eCommerce SMB saves $60,000 annually by centralising Payroll with Remote

Established in 2018, this global eCommerce brand specialises in consumer electronics and lifestyle products. Serving a diverse international customer base, its operations are supported by strategic offices across Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific. 

A recent acquisition increased the company’s entity footprint from six to nine, raising global permanent headcount from 240 to 308 in the process. The introduction of supplementary product lines encouraged new revenue streams, strengthening the brand’s position against its direct competitors. 

Yet, despite the commercial success, the small HR and Finance teams — already encumbered with the challenges of a decentralised payroll landscape — found themselves overwhelmed by the surge of inefficiencies and inconsistencies across multiple legacy platforms. Changes had to be made, and fast.

Read on to discover how Remote’s agile payroll solution and unified HR platform brought calm, compliance and control to help scale this ambitious global brand. 

As the company’s global footprint grew, so did the complexity of managing payroll across multiple countries. Core challenges included:

1. Disparate systems and inconsistent processes: Without a unified system, payroll processes varied significantly between locations. This was leading to inconsistencies in how and when employees were paid, benefits were administered, and taxes were handled.

2. Manual work prone to error: Reliance on multiple data entries, spreadsheets and manual calculations increased the volume and severity of errors. All errors have a significant impact, either by way of fines for non-compliance or dissatisfaction among employees.

3. Increased costs: The company’s recent acquisition introduced three new in-country payroll partners in AMER and APAC. This increased operational costs in terms of monthly fees, employee training, system maintenance, and additional partner oversight to ensure compliance across multiple jurisdictions.

4. Difficulty in data consolidation: Gathering and consolidating payroll data from various sources made it difficult to analyse overall payroll expenses, forecast budgets, and conduct strategic planning effectively.

5. Higher security risks: Multiple systems increased the company’s points of vulnerability, making the payroll process more susceptible to security breaches and data theft.

6. Poor employee experience: Employees were facing limitations in their payroll experience, from delays in pay payments to unclear payslips and no real-time access to payroll information. 

Recognising the urgent need for a centralised payroll system, the company began a strategic initiative to implement a single, comprehensive payroll solution. After evaluating various options, the company selected Remote due to its robust features, inbuilt compliance, 24/7 support, and future-proofed roadmap. 

The implementation involved careful planning and testing to ensure the smooth migration of existing payroll data and minimise disruption to ongoing operations. The company nominated key project stakeholders, led by the head of people and culture, finance director. and benefits manager. 

The team was assigned a dedicated payroll implementation specialist from Remote who guided them through the implementation plan from initial launch planning through to data collection, implementation, testing, and go-live.

By consolidating the multi-country payroll process, the company has simplified payroll management, ensuring compliance and efficiency across diverse international operations. 

• Platform consolidation: Single system supporting both HR and payroll, eliminating the need for multiple platforms, with built-in EOR and contractor management capabilities to support future growth.

• Automated payroll functions: Remote automates the calculation and payment process, directly depositing salaries without the need for manual data entry.

• Global transparency: Admins can see all upcoming pay runs in one place and Instantly view next payroll runs for each country. Admins can view the predicted and actual payroll costs for every country to help plan cashflow.

• Simplified accounting: Data is consolidated to form a complete audit trail of all payroll transactions for enhanced transparency and accountability. Detailed records of pay and tax payments available to both company admins, and individual employees.

• Built-in compliance: Automated tax calculations and payments to relevant authorities help avoid penalties and fines with on-time payments.  

• Increased security: SOC 2 compliance and ISO27001 certification ensures payroll data is secure. Furthermore, Two-factor authentication provides an extra layer of user security.

• Employee self-serve: Employees use the mobile app to view payslips, submit expenses, and log time off.

By automating and centralising payroll, this eCommerce SMB has saved time and money, improved efficiency, and increased employee satisfaction. Quantifiable results include: 

• Manual payroll tasks reduced by 77%

• Annual payroll management savings of $61,750

• Annual administrative savings of $21,350, including costs associated with manual data entry and costs related to error correction

• Improved employee eNPS rating: efficiencies in the payroll process meant employees were paid faster, and without error

This unified approach helps businesses save time, reduce errors, and maintain consistency in their payroll processes, making it easier to manage global payroll seamlessly. 

Click here to request a demo and discover the power of global payroll with Remote.