A global team spanning dozens of locations around the world needs a globally integrated system for their business to survive and thrive. That’s an unavoidable fact, but many companies are still trying to find ways to make their square peg (their unintegrated global payroll systems) fit into a round hole (efficiency and scalability).
The Square Peg: Unintegrated Systems
The reality is: an environment without integration is an environment where you won’t be able to scale your processes as your business grows. A lack of integration means having multiple systems in place to complete the central task of payroll services, including an HCM or HRIS system to maintain employee data, a finance and/or accounting system and separate time clock system to track attendance. The “square peg” in this instance is when these systems are not connected. Each of these systems has to be separately operated and maintained, and since they all require a similar dataset, your company is wasting precious time and resources essentially fulfilling the same task of data entry over and over again. In an integrated environment, these systems would be able to “speak” to each other and work seamlessly together.
Another issue that arises in unintegrated global payroll systems is the lack of standardized global processes. Without any kind of global guidelines to follow, local payroll has to create their own, following their own procedures in their own languages and with their own reporting methods. Trying to organize such a fragmented payroll system on a global scale has its obvious obstacles to overcome, and when you add in the problem of manual processes, the endeavor becomes almost impossible.
With the existence of disparate systems operating to make your global payroll process work, employees end up with huge manual workloads that demand their time and resources to complete. Country-specific requirements, currencies, languages and processes add up to a lot of paperwork needing completion. The costs of all this paperwork and of employee time spent completing it and maintaining accurate records adds up over time, and your company must account for these costs when you decide not to integrate your global payroll.
The risk for inaccuracies and compliance issues grows for your business as employees contend with more complex processes in an unintegrated payroll system. The larger and more disorganized the data that manual payroll systems must handle, the greater the likelihood that employees will make mistakes. Having a few small errors here and there is not the end of the world, but when these issues result in incomplete pay data or employees not being paid on time, that can make your company noncompliant with business regulations as well as some very unhappy employees. The prevalence of such problems can hurt your company in a number of ways, such as reputationally or legally.
If all these issues exist in your company, any future plans you may have to grow and expand your business will be filled with unnecessary struggles and complications. In order to create an environment where you can reach your business goals, you first need to make global payroll integration a priority.
The Benefits of Global Payroll Integration
Integrating your systems will save you from the inefficiencies and inaccuracies detailed above that you’ve no doubt experienced. Across all your systems – HR, Finance, Accounting, Timekeeping – data will only need to be entered once, saving you time, money and other resources.
The benefits of an integrated global payroll reach far beyond greater efficiency and ease of use, though. Integration can lead to better global performance and open up more opportunities to scale. Below, we outline the benefits you can expect from streamlining your global payroll through integration.
Improved Productivity
An integrated system allows you to restore productivity to your business processes by relieving your employees of the heavy, manual workloads they endured in an unintegrated payroll system. Integrated payroll only requires initial data entry, streamlining the process and freeing your payroll professionals up to complete other tasks and responsibilities. System integration lessens the number of touchpoints your employees need to manage. Instead of employing people around the world to handle disorganized systems and cumbersome processes, you can optimize your workforce by moving your staff into more strategic analytical roles and cutting overall staffing costs.
Streamlined Process
By integrating all of your systems, you will finally be able to unify your global payroll process. All local, regional and corporate teams will be able to access payroll data in a standardized format within a centralized repository to help keep everything organized and to simplify reporting in the future. Senior management also have a better understanding of the entire global payroll process due to the insights an integrated system provides them. Knowledge of payroll processes from the local all the way to the international level will give them confidence in the business to set goals and scale.
Accurate Data Input
Global payroll integration ensures that all of your data is transferred to your payroll provider without unnecessary and repetitive data entry. By providing a clear pathway between data from your HCM/HRIS, finance and accounting systems to your payroll, errors are much less likely to occur, and you can be certain the system is meeting compliance standards. Your payroll professionals will be more productive when they don’t have to spend so much time hunting down and amending mistakes.
Faster Onboarding
As a growing enterprise, integrating payroll helps you expand at a faster rate by easing the onboarding process for both new employees and your HR. New employees mean a lot of new data to enter, but in a fully integrated system, that data entry only needs to happen once. This means your company will be able to meet the fast turnaround times for newly minted members of your workforce or those that are changing positions.
Better Reporting and Analytics
Reporting and analytics on an unintegrated system is nearly impossible. There are no centralized, global reporting processes in place, so instead, you receive a variety of reports in a variety of languages and formats, making them difficult to compare and aggregate. Having a single, secure location to store your payroll data will finally allow you to run more comprehensive reporting and analytics on your global processes. You can instantly access both present and historical data on payments and deductions. Through review, analysis and reporting, you’ll have the ability to optimize and standardize your global payroll and accounting procedures.
Reduced Environmental and Delivery Costs
No matter the type or size of the company, we are all trying to find ways to leave a smaller environmental footprint, and as you grow that challenge only grows with you. By adopting an integrated payroll system, your business can move away from the wastefulness of manual processes, especially paperwork. With all payroll data stored in a secure, cloud-based location, employees can receive their payments digitally and access their current and historical data instantly. This integrated system is more beneficial for everyone including employers who need a more streamlined and cost-effective approach to payroll management, employees who want to receive their payments on time and conveniently, and the environment which will appreciate your company’s reduction of unnecessary waste.
Rounding Off the Square Peg
If you’re wondering if you can survive without properly integrating your many systems, the answer is yes. At least, for a while. As your company expands, the manual input will continue to increase, and you will eventually hit your ceiling. Payroll system integration is the solution to rounding out that square peg, getting rid of pre-payroll processes and ad-hoc manual intervention, creating a thriving company that can continue to expand and meet ambitious goals.
To learn how your global business can reap the benefits listed above, request a demo with iiPay and see for yourself what global payroll integration can look like for you.
