In this blog, we explore the widespread division between Payroll and Payments, and the challenges it causes for global organizations, as well as why unlocking the full value of both functions requires greater alignment and a deeper understanding of how they support each other.
Unifying global payroll and payments solutions can deliver the process improvement and productivity boost that competitive multinationals seek, while delivering a more responsive and consistent employee experience worldwide.
The challenge comes in overcoming the divide in understanding that persists between the two functions, and communicating the benefits of alignment to the decision-makers who may not even be aware that a division exists. This requires payroll and payments teams to acknowledge what they have in common and identify the strengths each function brings to the pay table.)
Like payroll, the process of paying workforce salaries and statutory payments to authorities requires very specific skills and expertise, and is largely out of view for most business stakeholders.
And like payroll, the task of making payments becomes more complicated as companies expand into new locations and begin to need global service. At surface level, it appears the similarities end there.
If payroll is a poorly understood back office function, payments is its rarely seen foreign cousin. They’re related, but speak a different language and have separate interests.
However, the same technological developments that boost speed, accuracy, and efficiency in payroll can be applied to payments. Just as aligning payroll with closely related yet distinct functions like human resources can significantly improve both areas, aligning payments with its equally pay-focused counterpart can advance the capabilities of both.
Although payments and payroll focus on two distinctly different aspects of getting employees paid, they share that primary goal and responsibility.
The Payroll team collects and processes the data to determine which amounts go to employees, taxes, and contributory funds, and the Payments team moves money according to those calculations. One can’t function without the other, and the employee needs both.