Blanch warns of hidden costs in the marketplace. "Large providers can charge you for space on their system for terminated employees. If a company has 40 employees and five leave, and another five are hired, some suppliers still charge you for the five employees who have left to sit on their system," says Blanch. "Also, make sure the supplier is specialised in this area. Some people employ data entry staff to handle your payroll, and you are not getting what you are paying for," she says.
The benefits, according to Blanch, far outweigh any risks. "Organisations can ensure their staff are getting the right pay, are paying superannuation correctly, and be better equipped to report to management, which is not offered in small accounting packages," she says.
Debbie Mills store manager at online pharmacy OZePharmacy, which has 70 staff, has found the outsourcing of the payroll function to PayLogic a boon.
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"Prior to working with PayLogic we had an individual person running our payroll using software package MYOB but she made a total hash of it," says Mills. "Our superannuation and annual leave were not calculated properly, so if staff deviated from normal hours, or took holidays, their pay was incorrect," she adds.
At the beginning of the last financial year PayLogic took over the OZePharmacy account, on a pay-per-employee basis. "Pay slips are now easy to read, more securely sealed, and the reporting system is far superior to any other we have seen," says Mills. "It's more cost effective because we are portraying a more professional image and the reporting system is right," she adds.
Entity Solutions is another company offering outsourced payroll services alongside management services such as contractor management. You can either outsource, or self manage your payroll, using Entity's own software which is called Profit Enhancer. According to Entity's CEO Matthew Franceschini, the range of customers is quite broad, from five to 10 employees right up to those that have 300 staff. Customers choose the level of outsourcing they require.
"We offer a variety of services which means customers might access a database we have set up, or put in their own information, and in the meantime save buying the software themselves," says Franceschini. The service, like most on the market, work on a "per person per pay" model.
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