Organizing 101: Maintaining and Keeping Payroll Records

As your business grows, so does your manpower.

This is especially true if you have started hiring and accepting a lot of employees.

Along with the employees, of course,  are piles of paperwork that go with them.

This will include their personal information, timesheets, pay information,  deductions, leave records,  and so much more.

But if you are like most startup companies, an administrative assistant may be nonexistent just yet , even more so, an HR Specialist.

You just have to do it yourself.

And how do you cope with this magnanimous task of maintaining and organizing payroll records when you’re in charge?

What is the best approach to managing employee recordkeeping as your business and its manpower grows?

As manpower is the lifeblood of any organization, payroll records keep them afloat and  intact as they thrive to earn a living.

Part of Human Resource management  is to keep and maintain employees’ payroll records responsibly and with utmost care and safety. 

What are payroll records? 

These are all the important documents pertaining to payroll that businesses must record, keep, maintain and organize for each employee that they hire in the course of their tenure.

Payroll records will include pay rates, total compensation, tax deductions, benefit contributions, hours worked and more. 

What documents comprise payroll records?

The documents that usually make up payroll records are the following:

• Personal Information of Employee

This record consists of the employees’ addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, bank detail information, emergency contact details, date of birth, occupation, Social Security numbers etc. 

• Employment Information

This would include anything under the employee’s record of employment in the company such as: offer letters, employment data, status of employment whether full time or part time, background and reference checks, signed company policies and handbooks, performance evaluations, and resignation or termination information. 

• Timesheets

This record would include regular hours, overtime hours rendered and hours worked on a daily basis and workweek as well as  pay period and cut-off dates.

• Tax documents

Includes tax forms and tax return copies and tax withholding certificates.

• Employee Pay information

This record would include rate of pay, the beginning workweek and ending workdates, the total hours rendered at work, payment agreement as well as the employee’s mode of payment like hourly, through monthly salary,  through commission basis and others and the employee’s classification. 

• Employee Deduction information

This record would include benefit deductions, personal and company loans, deferred payment plans and compensation information.

Easy HR helps your HR team manage employees through robust record-keeping and payroll functions.

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Easy HR helps your HR team manage employees through robust record-keeping and payroll functions.

Click to Learn More.

• Employee Paid and Unpaid leave records

This will cover paid vacation time balances and paid sick leave credits. 

• Bank information

This would comprise banks names, account numbers and routing numbers. 

• Pay records

Includes payroll registers and other documentation with payroll details, such as pay period beginning and ending dates, payment date, and type of wage payments (i.e., regular, overtime, tip credit, bonuses, commission, paid leave time, etc.)

• Reimbursement forms

This record contains expense reports for work travel, office supplies,  travel allowances,  per diem etc.

Imagine all these payroll records mish-mashed together in cabinets, folders and files?

Can you actually just pull out one record without batting an eyelash?

Aside from organization problems that may soon arise, storage and space is a major concern as your manpower grows. 

If you prefer to keep hard copies, you also need a physical means of safe storage, such as a fireproof lock box.

But you are not assured of its accessibility at all times.

Say for instance during the Covid 19 pandemic.

How can you access payroll records quickly while in a lockdown?

In worst case scenarios, there has to be a backup plan when all else fails.

Spreadsheets, notes, and other ways to keep these payroll records are no longer workable and sufficient. 

No matter how skilled and equipped the employees in the HR department are, and no matter how careful and meticulous they organize their work, there will come a time  when they get weary. 

Because of this, many organizations have realized the need to store their payroll records digitally either in a cloud based HR and payroll software or using external hard drives. 

Although payroll records can be managed manually as mentioned above, using HRIS and payroll systems through the cloud is generally more in sync with the fast paced lifestyle.  

HRIS also has built-in standard reports that makes it easy for HR payroll officers to organize and maintain payroll records.

It is also easily integratable with the existing other platforms.

It provides documentation necessary to support compliance updates each time payroll is up and running.

Aside from record-keeping,  HRIS makes managing employees, policies, and processes easy, efficient, accessible, and accurate.

It is also user-friendly and environment friendly. 

However, at the end of the day,  maintaining and organizing payroll records is ultimately the responsibility of employers.

Payroll records are important because they contain valuable data about wages and taxes that can help businesses create better budgets and help manage labor expenses.

Keeping and maintaining these  documents is also useful to employees who may need payroll records to verify proof of manpower for several  reasons, such as real estate property rental or a loan application.

Stop doing inefficient ways of organizing  and keeping payroll records.

Provide a much easier and stress-free life to your HR department with a cloud based HR and payroll software. 

Make it easier with EasyHR.

See and experience for yourself.

Register for a free trial through: https://human-incubator.com/easy-hr/

Easy HR helps your HR team manage employees through robust record-keeping and payroll functions.

Click to Learn More.

Easy HR helps your HR team manage employees through robust record-keeping and payroll functions.

Click to Learn More.