Transform your payroll for construction

Within the next five years, ninety-five percent of all workloads will be in the cloud. Facing disruptions from job automation, talent shortages and remote work trends, advanced technologies and cloud computing is becoming the preferred way of doing business.

Human resources and payroll processes are not exempt. In fact, 56% of companies are redesigning their HR programs to leverage digital and mobile tools. With the cloud expected to grow significantly in the years to come, more and more companies will be turning to shifting toward cloud-based HR and payroll systems.

There’s no denying that construction payroll is just different and more complex. There are several unique challenges of construction payroll, including managing:

• Workers’ compensation
• Varying pay rates
• Mobile support needs
• Double time
• Amended collective bargaining agreements (CBAs)
• Time tracking for union employees
• Union classification codes

A payroll software for the construction industry needs to meet these unique challenges.

As construction companies shift towards cloud-based time tracking and payroll solutions, basic payroll solutions will not suffice. Rather, construction companies need to find top-tier construction payroll solutions that meet the specific needs of the construction industry.

Construction companies need a payroll software designed for the field, with customizations specific to the company and its union workers.

Here are must-have customizations for your construction payroll software:

Multiple labor classifications, pay rates and deductions: Paying a construction worker begins before their payroll shows up in their bank. But, to pay a union employee or contractor properly, individuals need to be processed carefully in accordance with their CBA. Find a construction payroll software that makes it simple to set up payroll information based on the worker’s position, time worked, deductions, taxes, and benefits. Also, be sure to find a construction payroll solution that offers unlimited classifications and job codes so that it can support your company adding different unions and their CBAs into the system.

Adds employees on the fly: Construction companies are often responsible for paying contractors who aren’t on their regular payroll. In fact, with construction companies, there often is no such thing as “regular” payroll. A construction payroll solution needs to accommodate your company’s new union employees for a specific job and be able to add those contractors into your payroll system quickly, easily, and accurately.

Complex union calculations: A construction payroll software should not rely on users to compute salaries, risking costly mistakes from manual errors. Instead, find a construction solution that simplifies calculating union payroll software with automatic calculations and formulas. With union payroll automation, you gain efficiency and remove the wasted time calculating wages, deductions, and fringe benefits. Find a construction payroll solution with good financial oversight that streamlines setups and provides different calculation options for union deductions and fringe benefits, including regular hours worked, double time and overtime.

Union payroll reporting: Did you know that submitting incorrect payroll amounts for taxes can result in penalties that range from 2%-15% of the total payroll? Beyond the penalties, being out of compliance regarding payroll laws can lead to lawsuits, unhappy unions and fines. It’s easy for contractors and construction companies to be overwhelmed keeping up with the demands to maintain compliance. In fact, it can be downright daunting to keep up with construction compliance. Beyond processing payroll for contractors, a payroll solution needs to help construction companies keep up with compliance. Gain a peace of mind with valuable construction reports and built-in compliance feature that double check your work for accuracy.

Time Tracking Capabilities: There’s no need to rely on bulky time clocks or waste unnecessary time manually entering hundreds or thousands of timecards collected across different construction sites. Make it easier for union employees to track their jobs with a mobile solution add-on or integration that allows employees to clock in, take breaks, and transfer between jobs or work sites. By adding this directly to a construction payroll software, companies can automatically process cloud-based time clocks from the field to their payroll solution.

What’s next

Partnering with the right construction payroll consultant can simplify and streamline your business operations — making your transformation to the cloud seamless. As a leading consulting firm for construction management solutions, CEM Business Solutions can help you bring all of your work processes into the cloud with innovative digital and field-ready solutions. More importantly, CEM Business Solutions can provide you with both a Construction-Specific Payroll Software and a Cloud-Based Solution that integrates multiple payment options, streamlines labor hours from the field and processes paychecks for contractors on time.