The Novice’ Guide To Changing Payroll System
September 28, 2015
At certain stages of your business’ development, you may have to upgrade a number of internal systems to better facilitate the progress of the company.
At certain stages of your business’ development, you may have to upgrade a number of internal systems to better facilitate the progress of the company. Change is inevitable for even the most stable business processes, and payroll systems are no exception. But the change process doesn’t have to be intimidating, and you don’t have to be an expert in the field to solve it with ease, either. In fact, a lot of businesses, big or small, have already been successful in migrating to better, more developed and well-equipped payroll systems and thus move their businesses forward. If they can do it, why can’t you? Follow the suggestions below to help you through the change process safe and sound.
1. Ask the core question: Why change?
Start not with what, but why – because that’s where your real demands are directly addressed. Why do you want to change your current payroll system? Why aren’t you satisfied with it? List out all the reasons you may come up with; it could be that the current one is too slow, too costly, involving potential risks, or that it’s no longer compatible to other updated business processes of your company. Whatever it is, get clear on your motivation for changing your probably working payroll system. You can get a bigger picture after clarifying and organizing those ideas and opinions, and discuss with others on whether they are reasonable enough to make the shift.
2. Prioritize
After evaluating the necessity of upgrading your payroll system, you may have a list of the most important things to look for in a new one. The next step is to define them in terms of priority. Your list might be lengthy with a lot of things you want to include in the new pay roll system, while your limited resources might not correspond even roughly to it, so it’s better to be selective and pick the most essential ones to take in.
It is also worth noting that, even if you may pride yourself on knowing the whole company inside out, it’s critically important to prioritize your list based not just on guesses, estimation or speculation, but rather, on calculations and figures, since assumptions can at times be misleading. Do an internal research to find the numbers. Make those on the top of the list as countable as possible.
Also, remember to prioritize the list based on your potential future needs as well. You probably have understood by now that changing a payroll system is somehow costly and takes a little while before things are ideally settled, so you wouldn’t want to make another change just in a couple of months, would you? Carefully assessing what the future holds for your business and how your new payroll system fits in can be of great importance. Take a look at the most popular factors that a good payroll system should contain to have further help for deciding which ones to keep on the list.
3. Select an optimal solution
This step could be a little tricky for beginners. How do you know if it’s an optimal payroll system for your business? Since such systems are more often than not rather complex and demanding in specialized capabilities, it is not easy for a novice to master the whole one overnight. If you’re not absolutely confident with your decision in this, then seeking an experienced and trustworthy third party for consultation is a wise choice. They can help you migrating smoothly into the new chosen system and give options on the optimal customized payroll system within your budget.
Much as an outdated payroll system can undermine your business’ success, a suitable, upgraded one can help the key HR processes of your company run more smoothly and productively. Practically speaking, it is not easy, but not too daunting, either. Consider carefully the above and you’ll be half way there already.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact our Payroll outsoucing in Vietnam.