Your checklist for data that should pull from HR to Payroll
Payroll and HR, Bonnie and Clyde, Beyoncé and Jay-Z. You simply can’t have one without the other!
Whether your payroll sits within the HR team, finance, or you have a separate dedicated team altogether, the two are always intricately linked. And having data accurately pull from one to the other is essential for accurate payroll processing and HR processes.
How to transfer data?
There are a few ways you can get data from your payroll and HR – namely carrier pigeon, letter and smoke signals.
In all seriousness, the most reliable way to get your data from one to another is to opt for a provider who supplies both your payroll and HR. That way your records will be automatically updated across the whole platform if you or one of your users makes a change.
APIs, once set up, are a reliable way to get your data to communicate across platforms. However, this can be a longer process and does require development work. Check out our blog on what you need to kick-start APIs here.
Flat file transfer is used by many to get data from one place to another. It’s worth noting that data transfer needs to be secure: adhering to internal and external security policies and legal data protection.
What data do both payroll & HR need?
Salary & contract changes
Your payroll or HR software will need to know your employees’ contracted salaries in order to pay them correctly. We know – shocking! Likewise, changes to contract e.g a promotion, a change of hours that impacts their pay will again need to be updated in payroll.
Expenses
Depending on how your business operates and the approval process, employee expenses often are processed through HR. However, depending on when and how expenses are claimed, this information may need to flow through into payroll too. For example, if expenses are given back with salaries at the end of the month.
Benefits
If you offer your employees benefits through salary sacrifice, then this information must flow through to your payroll and then be reflected in employee pay. Otherwise you might be footing the bill for their gym membership!
Leave
Whether it’s long periods of leave, sabbatical, parental or maternity leave, all of these absences impact pay. Therefore, it is very important that leave requests are approved and inputted through HR and then mirrored in employee pay.
Personal details
You know the basics: name, DOB, marital status (which might impact pay dedications, NI & tax) and people’s address are both needed for HR and payroll too. Clever software will take note of employee self-service changes in systems and mirror them across payroll & HR.