What is payroll software?

Glossary/P/Payroll Software

Payroll software manages, maintains, and automates the process of managing employee wages or remuneration. It ensures adherence to tax laws and other financial regulations and reduces the overall cost involved in payroll processing.

Payroll software can help track time off, overtime, and any other benefits that the employee is entitled to. Such software is available as a standalone application, within HR accounting software, or as part of holistic HR management suites.

Not to be confused with:

accounting software

Accounting software automates accounting and booking functions, such as bank reconciliation, invoicing, bill payment, and financial reporting.

applicant tracking software

An applicant tracking software or ATS manages the entire hiring or recruiting process.

Not to be confused with:

accounting software

Accounting software automates accounting and booking functions, such as bank reconciliation, invoicing, bill payment, and financial reporting.

applicant tracking software

An applicant tracking software or ATS manages the entire hiring or recruiting process.

accounting software

Accounting software automates accounting and booking functions, such as bank reconciliation, invoicing, bill payment, and financial reporting.

applicant tracking software

An applicant tracking software or ATS manages the entire hiring or recruiting process.

accounting software

Accounting software automates accounting and booking functions, such as bank reconciliation, invoicing, bill payment, and financial reporting.

applicant tracking software

An applicant tracking software or ATS manages the entire hiring or recruiting process.

Accounting software automates accounting and booking functions, such as bank reconciliation, invoicing, bill payment, and financial reporting. Accounting software has a much broader application and resolves multiple transactional functions for businesses, including payroll. However, accounting software might not be able to give you details such as reimbursements or overtime.

An applicant tracking software or ATS manages the entire hiring or recruiting process. It keeps a digital record of applications, tracks the applicants throughout the recruiting process, and even schedules interviews. Unlike payroll software, the role of recruiting software is over after a candidate becomes an employee.

What to look for when buying payroll software?

Ease of integration

Payroll software, especially when bought as a standalone solution, will often need to integrate with several other platforms such as an HR accounting system. Hence, it's best to choose payroll software that easily integrates with other software and helps optimize efficiency.

Tax filing

Ideally, payroll software should have the capability to accurately document and manage taxes regardless of the size of the organization. Looking for this capability when buying payroll software can help simplify the tax filing process and the complexities revolving around tax deductions.

Data security

Employee data is valuable and any software that deals with employee data needs to be equipped with a secure platform. When choosing payroll software make sure to assess the vendor's security certificates, their track record in the industry, and whether or not they have the capability to maintain a backup of employee data.

Compliance

There are multiple regulations related to payroll that organizations need to follow in order to be in adherence to federal and state laws. Payroll software that can adapt to your business's legal compliance requirements would be the best choice.