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Improving Employee Payroll Accuracy with Country Specific Information

Catherine Flynn
Catherine Flynn

Product Marketing Manager, Immedis

Jan 14, 2022 4 mins

At the core of global payroll is ensuring employees' timely and accurate payment no matter where they are in the world. But with each country on the payroll comes its own set of unique data requirements to process payroll in that country successfully and meet legislative needs to remain compliant.

International expansion trends

Global expansion into new geographies is firmly on the rise, adding to the complexity of managing growing payroll needs. 8 out of 10 CFOs see international expansion as the path to long-term growth. Beyond the potential revenue growth and access to new markets that come with expansion into new countries, a key factor driving this trend is the war on talent.

News of the great resignation is all around us, and employers are looking at ways and means to attract and retain talent. One strategy in access to talent is a borderless approach to hiring. The C-suite is taking note of this, with 42% of executives stating they wanted to attract new talent unbounded by the geographic restrictions of their company's operating model.

Payroll process implications

For payroll staff, new countries mean managing and staying on top of the data requirements for each location. It means ensuring that all information required to pay your people is present and correct, free from data entry errors – from employee information to hours worked, benefits, and leave entitlements - all while meeting the taxation requirements in each country or jurisdiction.

It means knowing that France's labor laws dictate a 35-hour workweek with some industry exceptions, while there is a cap of 80 hours per annum in overtime in Spain. Or that in Singapore, employee religion is required to determine if a payment to the Mosque Building and Mendaki Fund (MBMF) is deducted.

Scalability through technology

Technology can support businesses with ambitious growth plans and alleviate the need to have an encyclopedic payroll knowledge in-house. A robust online payroll system decreases the time spent processing payroll ensuring payroll accuracy. Business technologies constantly evolve to create such efficiencies and support organizations more strategically. Payroll technology is no different. With the right vendor and payroll software, global businesses can successfully centralize or regionalize their payroll department and enjoy the multitude of benefits that follow. These include complete global payroll oversight, data consolidation to support business decisions, operational efficiencies, and of course, managing payroll in countries that form part of expansion plans.

The functionality that's supporting global payroll teams meet local needs

The technology capability that exists today can support payroll operations in understanding in-country requirements without continually researching the ever-changing employment legislation landscape. However, not every global payroll system offer this capability, so it's important to discuss how country legislative changes are communicated to you when reviewing payroll software or different vendors.

Country Specific Information (CSI)

The Immedis Platform houses Country Specific Information directly in the platform, providing a detailed payroll database of employee information fields required for each country's tax and benefit calculations and compliance requirements.

This is coupled with functionality that prompts where gaps in employee information exist (known as Perpetual Validation). This helps to ensure that you collect all the data you need to process payroll accurately in a timely manner. Ultimately, this ensures compliance while meeting that core payroll objective of on-time and accurate payroll processing.

How does this payroll technology work?

Immedis works with internal teams and a network of local experts to continually incorporate and update the data fields required in the platform. For example, an employee's residency status, religion, and employee type are required to run payroll in Singapore successfully. Immedis CSI captures these field requirements on each employee record and provides built-in advice as to what should be entered into specific fields and the format this information should take.eii

‘Employee Residency Status’ missing

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'Religion' missing.Immedis payroll software detecting missing crucial employee information 'Employee Type' missing.

As mentioned, if you don’t have the employee data and the field is left blank, you will be prompted to where these information gaps are. This allows payroll teams to gather data needed ahead of time, improving payroll accuracy and avoiding those situations where an employee is either not paid or incorrectly paid.

To learn more about our industry-first country specific information, download our Immedis platform brochure here.

What CSI means for you

Taking advantage of Immedis’ Country Specific Information functionality can be felt across the organization.

Compliance

The pressure to maintain compliance is continually seen in the top 3 concerns of payroll professionals and businesses. Rightly so, given the fines and civil penalties often associated with getting it wrong. CSI removes this concern and ensures you pay employees accurately while also being in a position to continually identify any new country-specific requirements that may come on stream.

Operational efficiencies

Businesses are continually looking at ways to implement operational excellence and best-practice methods. As global footprints grow, the need for a consolidated approach across critical functions, including payroll, is moving higher up the corporate agenda.

Technology capabilities such as CSI supports payroll management in doing this. A central payroll team located in Dublin will be able to cover payroll in Hong Kong should the need exist or arise in the future. Something that may have previously been thought only possible with dedicated personnel per country. The system will support existing payroll functions in understanding in-country requirements and allow them to take on new jurisdictions and understand a broader range of locations.

Increased speed to market

Things move fast in today’s global economy, and the rate at which businesses can make decisions and act is of the utmost importance to success. Something as simple as having access to CSI functionality removes the need to have boots on the ground to cover payroll before paying employees in that location can take place.

Improved employee experience

Let’s not forget about the war mentioned earlier on talent and the much-talked-about great resignation. Did you know that just two payroll mistakes can cause 49% of employees to start job hunting? The link between being paid accurately and critical business objectives such as employee engagement and employee retention can’t be ignored or underestimated. CSI makes sure all employee-related information required to pay in a location successfully is captured ahead of pay cycles and decreases any margin for payroll errors.

The experience of payroll teams shouldn’t be excluded here either. Manual processes are tedious and repetitive. CSI and system-prompt remove the need to manually check that all country specifics are included ahead of payday. This allows teams to focus purely on gathering any missing information as highlighted by the system, turn their attention to payroll reports, and take a more strategic view of payroll's role in the organization.

If you have any follow up questions about Country Specific Information you can get in touch here.