How to Simplify Your Payroll Process With Zoho Payroll

In December of last year, Zoho Corporation launched Zoho Payroll, a software designed to simplify payroll processing and ensure compliance for businesses in the United States. This software was originally launched in 2019, with versions for India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but it was only in 2024 that Zoho launched this new version for the U.S.

“Zoho Payroll addresses the struggles our customers face in finding a system that keeps up with endless revisions to tax codes, maintains accuracy and compliance across departments, and generates financial reports,” says Raju Vegesna, Chief Evangelist of Zoho. “The growth of our array of finance apps is driven by our customers, and that will never change,” he added.

The launch of this software was one of Zoho’s solutions to address the payroll challenges faced by businesses operating in the U.S. One of their common pain points is the complexity of payroll and tax regulations. While other countries may not be aware, the U.S. payroll system is highly complex, perhaps more so than neighboring countries. Businesses must comply with different federal, state, and local tax laws and regulations. Without an effective payroll solution, data for calculations are prone to errors, especially when done manually.

Additionally, businesses struggle to keep up with changing tax rates, filings, compliance management, and employee compensation.

Since Zoho’s mantra is to listen to their customers, Zoho Payroll was built to simplify the processes of automating tax calculations and running payroll with just a few clicks, ensuring businesses remain compliant with ever-changing payroll regulations.

What are the features of Zoho Payroll?

1. Employees Management 

This software simplifies the onboarding process for organisations. With just a few steps, you can enroll new hires quickly and efficiently, ensuring a smooth transition into the workplace. Zoho Payroll also supports both salaried and hourly employees, offering the flexibility to pay them according to either their fixed or hourly wages. In addition to these features, you can streamline the process of collecting W-4 forms to ensure accurate federal income tax withholding for your newly hired employees—this not only simplifies the process but also reduces paperwork.

If you wish to switch to Zoho Payroll now but are concerned about handling large amounts of data, there’s no need to worry. This software allows the easy import of payroll data, ensuring that records remain organised and intact.

2. Payroll Processing

If your concern is making salary payments, Zoho Payroll is the right solution. This software provides a comprehensive dashboard that offers an overview of upcoming payroll cycles, ensuring that payroll is prepared in advance. You can make salary payments with ease and efficiency. Additionally, you have the option to choose from a flexible pay schedule, which can be set to weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly, or quarterly, based on your operational needs.

If you're on vacation, Zoho Payroll supports timely salary deposits, enabling organisations and businesses to pay employees securely. If accuracy is a concern, Zoho Payroll features an automatic system that precisely calculates employees' gross-to-net pay based on hours worked. The software also offers mobile access for employees, allowing them to monitor their earnings, deductions, and taxes directly through the portal.

3. Benefits Management 

Apart from the employee management feature, Zoho Payroll also helps businesses provide benefits to employees. With more than 16 pre-built benefit options available in the software, organisations can now enroll their employees in health, dental, and vision insurance, as well as retirement plans.

By offering multiple customised plans, you are not only helping your employees allocate their money correctly but also ensuring that their futures are secure. These plans are deducted from each pay period. Moreover, you can automatically set unused vacation time to be paid out as a reward, as part of your employees' well-deserved benefits.

4. Taxes and Compliance

As part of Zoho Payroll’s promise to its customers, this software helps businesses alleviate their concerns about taxes and compliance. By implementing Zoho Payroll into your system, it will automatically calculate and file all your payroll taxes, ensuring timely and accurate tax payments. From local to federal taxes, Zoho Payroll handles all aspects of tax calculation, withholding, and payments, ensuring your business remains compliant. Through this software, your employees’ taxes will also be calculated accurately, factoring in contributions to ensure the correct amount is deducted.

One of the pain points businesses face is the constantly changing tax rates and payroll regulations, but with this software, you can ease your worries. Zoho Payroll is updated with changes and will automatically apply any updates to the system. In addition, Zoho Payroll creates digital IRS forms such as the 940, 941, and 944, along with state forms, for easy tax reporting.

5. Integrations 

Like many of Zoho’s key features, Zoho Payroll also integrates with other Zoho software, allowing organisations to manage all payroll-related tasks using a single platform. This integration ensures that payroll operations are streamlined and more efficient.

The software automatically syncs payroll with Zoho Books, which is Zoho's tax-friendly accounting software. It also posts journal entries after each pay run, ensuring financial records remain accurate. Additionally, by linking Zoho Payroll with Zoho Expense, organisations can easily process salary payments and reimburse expenses together, simplifying the management of travel and expense repayments during each pay run.

How to get started with Zoho Payroll?

Step 1: Visit Zoho Payroll’s website: https://www.zoho.com/us/payroll/

Step 2: Set up your company profile. Once logged in, you will need to set up your company profile, which includes your business name, address, registration details, and other relevant information.

Step 3: Configure the pay schedule. This step enables you to set up your payroll structure and define pay schedules. Zoho Payroll offers the flexibility to create weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly, or quarterly pay schedules, tailored to your business needs.

Step 4. Configure taxes. Configure the tax settings for your region, including income tax, social security contributions, and other deductions. Zoho Payroll will automatically calculate the taxes, ensuring compliance with local regulations.

Step 5. Configure direct deposit. Set up direct deposit to ensure automatic payment for your employees. You'll need to link your bank account and provide employee banking details for seamless payment processing.

Step 6. Add your employees. Enter your employees' details, including names, contact information, salaries, and tax information. You can either add employees manually or import their data from your current system.

Step 7. Configure prior payroll. If you're switching from another system, configure your previous payroll data to facilitate a smooth transition. This step ensures that past payroll details, such as salaries, deductions, and taxes, are accurately reflected in Zoho Payroll.

Final Thought

If you’re a business looking to simplify and automate your payroll processes, Zoho Payroll is undoubtedly the right solution. With this software integrated into your system, you won’t have to worry about compliance with tax laws and frequently changing regulations, because Zoho Payroll will handle it for you. Furthermore, paying your employees will take less of your time, as this software streamlines the process of calculating salaries, deductions, bonuses, and taxes.

Above all, Zoho Payroll's standout feature is its user-friendly interface, which allows businesses to manage payroll tasks even without specialised payroll knowledge.

If you're ready to integrate Zoho Payroll into your system, FWRD is here to make the process seamless and stress-free! Our team is ready to help you set up and optimise Zoho Payroll, ensuring smooth and accurate payroll management.

Get in touch with us today, and let’s take your business to the next level!