Paying workers is a pretty important part of all businesses, but it remains a process that we love to hate. And when you really think about it, it doesn't make sense that payroll - a core process of all companies - makes us feel this way. So why is paying our teammates frustrating and dreadful rather than easy and exciting? At Salsa, we spend lots of time understanding the industry we're disrupting with our embedded payroll solution, and we have a few answers. Today, I'll explore some key structural factors that have kept payroll on the back burner of change for so long, and we'll examine how embedded payroll presents a promising solution to these challenges.
The Evolution of Business Software (Except Payroll)
Over the years, we've seen remarkable improvements in business software. Expense reporting, for example, was a chore we all dreaded. But today, thanks to fantastic software solutions, it's become a breeze. Almost every piece of business software has gotten easier to use and more tailored to the businesses it serves. Farmers, gym owners, and restaurants each have new software tools that are made just for their business, but payroll has avoided every part of this evolution.
Disconnected Payroll Systems: The source of the pain
Our payroll solutions have always been separate from the other software we use to track employee data, such as hours worked and earnings. And this disconnect is the source of most of our problems - and errors! Have you ever thought about what "running payroll" means? It's a term we'd love to kill because it describes manually transferring earnings data into payroll systems and verifying it. This slow and error-prone process is done every time businesses pay employees. And this dynamic exists because companies track employees in one place and pay them elsewhere.
[.c-highlighted]Wouldn't a better approach be: paying our employees in the same place we track their work?[.c-highlighted] Imagine if payroll systems knew when businesses hired new people, when employees took a vacation, or when workers earned tips. These may not sound like revolutionary breakthroughs, but they're only now possible for the first time.
Horizontal Software: One Size Fits None
Another fundamental issue with payroll is that it's always been horizontal. Horizontal products have to serve every user the same way. Take Microsoft Excel, for example. Experts and beginners, businesses or individuals - all use the same product. And it kind of works for their specific use cases. This approach has never been successful for payroll. We know this because it ranks lowest in satisfaction against all other business tools (average NPS: -6).
In many businesses, there's literally no task that is less enjoyable than payroll. Whether you're using an old or a new provider, the real issue is that each business has different needs, and payroll has never been able to adapt. Payroll isn't loved because you've always had to adjust your company to accommodate the payroll system, not the other way around.
It's easy to understand how we got here: payroll is prohibitively expensive to build, and making a payroll engine for every industry's needs hasn't been practical - yet.
Embedded Payroll Products are Connected AND Tailored
Embedded payroll is the game-changer we've all been waiting for because it's connected and industry-specific. It allows platforms to build payroll directly into the software businesses use to manage their employees and their data. No more juggling between systems, manual data entry, and fewer errors: there's much to like!
Embedded payroll allows developers to tailor the product to meet the specific needs of their customers. That means it's a vertical-specific solution that finally acknowledges the unique requirements of each industry. For example, barbershops no longer have to use a payroll tool that was designed for a software startup. Cafes can get a different tool than restaurants. The difference will finally make payroll delightful.
The future is ready for you to build
Salsa is by far the fastest and easiest way to launch a payroll product. Is your platform ready to build a next-generation product that will finally take the pain out of payroll? Reach out to our team to get started today.
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