, a time/cost analysis may well demonstrate the benefits of working with a payroll service provider. Payroll outsourcing also enables globally dispersed organizations to save money if they use one global payroll provider. Hiring and paying employees in multiple countries requires more payroll administrators and legal advisors. Typically, outsourcing payroll services costs less than creating an in-house payroll department. Keeping up with compliance laws in one region requires a lot of time and expertise.

1. That’s in addition to functionality covering recruitment and onboarding, headcount planning, learning management, performance management, compliance and even employee experience.
2. Payroll errors can be costly, and serious ones can even shut a business down.
3. Don’t forget to ask about the costs for additional services such as human resources support, multiple state filings, or global payroll options, if you need them.
4. That can simplify accounting processes like expense management and streamline your cash flow.

Wondering whether the benefits of outsourcing payroll could help your company? Since payroll and tax responsibilities can be time-consuming and complicated — yet essential — busy owners are increasingly looking to outsource these functions. It’s vital to complete tax-related tasks accurately and make payments on time, whether to the state or your employees.