What does the future of payroll processing in Australia look like?

As of the last census, there was a total of 18.5 million paid jobs in Australia, with average weekly earnings of $1,207. That means, every week, payroll professionals process roughly $22.3 billion in salary and hourly wages.

It’s a gigantic responsibility that is only going to increase in size and scale as our economy and population continues to grow. All this used to be done using handwritten pay slips and cheques handed out at the end of the week, but in 2018 payroll in the majority of payroll systems were entirely digital.

We’ve come a long way already, but how will payroll change in the future?

Moving up to the cloud

The future will mean using cloud-based software and storage, instead of vulnerable and corruptible local servers or computer hard drives. The most obvious benefits of this include:

• Being able to access your data and software from anywhere, using any capable device.
• Improved security and reliability.
• No requirement for local servers or storage devices, just an adequate internet connection.
• Easy shareability of all data for collaboration and advisory.
• Regular updates and improvements to software functionality.
• Costs less to maintain and upgrade than local systems.

The ease of use, accessibility and cost efficiency of cloud-based software and data storage is unbeatable, so in time all businesses will manage their payroll this way.

Smart software can already automate certain number crunching, data collection and reporting tasks.

The rise of artificial intelligence

Time is still money in every industry, including recruitment. That’s why payroll is such a nuisance: it’s laborious, detail orientated and far too important to rush.

Recent advancements in new payroll software and technology and artificial intelligence have taken strides in solving this issue and saving payroll professionals valuable time.

Humanoid robots won’t be handling your payroll any time soon, but smart software can already automate certain number crunching, data collection and reporting tasks. This not only saves your staff time, but it also helps ensure that payroll is as timely and accurate as possible.

There’s still a long way to go for artificial intelligence, and in future we could see the vast majority of payroll being automated, with human input only required for time entry and double checking the numbers.

Software is getting smarter and in the future as it advances further payroll, professionals will have more time to focus on high-value tasks.

Integration with your entire business

Several businesses have separate systems for recruitment, time capture, payroll, and billing. This means staff are flicking back and forth between tasks, manually entering data into each system as required and learning to use several different pieces of software.

All of this takes time, costing you money. The future of payroll processing in Australia will see businesses  transition to systems that manage several functions, making them more efficient and user-friendly. It will also allow you to automatically gather data across all functions of your organisation, to help understand the bigger picture and makes adjustments where necessary.

While payroll can’t be completely automated by artificial intelligence in 2019, FastTrack360 can offer forward-thinking innovations that save considerable time and increase accuracy. To find out more about what our platform could do for your business, contact us using the form below today.