Dateline last week: your accountant calls and says, “Wow! Your overtime has just spiked. What is going on?” and you turn around and ask your payroll department to find out. After grabbing the payroll binders off of the shelf and spending a couple of hours doing analysis, you say, “Well, I am not quite sure, let me get with the department managers and ask them.” A couple of managers say they had some folks out sick or on vacation and the solved mystery is sent back up the organization, until the next time you get this type of question. There is a better way.
Humans perceive the world visually and have natural ability to absorb information and make decisions from the world around them, so why not provide data in a way that we naturally work? Static payroll data can be turned into meaningful pictures that tell a story to help you run your business most effectively.
This can be done by requesting your payroll company, CPA or payroll department create a download of the data you need. Then go to your IT department, if you even have one, and have them sit with you and create specialized Excel charts that you update yourself each pay period. Or, you can purchase a specialized software package that will perform these analytics for you, but require that you to have a Ph.D. in computer programming to create and maintain the charts and graphics.
Thankfully, there are payroll companies emerging that offer an out-of-the-box set of graphics and tools that allow you to simply access the reports with the graphics already built-in. These companies have tools that allow you to see trend data over time and also overlay different data, like overtime versus time off. Clients that use these tools can even allow their CPA or other trusted advisors to have access to proactively analyze the data.
Going back to our initial story, when the request comes in, you can report the results back in minutes, giving you your day back. Maybe the phrase should be: a picture is worth a thousand minutes.
For more information, call Augie Di Grazia, agency owner of Perquest Inc. at (760) 634-2315 or visit
www.perquest.com.
Humans perceive the world visually and have natural ability to absorb information and make decisions from the world around them, so why not provide data in a way that we naturally work? Static payroll data can be turned into meaningful pictures that tell a story to help you run your business most effectively.
This can be done by requesting your payroll company, CPA or payroll department create a download of the data you need. Then go to your IT department, if you even have one, and have them sit with you and create specialized Excel charts that you update yourself each pay period. Or, you can purchase a specialized software package that will perform these analytics for you, but require that you to have a Ph.D. in computer programming to create and maintain the charts and graphics.
Thankfully, there are payroll companies emerging that offer an out-of-the-box set of graphics and tools that allow you to simply access the reports with the graphics already built-in. These companies have tools that allow you to see trend data over time and also overlay different data, like overtime versus time off. Clients that use these tools can even allow their CPA or other trusted advisors to have access to proactively analyze the data.
Going back to our initial story, when the request comes in, you can report the results back in minutes, giving you your day back. Maybe the phrase should be: a picture is worth a thousand minutes.
For more information, call Augie Di Grazia, agency owner of Perquest Inc. at (760) 634-2315 or visit
www.perquest.com.