uAttend web and phone clocking in

How cloud-based solutions can help you manage your payroll

Managing payroll causes frequent headaches for business owners and managers alike. Alongside the everyday concerns of running a business, paying your staff the right amount and on time is one of the major challenges for a business. Cloud-based time and attendance systems can help.

A far cry from paper-based systems and local spreadsheet records, cloud-based time and attendance systems are proving to be an excellent solution for businesses who need to juggle data, manage their payroll and who are seeking the convenience of ‘anytime, anywhere’ access.

The cloud is simply internet-based computing where the software and data used is not stored on local PCs or servers but in another location and managed by others. The Government has been making major investments in UK cloud data centres aiming to “help UK firms to work smarter and faster”. In its 2017 report it outlined how one of the core activities for businesses to remain competitive was to ‘use the cloud’. In fact many business analysts are predicting that the adoption of cloud technology will become a “sink-or-swim necessity for businesses of all sizes in 2017” (Steven Fredette, president and co-founder of Toast).

Here’s how the cloud can help you manage your payroll:

  • Clocking-in – workers can clock-in using a variety of options – RFID swipe cards, proximity terminals or biometric fingerprint or facial recognition terminals – with the data being processed in the cloud. It’s easy for remote workers to clock-in too without the need for hard-wiring.
  • Convenient for supervisors – supervisors can authorise timesheets, respond to holiday requests etc. from any internet-enabled PC or device and from any location – useful for managers on the move or firms with remote workers.
  • Data exported to payroll – managers don’t have to worry about deadlines to get workers paid on time because the correct information is exported to payroll on time.
  • Access by employees – staff can remotely access their own timesheets and make holiday requests.
  • Flexible numbers of users – it is easy to add, archive or delete users according to the needs of your business. Cloud-based systems are generally paid for on a monthly basis either per clocking employee or group of employees.
  • Frees up your computer space – because cloud-based time and attendance systems are not stored on your systems, they do not take up valuable space.
  • Technical support – good cloud-based time and attendance systems offer all the necessary technical support and troubleshooting. Software updates are made remotely rather than on-site which means there’s less for your IT staff to worry about which reduces costs for the business too.

Given its many advantages over locally-based computer systems, cloud-based systems can really add value to back-office operations such as managing the payroll.  This is especially so for small businesses who have previously found cost and complexity preventing them from competing with larger firms.

The use of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions is set to grow because of the headache-free solutions it offers. The uAttend time and attendance system offers an excellent cloud-based solution for your business.