Guide
Moving payroll from Excel to payroll software, without a bad month
Excel is a good payroll tool for ten people and a risky one for a hundred. The switch is less about software than about writing down rules that have only ever lived in one person’s head.
Signs the spreadsheet has reached its limit
None of these is dramatic on its own. Together they mean payroll depends on luck.
- Only one person can run payroll, and they cannot take leave at month end
- Attendance is retyped from the machine’s export
- Overtime, advances and loans are tracked in separate files
- A formula was overwritten once and nobody noticed for months
- An employee disputes a payslip and the answer takes a day to find
Write the rules down first
Software applies rules exactly. That is its value, and it means the rules must be stated. How is a late arrival treated? What is the grace period? At what rate is overtime paid, and does it differ on a holiday? How is an advance recovered? Which deductions apply to whom?
Expect to find that two people in the company answer these differently. Settling that is the most valuable part of the project, whatever software you choose.
Run one month side by side
Run the new system alongside the spreadsheet for one full payroll and compare every payslip. Each difference is either a rule the software has wrong or a mistake the spreadsheet has been making. Both are worth finding before money moves.
Mistakes that cause a bad first payday
Most failed switches fail for ordinary reasons.
- Switching in the middle of a month
- Loading employee data without checking it
- Skipping the parallel month to save time
- Not telling employees their payslip will look different
Questions
Common questions
How many employees before software is worth it?
There is no fixed number. Complexity matters more than headcount: shifts, overtime, hours-based pay and advances make a spreadsheet fragile long before size does.
Do we need biometric attendance first?
No, but it helps. If attendance is already captured by a device, connecting it removes the largest source of retyping and dispute.
What should we ask a payroll vendor?
Ask to see your own hardest case calculated, ask how a rule change affects past months, and ask who can see salary data and how that is controlled.
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