Providing payroll services to business clients is a highly attractive and profitable avenue for any bookkeeper looking to expand and attract more customers.
As the industry evolves, doing payroll work using cloud products has become the norm for business owners and bookkeepers alike.
In bookkeeping, it’s therefore prudent to not only offer a wide array of payroll services but to ensure you have requisite cloud-based software knowledge and skills as well.
Why do businesses look for payroll services from bookkeepers?
Business owners often find that the entire admin-laden payroll process takes an unacceptable amount of time and energy.
On top of the sheer workload, doing payroll is compliance heavy. If done incorrectly, businesses not only risk having issues with employees but penalties from government departments as well.
For these reasons, businesses of all shapes and sizes look to outsource their payroll to bookkeepers, accountants, and other business advisors, presenting a fantastic business opportunity.
A fresh look at managing payroll in the era of Single Touch Payroll (STP)
Like general bookkeeping, payroll is quite literally an ancient practice that has evolved significantly over the centuries. Now, in modern times, cloud software is the accounting tool that needs to be understood and utilised to its fullest in payroll processes.
Desktop and other manual processes are out now that STP is in place. It’s every Australian business’s responsibility to be reporting payroll to the ATO via STP-enabled payroll software. This is now mandatory, but luckily there are several more advantages to cloud payroll – largely collaboration, simplicity, automation, and accuracy.
Payroll processes and needs vary according to business size
Many larger employers will look to bookkeepers for a full payroll service, to completely manage the task on their behalf.
Other small business clients will prefer to hire a bookkeeper only for certain tricky or time-consuming aspects of payroll and do the rest themselves. In the latter scenario especially, your client will likely be using payroll or accounting software to do the basics.
This means, as a bookkeeper or advisor, you’ll need to be able to work with their chosen cloud payroll solution. (It’s easy to see why becoming accredited in various payroll software on the market can prove to be an extremely good investment.)
Being proficient with different brands of payroll software, you can maximise your potential to engage new clients and offer tailored and knowledgeable services.
What are cloud payroll services?
To help solve their pain points and gain regular business for yourself, let’s look at some of the most common cloud payroll services you can offer business clients.
Cloud-specific payroll services offered by bookkeepers in Australia typically involve using cloud-based software to assist businesses in managing their payroll processes more efficiently. Hosted on cloud platforms, these services allow easy access and collaboration between businesses and bookkeepers. Some of the common cloud-specific payroll services bookkeepers offer include:
- STP-enabled software selection: Assistance and advice when it comes to purchasing payroll software and setting up mandatory STP reporting.
- Payroll processing: Handling the entire payroll process on behalf of the business clients; including calculating wages, deductions, taxes, and superannuation contributions for each pay run.
- Payslip generation: Generating and distributing digital payslips to employees securely through the cloud payroll system.
- Leave entitlements and management: Managing employee leave entitlements, accruals, and balances within the software, making it easier for both the business and employees to track and manage leave.
- Superannuation compliance: Ensuring superannuation contributions are accurately calculated and paid on time, as per the legal requirements in Australia.
- Tax compliance: Support in complying with payroll tax regulations, ensuring accurate tax information and timely submissions.
- Employee onboarding and offboarding: Managing employee records and facilitating the onboarding process, as well as processing final pay and terminating employees when necessary.
- Reporting: Generating various payroll reports, such as payment summaries, payroll tax reports, and employee expense reports, to provide businesses with valuable insights.
- Cloud Integration: Integrating a client’s cloud payroll system with other cloud-based accounting software or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, to streamline data flow and reduce manual data entry.
- Data security: Ensuring the security and privacy of payroll data and implementing best practices and encryption methods to protect sensitive information.
- Payroll compliance updates: Staying up to date with changes in payroll legislation and regulations in Australia to ensure your client’s business remains compliant.
By offering such payroll services, bookkeepers can assist businesses to focus on their core operations and put their energy elsewhere, while ensuring that payroll processes are efficient, accurate, and compliant.
The benefits of using cloud payroll software
One of the standout takeaways from cloud software is the ability for a bookkeeper or advisor to access their client’s payroll information, via their software, from anywhere. As a trusted bookkeeper, you can run the entire process or use the timesheet inputs that the employer has entered, and then use that data to complete various other payroll-related tasks.
This single source of truth and ‘anytime/anywhere’ functionality of being cloud-based means that no matter the level of payroll service you’re undertaking, it can be completed with accuracy and minimal fuss.
