Everyone loves an unsuspecting business goldmine, and if you run a bookkeeping business, accounting firm or bureau – you could have one sitting right under your nose. Outsourced payroll.
Many firms have neglected to recognise payroll as a great revenue generator, thinking that setting up a payroll practice will create mountains of administrative work which could require additional headcount.
As experts in payroll outsourcing, we’re here to not only show you how simple setting up a practice can be, but also how easily you can grow it into a successful arm of your business.
What is payroll outsourcing?
Payroll outsourcing is a service used by businesses when they do not wish to process payroll for their employees internally.
There are several reasons why a business may choose to do this; they may not feel as if they have the appropriate resources to complete payroll in-house, they may wish to allocate their administrative headcount to other areas of their business, or they do not have the knowledge on their team to complete the task.
Payroll outsourcing is a popular option for businesses, especially ones that are still emerging or who may have complex needs.
Payroll is outsourced to savvy accountants, bookkeepers and bureaux who have had the foresight to set up a payroll practice. Using an advanced payroll software like Employment Hero Payroll makes setting up a practice easier and more efficient than ever.
Why consider setting up an outsourced payroll practice?
There are several reasons why business services professionals and firms should consider setting up an outsourced payroll practice.
But you don’t need to just take our word for it. We’ve spoken to real businesses who have seen amazing success by establishing a payroll practice with the help of Employment Hero Payroll.
Additional profits
Whether you’re opening a new payroll practice or making your current payroll practice more advanced, a fantastic and efficient additional service offering often leads to a huge benefit – additional profits.
Many of our clients have seen amazing profit growth by establishing a payroll practice with Employment Hero Payroll. Our UK-based client Coates Business Services Ltd saw a quarter uptake in growth of their client base, directly attributed to Employment Hero Payroll.
“We have had some natural growth, but as a direct result of being with Employment Hero Payroll, it’s helped to grow our client base by 25%,” says Owner and Director Matthew Coates.
Diversifying your offering
Every smart business owner knows that offering a variety of services creates better profit potential and increased business security.
This security can not only help you persevere through slower periods, but can give you a better footing for expansion. “We provide many additional services that fall outside the basic payroll processing scope,” says Melanie Gaensler, Payroll Operations Manager for activpayroll in Australia.
“These value-add services are really growing for us and expanding our scope for what we include in our services using Employment Hero Payroll.”
As Employment Hero Payroll is also operational in global markets (our expert tools are available in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and the UK) your payroll practice doesn’t need to be confined to your local area.
EPG HR and Payroll was able to take their services global with the help of Employment Hero Payroll. “With Employment Hero Payroll’s ever changing, wide ranging capabilities, we’ve been able to push into other markets, and support our clients with their international expansion,” says ANZ Chief Operations Officer Daniel James.
“From our point of view, it lines up perfectly. Wherever Employment Hero Payroll goes, we’ll look to go as well. That’s how critical and instrumental Employment Hero Payroll’s been in our service delivery into those global markets.”
Your clients will love you for it
If you don’t currently have a payroll practice, your clients are having to look elsewhere for their payroll outsourcing services. This can make life more complicated for clients, as they have different business services sitting with different providers.
Imagine then, how happy your clients will be when they realise that they can bring all of their business services under one provider. They’ve suddenly reduced their admin and dropped the need to communicate with several providers at once, making their lives much easier.
Alltech Outsourced Solutions found that Employment Hero Payroll helped improve their customer relationships and, even better, helped their customer retention.
“Once you show clients how to do something in Employment Hero Payroll which might be different from the format they’re used to, they can see how easy it is, and they’re onboard and stay with us,” says Stephen Scullion, Alltech Payroll Director.
“What Employment Hero Payroll has given us is a stronger relationship with our clients; I firmly believe that.”
It’s never been easier to process payroll
All of these benefits wouldn’t be half as enticing if you had to wade through a mountain of work to unlock them.
We want to bust the myth that a payroll practice is time-consuming to set up and run. With smart cloud payroll software like Employment Hero Payroll, there’s no need for laborious manual processes and spreadsheets. Our automated tools make payroll easy and efficient.
“Employment Hero Payroll has saved a phenomenal amount of workload for us with automated payroll and approvals,” says Matthew Coates.“A payroll that should have taken 15 minutes which might be a standard payroll could have ended up taking over an hour on previous systems. Now it takes no time.”
Still curious about why cloud payroll is the way forward? Learn how you can profit from cloud payroll services and grow your business sustainably.
How to set up your payroll outsourcing practice
So, you’ve made the fantastic decision to move ahead with your payroll practice. It’s time to take action, and we’ve made it even easier for you with these simple steps.
- Implement payroll software
Of course, we believe that implementing payroll software is the best way to kick your payroll practice into gear. Without software, you’ll find it’s much more challenging to reap the benefits of a payroll practice.
With Employment Hero Payroll, your implementation process will be simple and straightforward. You’ll be working with our expert implementations team who will help you get set up, educate you about the platform and talk you through any relevant integrations with your other business services platforms.
- Inform the relevant stakeholders within your firm
Once you’ve got the ball rolling on implementing your payroll software, it’s important to inform the relevant stakeholders on your team.
Efficient change management is important when making any updates to your service offering. Take the time to communicate the change to all members of your team, so they feel empowered and informed when speaking with clients.
For those who will be operating or selling the payroll service, ensure you properly train them in using your chosen software. They should feel comfortable in speaking about all areas of the practice to make your clients feel confident.
Remember, if you’re using Employment Hero Payroll, your team will also have access to our global Support Hub, which they can reference at any time.
- Update your website and other marketing materials
After your team has been fully briefed and are ready to respond to any client queries, you’re ready to make your payroll practice public!
Get on the front foot and make a list of all of the marketing assets and materials that you’ll want to create or update with the details of your new practice.
This may include, but is not limited to;
- Your website’s home page
- A dedicated web page
- Any directories including your Google Business page
- Any online listings that feature details about your business
- Your social media pages
- Your company email signatures
- Any upcoming newsletters to existing and prospective clients
There may be others to add to this list as well.
- Communicate the offering to your existing clients
Before you send any newsletters, it’s worth sending a dedicated email to your current clients to inform them of this exciting update to your services.
Assure them that their current service is not changing, but let them know that you welcome any enquiries about adding the service to their account. Give them the basic information around your payroll practice, and share that you’re using a best-in-class payroll software provider to streamline the offering.
Give them the details of a support person or account manager to contact if they wish to discuss anything around the new service. Finish the email by thanking them for their continued support.
Tips for growing your payroll practice
Now that you’ve done everything you need to do to set up your payroll practice, you’re ready to grow it! You may have already had some great traction from your current client base, but it’s now time to capture the attention of new clients.
- Be aware of local payroll legislation
To get the attention of future clients, it’s great to be able to talk the talk when it comes to payroll legislation. Payroll is an area of business services that is always evolving. From tax updates to wages increases, there’s a lot to keep on top of.
Employment Hero Payroll is here to support you in staying one step ahead. We want to make you look good!
Our internal experts pride themselves on implementing in-platform updates rapidly, and keeping our clients informed about changes big and small. This makes it easy for you to then pass on those details onto your own clients.
“When we see changes like tax updates, Employment Hero Payroll has them rolled out in a couple of hours,” says Melanie Gaensler. “We often have clients who will send us a news article that they’ve read highlighting changes to things like tax scales. Employment Hero Payroll will have updated the platform before the article was even released.”
You’ll also save on costs, as you won’t need to hire a legislation specialist to dedicate time to learning and implementing changes as they are released.
- Consider a branded payroll solution
Have you heard of ‘whitelabelling’? This clever idea involves a business applying their own branding to a platform that their clients use.
Why would it be helpful to brand your payroll platform? It’s all about trust.
When your clients use a payroll platform that is provided and operated by your business, it should look and feel like a service offered by your business. If you’re using payroll software that doesn’t have your business’ branding, your clients might be left scratching their heads as to who owns and operates the service.
You don’t need to create and develop your own payroll software from scratch. All you need is a great software provider, like Employment Hero Payroll, that makes white-labelling easy. Learn more about branded payroll here.
- Use marketing to spread the word
Finally, it’s time to make use of every marketing channel you have to spread the word!
Explore different avenues like social media marketing, search marketing, email marketing SEO (search engine optimisation) and online and print listings.
There’s also plenty of content that you can publish on your website which you can repurpose for different channels, like client testimonials, informational articles about payroll and videos which give a brief overview of your practice.
If you work with a team, don’t hesitate to ask for their support. Provide an image and some copy about your practice and ask them to share it on their professional social media channels. You might even consider establishing a client referral bonus to galvanise them to share even more.
Are you ready to offer payroll outsourcing?
From increasing the value of your business to diversifying your service offering and generating more revenue – there’s a lot to love about offering payroll outsourcing.
If you’re ready to establish or grow your payroll practice today, talk to our friendly sales team in your region.
