Article

Could outsourcing payroll be a good choice for your business?

Managed payroll can protect and optimize your payroll process

April 08, 2024

Key takeaways

Payroll processes are becoming more complex, with staff turnover remaining a challenge.

Managed payroll is a good choice for companies with lean teams or rapid growth.

The right provider can increase efficiency, mitigate risk and improve accuracy. 

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Managed services
Modern work solutions Business strategy Labor and workforce Business applications

Rerunning payroll, completing year-end checklists, amending T4s, or fearing an audit are all parts of the payroll process.

To reduce the risk of error, many lean payroll teams and rapidly growing businesses choose to outsource some or all of their payroll function to qualified, certified payroll providers.

Adept at keeping up with changing rules and regulations to help clients remain compliant, managed payroll teams can also streamline and document your payroll process, decrease your audit risk, maintain full data security and enable optimal performance from your payroll software. In addition, they provide two layers of backup support, protecting your payroll from staff departures. Ultimately, managed payroll providers can lift the burden of payroll administration from your shoulders and empower business transformation.

Tapping into a proven payroll outsourcing solution solves staff turnover disruptions

In the last few years, many companies have found it challenging to retain qualified payroll personnel. This turnover hamster wheel generally starts with businesses hiring a full-time payroll person, training them and then losing them only to begin the recruiting process all over again. In the meantime, another staff member who may not be qualified has had to cover this critical function, potentially leading to errors, loss of employee confidence and costly mistakes. This is one of the many reasons organizations begin to research managed payroll options.

Outsourcing to reliable, experienced, certified payroll providers means your in-house staff can focus their time, energy and resources on supporting organizational growth and business strategy. Engaging a reputable managed payroll solution dedicated to maintaining accurate, compliant, secure and efficient management of this essential process—including proper handling of remote worker tax issues, audits, reconciliations, garnishments, etc.—creates true payroll continuity.

Some companies may be experiencing turnover yet again, or no one knows their system well enough. Maybe they’re going through an audit, or experiencing compliance issues. Companies are starting to truly value what the payroll function is, and that they do need someone who really has the skill set to support their processes.
Lorry Twisdale, Principal, RSM US LLP

Managed payroll improves accuracy and compliance

Enhanced accuracy is a key benefit of having your payroll process professionally managed. With many companies having changed how and where they do business following the pandemic, payroll has become a much more complicated process.

Increasingly complex and changing post-COVID-19 tax rules and regulations that require employers to produce custom reports, analyze data, create effective dashboards and constantly add to the year-end task list have contributed to payroll confusion and exhaustion. Payroll services provided by certified payroll consultants should streamline, upgrade and document your payroll processes, provide two layers of backup support to avoid breaks in continuity, and scale up to grow with your business.

Whether payroll is housed in human resources or finance, these departments spend an enormous amount of time and management energy ensuring payroll activities are completed accurately and on time, every time. These activities do not contribute to revenue generation, yet payroll errors, botched taxation or outdated software can bring about costly penalties and damage employee satisfaction.

Certified, experienced payroll consultants are knowledgeable in payroll management, bringing real-time experience with global payroll compliance requirements, remote worker tax issues, and reporting and analytics, as well as transparency and collaboration to improve your payroll accuracy, compliance, security and continuity.

Getting started with managed payroll services

Making the choice to outsource payroll can deliver both value and peace of mind. Working with the right provider can make your payroll process efficient, accurate, compliant, secure and fully protected, creating a payroll foundation that can seamlessly adjust to your company’s future goals and growth.

Learn more about the benefits of payroll outsourcing and how RSM’s managed payroll services team can optimize your function. Or, reach out to the RSM payroll outsourcing team with your questions.

RSM's professional affiliations and certificates in payroll

PayrollOrg (formerly American Payroll Association)

National Payroll Institute (formerly Canadian Payroll Association)


Fundamental Payroll Certification (FPC)

Certified payroll professional (CPP)

RSM contributors

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