Access to a global workforce expands your talent pool — but paying everyone accurately can be a serious challenge. Without cloud-based payroll software, you're left struggling to comply with tax and employment regulations across multiple countries, all while managing the many complex administrative aspects of payroll.
Cloud-based payroll platforms are designed to alleviate this problem. They make it quick and simple to manage international payroll and scale alongside your organization.
In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of using cloud-based payroll software, and discuss some of the things to look for when selecting a payroll partner.
So let’s dive right in.
Cloud-based payroll software is an online payroll system that automates employee payments, tax calculations, compliance, and reporting through a secure cloud platform. Unlike manual payroll or on-premise systems, it enables real-time global payroll management from anywhere.
If you have team members in multiple countries — and even if you don’t — cloud-based payroll can be a game-changer for business owners. Here’s how:
A global payroll system — like Remote’s — collates all relevant data in one central hub. This makes it easier for your HR and payroll teams to track everything and ensure your team members are paid on time.
It also makes it easier to retrieve data, view analytics in real time, and generate payroll reports without navigating multiple systems. As a result, it becomes far quicker and easier to make decisions and answer queries.
Cloud-based software of any kind can significantly reduce costs across numerous business areas. For instance:
Remote’s cloud-based payroll platform is built and maintained to comply with tax and employment regulations .
It does this in countries all across the world, reducing the risk of legal penalties and other issues — and allowing you to focus on running and growing your business.
Cloud-based payroll software automates many of the manual tasks that typically occupy payroll teams, such as:
Automation reduces manual errors, as well, which increases accuracy and lowers the chances of employees being under or overpaid. By extension, this increases job satisfaction among your workforce.
“For any business, poorly-run payroll impacts retention, sentiment, and motivation. Those are all really big. It doesn't matter that you pay your employees well if you’re not paying them correctly.”
Jonathan Goldsmith, GM of Global Payroll at Remote
With fewer manual tasks and errors to worry about, your payroll team can also focus on more strategic tasks instead, such as:
Cloud-based payroll providers handle software updates, reducing the need for your IT team to perform software or hardware updates. As with your payroll team, this frees up time and resources for your people to focus on more strategic issues.
These automatic updates may even come with new features and tutorials. As a result, you’ll always have cutting-edge features to improve your processes without having to build and implement them yourself.
Cloud-based payroll plans should be scalable with your company’s growth. If you want to expand into new markets and hire talent in different countries, Remote supports that growth and ensures that you don’t have to rethink your plans or search for a new provider.
Conversely, if you need to cut back, a cloud-based plan enables you to downsize as necessary and optimize your ROI.
Cloud-based payroll tech enables real-time access from anywhere. At a minimum, this means a laptop, although some payroll platforms are accessible on a mobile browser or even through a mobile app.
This is convenient for both businesses and employees. Your team can manage payroll from any location, while your employees can view their pay information, submit expense reports, and use an employee self-service portal on their smartphones.
Cloud-based providers invest in state-of-the-art security, as they are responsible for many companies’ data. This means ISO-standard protections with regular security updates.
Cloud software providers also ensure data redundancy and backup, as well. Since data is in the cloud, disaster is less likely to compromise it — and you don’t have to maintain the backup infrastructure.
“Payroll providers like Remote can help organizations grow secure global teams, while also ensuring they are compliant with local and international data protection laws in the markets they operate in. This frees them to focus on managing and growing their business.”
Marcelo Lebre, co-founder and CTO at Remote
There are many cloud-based payroll software options. Here are some key features to look out for when assessing potential partners:
Automation can save your business considerable time , and enables you to focus your resources and energy on other areas.
Remote, for instance, automates many payroll functions, including tax calculations, deductions, and filing — all in compliance with local tax and employment laws .
Our platform also tracks time and attendance to ensure your people are getting paid correctly and using their allotted amount of leave.
Your payroll software should integrate seamlessly with your other HR tools. This allows data to flow between systems, reducing manual work and streamlining the entire process.
In particular, your payroll platform should integrate with:
As with any software, it’s important to try before you buy. Look for platforms with free trials, or pre-purchase, sales-led demos that shorten the learning curve and give you an in-depth picture.
Your payroll provider should have a robust, active support network, not just during the sales and onboarding phase, but during day-to-day operations too.
Ensure that customer service is available 24/7 through multiple channels, such as:
Look for providers that also enable you to self-serve answers through an easy-to-navigate knowledge base or FAQ section.
If you also work with independent contractors, it can be tricky to manage payments alongside your employee payroll. And when you’re dealing with various legal frameworks across multiple countries, it can become outright confusing.
This is why it’s advisable to work with a partner that can simplify and handle both. Remote lets you use our Contractor Management tool to onboard, manage, and pay contractors compliantly (and in multiple currencies), ensuring that all your employees and contractors are tracked and managed through one platform.
Remote even lets you convert your contractors into employees .
Depending on where your employees are located, it’s important to implement payroll software that meets their (and your) needs. For example, if you employ people all over the world (or have independent contractors based in different countries), it can be difficult to keep track of all the tax regulations and currencies in each location. Look for payroll software that can do this for you.
You also want to choose a system that works for the size of your business. If you have a small company, pick a more affordable option while you’re just getting started. But if you’re looking to grow, find software that can easily scale as you hire more and more employees.
If you already have a fairly large company, it’s even more advantageous to use technology that can consolidate hiring and payroll into one system. But you may want to choose systems that can easily integrate into your already existing technology so that it’s easy to ramp up your new software.
If your business still uses manual methods for payroll, you may be wondering how they are different from an automated system. Let’s dive in.
Manual payroll involves figuring out all aspects of payroll (including tax filings, wages, PTO, and bonuses) by hand. This means your employees or HR enters information into spreadsheets and calculates final numbers by hand, potentially in Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel.
HR employees are also generally responsible for adhering to local tax laws and regulations when dealing with a global workforce. Plus, they usually approve and distribute paychecks by hand, whether that’s done in person or through the mail.
There are a few pros to using a manual system for your payroll. It can be less expensive this way in some cases since you don’t have the expense associated with paying for software.
However, you may be paying in other ways, such as hiring more HR employees and taking up more of their time with payroll tasks and dealing with mistakes . But on the flip side, you don’t need to train your employees to learn new software if you use a manual process.
For most businesses, a manual system is not a good fit. If you have more than a handful of team members, tracking employee data securely is difficult. There’s also the risk of human error and the increased workload.
Here are the reasons why most companies opt for payroll software.
By now, you know all about the advantages of payroll software. But let’s take a look at how these systems have been used to help real businesses achieve their goals.
Reverse Tech , a company that helps brands in the health and wellness space grow, used Remote to position itself for sustainable growth in the global health market. Reverse Tech sought to scale its global business operations while staying compliant with international labor laws on five continents. However, its previous setup made it difficult to remain compliant all over the world.
Here’s how Reverse Tech benefited by partnering with Remote for payroll:
HomeProject, a service that collects data for AI development from Nordic and European locations, needed to quickly hire 200 people for an upcoming project. It required accurate invoicing routines that it could count on, and the ability to easily pay people in multiple currencies once the project was complete.
Here’s how HomeProject benefited by partnering with Remote for payroll:
Remote’s secure cloud-based payroll solution does all of these things and more, with our platform allowing you to:
We do all the heavy lifting for you, allowing you to focus your time, money, and resources on growing and running your business. If you’re in charge of a global company, Remote can help you manage payroll, taxes, and compliance through one streamlined system. You can stay up-to-date with local tax laws and pay out all your employees in the right currency, without worrying about hiring more help.
To learn more about how your business can benefit from our payroll solutions — and to see how you can set it all up — speak to one of our friendly experts today .