Every healthcare office manager agrees: Manual payroll is a mind-numbing proposition. All those calculations? Manually entering employee hours? It stinks. Throw in FICA taxes, federal and state taxes, and retirement and health plan contributions, and it's no wonder payroll processing sends a shiver down your spine every two weeks. 

Payroll software is like a giant calculator that does all the hard work for you. You automate the processes associated with payroll with a click of a button and guarantee team members get paid the right amount at the right time. 

Here's an example:

This month, one of your physical therapists took a week off work, enrolled in a new health plan, and worked three nights' overtime. Sure, you could calculate her pay manually, then calculate the pay for the other 250 employees in your practice. Or you could use payroll software to do it all for you. What makes more sense? 

Payroll software:

• Saves time. The system takes care of employee hours so you don’t have to manually enter this information.
• Improves IRS compliance. (Withhold the correct taxes and avoid thousands of dollars of penalties.)
• Improves accuracy and reduces payroll errors. (Ensure team members like surgeons get paid for all work completed, including overtime, double-time, and bonuses.)
• It's just easier.

Payroll software makes it super-simple to pay your team for all their hard work. Finally, you can pay doctors, dentists, chiropractors, pharmacists, veterinarians, office administrators, billing assistants, and other team members without the stress. 

Here's a full payroll software definition to and why you should use a healthcare HR management software like HR for Health for even more effective payroll management.  

Payroll Software Definition for Office Managers 

Payroll software is a type of software that facilitates all the tasks associated with payroll processing. 

Tasks like:

• Paying team members like nurses their salaries via check or direct deposit. 
• Compensating a locum physician who's temporarily working at your practice.
• Withholding the correct FICA/federal/state taxes so you can avoid expensive penalties that cripple your practice. 
• Administering the right benefits to the right team members (PTO, health insurance, life insurance, retirement insurance, etc.).
• Keeping records of all these payments for internal/external audits.
• COVID-19: Administer furlough and other payments for team members. Comply with the Paycheck Protection Program and other government initiatives.

The list goes on. 

Completing all these tasks every two weeks is enough to give any office manager a migraine. If you don't want to do all this stuff every month, you have two options:

• Pay an accountant or bookkeeper to do it for you. (That's expensive, especially if you have more than a handful of team members.)
• Invest in some incredible payroll software or, even better, an all-in-one management solution like HR for Health. (More about this later.)

The second option is cheaper and lets you keep control over your payroll processes.

Benefits of Payroll Software for Office Managers

• Make payroll administration easier in your practice. (Twenty-two percent of HR teams say improving overall payroll efficiency is their No.1 priority.)
• Make fewer mistakes. (For example, forgetting to pay a dental assistant for the overtime they worked this month.)
• Less paperwork. (Say goodbye to cabinet files full of IRS documents.)
• Spend less time on payroll.
• Keep more team members at your practice. (Forty-four percent of team members would consider leaving their job if paid incorrectly.)

Using a Healthcare HR Solution as Your Payroll Software

A healthcare HR solution like HR for Health combines all the advantages of payroll software with a broad range of other features for office managers like you. These features include:

• Customized employee handbooks based on your healthcare specialization, practice culture, and state regulations.
• New hire checklist that’s automatically sent to new hires to help you stay compliant.
• Team recognition and review templates to optimize team member performance.
• Online document vault with e-signature capabilities.
• Support and HR advising customized to your practice.

Learn more about using HR for Health as an alternative to conventional payroll software. Schedule a call now.