HR, payroll must 'walk together'

Johannesburg, 17 Sept 2009

To achieve a best practice payroll, human resources (HR) and payroll systems must integrate with the pension and Unemployment Insurance Fund systems.

So said Isabella Troon, international facilitator for Intelliqo, during her keynote address at the South African Payroll Association conference held in Johannesburg, this week.

“HR and payroll must walk together to create a payroll utopia,” advised Troon. Citing fingerprint access and time recording technology, Troon highlighted the benefits of integrating an organisation's payroll and HR systems. “Fingerprint access means that employees have to use their thumbprint to login at work. There are no excuses of lost access cards.

“The system automatically records the times that employees arrive and leave work. Work rates and overtime are then calculated by the HR system which then updates the payroll system to adjust accordingly,” she explained.

Troon listed the following as advantages of integrated systems: reduced human intervention in processes, self-reconciling accounts, and the ability for users to update their own information. An integrated system increases security over the payroll system, reducing white-collar crime.

“There are also disadvantages to implementing integrated systems. For example, all staff must be computer literate, or have access to a linked computer. Also, the whole operation comes to a halt when the system goes down. Integrated systems can be costly to implement for multi-locations,” she added.

The time saved by successfully implementing integrated systems allows payroll practitioners to become specialists in their fields, instead of continuously managing crises, Troon concluded.