I recently saw an opening to fill the position with administrative functions that were practically the one who prepares the payroll and the salary offered caught my attention: $10,000.00 net per month.
That announcement made me curious to know how much it costs to calculate payroll.
In the middle of 2023 in Mexico, to make a payroll, a person is still needed to perform the necessary processes so that the amount to be paid to each worker is deposited.
It is true that many processes have already been automated, but it still requires a human being to coordinate and execute those processes.
It is not only the cost of that person who, by the way, must be very well prepared to be able to perform the calculations acceptably well (in Mexico the legal framework applicable to payrolls is complicated), and having someone good costs (more than that $10,000 net).
In addition to the human cost, software or applications are also required to speed up the calculations.
A payroll can be calculated by hand on a sheet of paper and calculator, but an application is required to generate the payroll receipt under the XML format of a CFDI.
In many companies and firms, payrolls are still processed in spreadsheets, although most of them use specific programs to perform the calculations, stamp the payroll receipt, send the files to the employees, generate the file that will be sent to the banking portal for the dispersion of funds to the bank accounts of the workers, etc.
These systems are very useful tools that facilitate these processes, but there is still the need for a person to operate these applications (artificial intelligence - AI - has not yet arrived in this field to do everything that the payroll analyst does today, but it will surely come).
In order to run these programs and applications you need: computer equipment, internet, electricity, a desk, a chair for the person who operates the equipment to sit on, an adequate physical space to concentrate on the processes and calculations (raise your hand if you are a "payroll clerk" who has ever made a mistake in payroll and who knows that it is very important to concentrate when running the processes to generate a payroll), etc., etc., etc.
As we can see, calculating payroll costs more than the salary and benefits of the person doing the calculation, and the more you want to save, the more you increase the risk of making mistakes in the calculations, which in turn generates extra costs to the company.
A real, safe and convenient option to generate savings in the cost of preparing payrolls is to hire the professional services of payroll outsourcing.
For a fraction of the cost of having someone preparing payroll, you can have not just one person, but a whole team of experts running the processes to pay salaries and employee presentations each payroll period.
Whether with in-house staff or with a maquila service, calculating payroll has its own particular costs, but when looking for savings, be careful because remember that "cheap is expensive".
Finally, I invite you to subscribe to our blog to stay up to date with the world of payroll and more recommendations like this one.
See you next time.
