This Podcast Is Episode Number 495, And It's About The Common Construction Payroll Implementation Errors You Can Easily Avoid   Small business owners spend an average of eight hours monthly performing payroll functions. That's 12 business days a year that could be spent generating sales, prospecting new business opportunities, improving products or services, or servicing customers. Upgrading or changing your payroll system comes with a ton of attractive benefits. Saving time and money, making everyone's account more manageable, and better integration are all excellent reasons to consider a change. But if the switch is mishandled, the results can be catastrophic and lead to long-lasting problems. Read on for tips on avoiding a disastrous payroll system migration. 1. Give the project the time it needs People may indeed enjoy coming to work. But for most people, earning money is the main reason they seek employment. Our jobs make the world go round and support our families and us so that we can afford everything else. Not getting paid, or getting paid incorrectly, is a massive problem for your employees. As a business owner, you want to ensure your employees are paid right and on time. This protects your business, but it also protects their happiness. Changing payroll systems is a huge undertaking. There are many moving parts and people who will be affected. Make sure to give this project the time and attention it deserves. Determine what will be necessary to make the transition, understand whom it affects, and communicate with everyone involved. The planning process is critical. Treat it as the foundation for making the switch, and the rest will fall into place. 2. Map out integrations All payroll software will do the basics, but that's just the beginning of your new system. Learn about what other software will integrate with your new platform. Do your research for what add-ons you will need, and build accordingly. Your new system will be able to connect with HR software, advanced accounting functions, time-tracking tools, and so much more. Envision what your complete system looks like and understand how to get it to all work together. When you have the complete picture from the planning stage, it will make the transition a lot smoother. 3. Adjust the platform to your needs The primary motivation for implementing a new payroll system is to make things easier. Yet, many businesses overlook the ways that their new technology can help. It's easy to lean on old methods for getting things done because they're familiar, but that would be a mistake when switching to a new payroll system. Make sure you know about and understand the features of your new platform. This is where the real-time, money, and energy savings will come in. Automate anything you can. When these tools prove their worth, your team will understand the reason for switching. 4. Don't bring over insufficient data When implementing or switching to a new system, take the opportunity to go over your incoming data. Yes, all of it. Get rid of what you don't need while keeping in mind what you have to keep on hand according to any relevant tax agencies. While payroll software is beneficial, it can only do so much. If you put insufficient data in, it will spit bad data out. Go over the information you're inputting with a fine-toothed comb to get the best result. 5. Test, test, test Before you officially implement anything, make sure to test it out. This phase is critical and is often overlooked. There's no quicker way to turn your staff off of something new than for it to work poorly or not right out of the gate. Take the time to test now and reap the benefits when you go live. A Better Approach If you think hiring a full-time in-house payroll staff is not practical, you can always come to us and let us take care of your payroll. Whether you need weekly, fortnightly, or monthly processing, our team is flexible enough to do it for you.  When contractors ask...