This is one of the more critical departments of a business. In the terms of accounting and finance, it is the sum total of compensations, deductions, and benefits of all the salaries in a company. If the business does not have a fixed system to calculate the salaries of their employees, it could be chaotic for the business to handle paying the employees. In addition to paying salaries, there are payroll taxes that can affect the income of the business at the end of the fiscal year. These reasons are why a business needs to maintain an effective payroll system. The norm in recent years is for larger businesses to outsource their payroll services but there are pros and cons with doing this.

Pros

• Cost effectiveness
• When a business has their own payroll department it means that they have to manage a payroll department and hiring accounts but payroll services that are outsourced eases these burdens. It also saves the tedious work of calculating the payroll.
• The money and human resources invested for an in-house small business payroll services can be used in other productive works
• It can help the businesses keep a track record of their earning and expenses
• Helps the business keep a detailed record of payrolls, which is important to any business
• It streamlines the entire payroll management into the hands of experts in that field.
• They give the business excellent results along with high performance

Cons

• Payroll services involve allowing access to private, sensitive information of the employees to a third party, which could not be safe to do
• The employees may not like the idea of outsourcing payroll services outside of the business because they value their privacy
• Not all outsourcing deals are successful even if there is high cost effectiveness is very high.
• Your returns may not worth the money you spent if you do not hire an inexperienced company
• Having the threat to privacy
• The lack of direct control over the company's payroll services

Many reputable companies do outsourcing payroll services but you have to do your research to make sure that the company you choose is reputable. Check to make sure that they have high track record of customer satisfaction. You can also check with the BBB to see if there are any complaints filed against the company you are considering hiring for your payroll services. Looking at the pros and cons of outsourcing your payroll services you can see that it does lessen the burden of your Human Resource department, and that the payroll will be done correctly because the outsource company specializes in payroll. Choosing a qualified reputable company also will protect the privacy of the employees.