Cloud payroll: dawn of new era

There are, says payroll expert Shelley Costello, three big reasons for New Zealand small-to-medium enterprises to migrate payroll systems to the cloud: people problems, trust and legislation.

Those three factors can cost companies an enormous amount of time, money and stress. Costello, the New Zealand product specialist for international cloud-based work management and payroll platform KeyPay, says many such businesses are exposed and vulnerable.

“I can’t put a number on it but there are a lot of companies out there who need help, even if they don’t always realize it – and that help can save them a lot of time, money and heartache.”

KeyPay’s established payroll system has seen the firm gather a client base of more than 200,000 businesses and expansion into the United Kingdom, Singapore and Malaysia – and Costello says KeyPay’s advantage is that their software is built by payroll specialists for payroll specialists.

Inadequate payroll management is likely widespread in New Zealand SMEs – and these small-to-medium firms have long been recognized as the backbone of the Kiwi economy; 97 per cent of all New Zealand businesses have 20 employees or less – and those 480,000 small-to-medium businesses provide employment for roughly a third of all Kiwis and about 29 per cent of our GDP.

But the problem for many, when it comes to payroll, is that they do not have payroll specialists, says Costello: “I am not being critical; of course SMEs have to be careful with staffing numbers and the like – but you often find that SMEs have asked a PA or an accounts person to take on payroll on top of their day-to-day responsibilities.

“The problem is that these people have usually been trained by the previous incumbent, who was also a part-time payroller, as opposed to a specialist. They don’t know what they don’t know – and the risks are real for those companies.”

For example, overpaying or underpaying employees over a period of time can be costly, not just financially but in terms of morale, stress and brand reputation.

“Many companies have payroll software,” says Costello, “but the people they have looking after it tend to ‘set and forget’. They set the settings of the software – and that’s it. Payroll software needs constant reviews and changes made.”

It’s important for payrollers to know all the “ins and outs” of the software, functions that can provide accuracy and in-depth curation. Desktop software (not connected to the cloud) was exposed when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, she says, with many companies paying out to migrate payroll software to the cloud so people could work from home during lockdowns.

“KeyPay’s system is already in the cloud – so it is pandemic-proof and you can trust it,” she says. “What we mean by ‘built by payroll professionals for payroll professionals’ is that it’s people like me, with 27 years in payroll in New Zealand, who brief the software developers so they know what to include in the software to ensure compliance.

“There’s a lot of good software out there but not many have had the specs designed by payroll professionals, as KeyPay’s has been. The developers are very good – but they’re not payroll professionals either, so how do they know what the software needs?”
Costello says the issue of trust is still common in New Zealand – both from companies who have not yet migrated to cloud-based software and those yet to find credible software.

The latter, she says, have difficulty trusting software after reading about payroll glitches affecting government departments and big corporations in recent years: “They’ve seen things like the Novopay problem a few years ago and corporate payroll errors since then. These are big-budget outfits spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, and they are having to cope with big, expensive errors.

“The SMEs look at that and think, ‘Well, if they can’t get it right, there’s not much point us trying to’ and they don’t realize they are putting themselves in jeopardy. Systems like KeyPay’s are so easy to use and are transparent; they can take a daunting, time-consuming task and address everyday pain points for SMEs.”

Companies often don’t trust their existing software to do its job, or doubt claims that it is compliant with payroll legislation, she says: “Behind every good payroll system has to be an experienced payroll professional, who knows how to get the best out of the technology. But if the payroll system requires a lot of manual work to meet compliance, this is a huge strain on the payroller’s time.”

KeyPay’s unique value for SMEs lies in its ability to correctly interpret and manage entitlements such as leave – thanks to payroll specialists like herself, dedicated to making payroll easier.

A key upcoming event, she says, is the government’s decision to amend the Holidays Act – a complex piece of legislation which drew stern criticism from many businesses when it came to interpreting and administering it. The amendments, supposed to be discussed early next year, are designed to make it simpler.

However, Costello says the changes – up to 22 have been mooted – will require businesses to make many changes to their payroll systems – and urged companies to start moving to a KeyPay solution now: “Why wait until there is a time of change? Do it now.”

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