3 Reasons You Need a Payroll Expert for Your Business

At first glance, payroll might seem relatively straightforward – just a matter of doing a few simple maths calculations! However, this is not a complete picture.

Payroll legislation is in fact quite complex – and even once you’ve determined and set up the correct payroll details for your workers, there can always be complexities that arise along the way.

 

Here are three examples that demonstrate why you might need expert help to keep your payroll on track.

 

1. COVID situations

As we all know, COVID has hardly been situation-normal! Many businesses have had to close down temporarily or permanently, and when this happens, the question of what to do about employees frequently comes up.

For example, let’s say your business premises has to shut down temporarily, due to an outbreak or a government direction. In this case, you need to be aware of your rights and obligations when it comes to your workers.

 

Here are some of the questions you may need to address:

• Can you stand down workers without pay? This would depend on certain conditions such as whether they could work from home or be usefully employed in another capacity.
• What happens if a public holiday occurs during the shutdown period? For example, are your workers are entitled to a day’s pay for this?
• Can workers draw on their accrued leave (if they have any) during the shutdown? You also need to know what types of leave might apply here as well.
• Are you obliged to pay workers that are in quarantine or self-isolation?

 

On top of the above, there may also be additional requirements in the relevant award, agreement or contract to consider.

 

So, if payroll was already complex, COVID just took it to a whole other level!

 

2. Other situations outside the norm

Even outside of the pandemic, there can be complex situations that arise, such as what to pay or compensate a worker on parental leave, jury duty or workers’ compensation cover.

As an example, under some awards, employees on workers’ compensation are entitled to accident pay. This has to be covered by the employer in these cases.

 

3. Termination payments

Depending on the situation, components of a final termination payment may include unused annual leave and/or pro-rata long service leave, redundancy or severance pay based on length of service, superannuation benefits and other payments.

Termination payments can come with all kinds of complexities. For example, you need to consider what to pay out in terms of number of weeks’ payment, superannuation, and PAYG taxation. Various factors need to be accounted for in this – including whether the employee left voluntarily, was dismissed, made redundant, or is entering into early retirement, and so on.

Partnering with a payroll expert

So as you can see, payroll is rarely ever simple. However, when you hire a payroll expert it can take a lot of the time and stress out of the process!

At Bookit, our payroll and bookkeeping services are available 52 weeks of the year, which means if you partner with us you never have to be without a payroll expert. Get in touch if you would like to find out more.