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If you’re a small business owner, you might be doing your payroll calculations and payouts by hand. Maybe you’ve been avoiding automating payroll because the expense involved in buying the software don’t seem worth it. Maybe you’re just sticking to doing things the “old-fashioned” way because it’s what you know feel comfortable with.

However, there are a lot of reasons to switch to automated payroll software. Let’s look at just a few.

Precision

It’s not difficult to make a typo or some other minor error when you’re working in an Excel spreadsheet. And one little error can cause a lot of problems for your business. The more employees you have, the worse those ripple effects can be. If you’re looking for ways to cut out the chances of simple errors, you might want to consider an automated payroll software.

The reason for this is simple: these automated programs don’t rely on someone plugging in every single number. The calculations are all done on the back end, meaning you don’t have to worry about triple-checking every single cell for accuracy.

Customer Service

Typically, if something goes wrong with your payroll, you’re the only person you can rely on to try to fix it. With automated payroll software, however, you’re paying for more than just the software itself. You also get access to a robust customer service network that can help you in case something goes wrong.

This is a major selling point for medium-sized small businesses that have enough employees to make traditional payroll difficult. For small businesses without dedicated payroll departments, having someone to rely on is invaluable. Next time your numbers aren’t adding up, you’ll have support.

Business Security

The potential nightmare scenario of having your records stolen is always looming over a small business. If you’re doing payroll the old-fashioned way, you could be putting your company’s security at risk. It would only take a thief swiping your laptop or a hacker breaking in to one system remotely to lose confidential documents that your employees have trusted you with.

When you use payroll software, however, you can rest assured that these documents will be securely encrypted. That doesn’t mean they’re impossible for hackers to access, but it does provide another layer of security between your business and scammers who would try to steal from you and your employees.