Tips to Generating Accurate Payroll Numbers

In today’s fragile workforce, you don’t want to lose employees because of avoidable payroll mistakes. According to the Workforce Institute at Kronos, nearly half of American workers will begin a new job search after two paycheck errors. Whether that’s not compensating employees for the correct number of hours, miscalculating payroll taxes or paying the wrong rate, payroll errors are a huge part of the employee experience. Some may argue that is the central part!

In an industry like construction, that means losing vital, high-demand workers as construction projects are in progress.

Here are some tips to generating accurate payroll so you can keep your employees happy — and your company free from costly penalties:

1. Classify workers correctly

In construction, it is crucial to classify workers correctly. Between the IRS and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), companies can get dinged and penalized for misclassifying workers and contractors. But, it’s pretty common to make this costly error. In fact, the National Employment Law Project reports that up to 30% of companies misclassify employees, resulting in penalties such as  back taxes, missed overtime pay, and fines. Solution: Utilize a construction payroll software that features flexibility and customizations to categorize workers properly.

2. Automate your payroll

Did you know that in 2020, the IRS assessed about $6 billion in employer penalties for companies miscalculating or missing payments on their employment taxes? Construction payroll services are tedious and lengthy as it is, but when they are done manually, it is easily susceptible to small errors that have costly consequences. Remove the challenges involved with construction payroll by automating your process. A construction payroll software without automated features won’t help you keep up with time-consuming payroll tasks. Instead, find a digital payroll system with automated calculations and can easily process benefits, deductions, and withholdings.

3. Integrate with time and attendance solutions

To accurately pay employees, you need to accurately track employees’ time. Integrated payroll systems improve the accessibility and accuracy of payroll data and reporting. With digital payroll timesheets automatically flowing into your construction payroll software, you can skip the double entry and feel confident that your data is up to date and accurate.

4. Bring the process directly to employees

Through an Employee Self-Service (ESS) portal within your construction payroll software, employees gain pay and benefit information directly at their fingertips. Employees can enter   time for approval, view paystubs, update their personal information, and submit paid time off (PTO) in a timely and cost-effective manner. ESS is an digital payroll tool that serves as a “one-stop-shop” for employees to access all things HR, including accessing older records, changing emergency contacts, reviewing policies and benefits and approving their timesheets prior to payroll being processed.

5. Backup your payroll

In today’s changing workforce, generating accurate payroll starts with digital payroll solutions that try and predict labor costs and generate detailed payroll reports so your company can make strategic payroll decisions. But, running payroll data on an unsecured system is risky and extremely discouraged. Instead, find a construction payroll software that runs on a trusted cloud that provides physical, infrastructure, and operational security. Running advanced payroll on the Azure cloud gives you the security you need PLUS instant access to payroll reports without exposing your employees or your company to legal liability.

How CEM Business Solutions can help

We offer construction-specific payroll and human-resource solutions that improve payroll services to your Union, certified or non-certified employees and simplify payroll management and self-service access.