Many nonprofit leaders may be unaware of the various tools and solutions offered by payroll providers. In addition to paying your organization’s employees on time, a good payroll system should offer time tracking for hourly employees, flexible pay periods, PTO tracking, and benefit management. With the right payroll system, you can save time and streamline your payroll process.
Whether you’re looking for a new payroll provider or trying to make the most of your current system, there are a few key areas to consider.
Timekeeping
Did you know that most payroll systems can act as a time card for your hourly employees? When an employee enters their start and end times directly into the payroll software, it calculates the hours the employee should be paid. No more Excel spreadsheets or other labor-intensive tracking methods! Then when payroll is processed, the administrator merely needs to sync the time cards, and voila! Your employees are automatically paid for the hours they logged into the system.
Flexible Pay Periods
Some nonprofits have pay periods that end on the same day that paychecks are deposited. But while this may work for salaried employees, it can cause difficulty for hourly employees. If your nonprofit has a mix of hourly and salaried employees, you may want to see if your payroll system allows you to create different pay periods for different types of employees. This will give hourly employees enough time to record all of their hours prior to the cut-off time for processing payroll.
PTO Tracking
If you’re keeping track of employee PTO in an Excel spreadsheet, there’s a better way! Manual PTO tracking can be cumbersome and may lead to mistakes. Most payroll systems allow you to set up different leave policies for paid time off, sick leave, parental leave, maternity leave, and more. You can set parameters for when an employee earns the time; how much they can accrue or carry over into the next year; any increases in accrued time for an anniversary year; and how much time needs to be paid out at termination. It is very easy to manage and can take the stress out of manually tracking PTO after every pay period.
Benefit Management
In addition to your typical health, dental, and vision benefits, your payroll software should also make it easy for you to manage your employees’ 401(k), commuter benefits, HSA, FSA, life insurance, and any other benefits your organization offers. You can enter the employee portion as well as the employer portion into the payroll system. Entering the employer portion does not trigger a payment – it merely shows up on the employee’s paystub, so they can see what their employer is contributing towards that particular benefit.
Payroll is so much more than just getting paychecks out the door. Use your payroll software to its fullest potential to help you manage all the aspects of paying your employees properly.