You have researched payroll outsourcing, made your list of the services that you need, so now it’s time to interview companies who offer what you need to streamline your business operations. Choose about three companies to interview and be sure to ask them the same questions so that you can reflect on their answers later when you are ready to compare companies and make your choice. If you have never outsourced payroll tasks before, you may also want to speak with some of your trusted colleagues to see what type of experiences they have had with this type of service. What questions will you ask? Review some of the ones offered below to help find the best outsourcing payroll experts for your business.

1. Ask a potential payroll company if they can do a managed services programme for you. If you prefer, can they tailor a program especially for your company? You may not know exactly what type of payroll services you want yet and an honest discussion with company representatives can help you focus on what will work better for your company.

2. Next, ask them if they can handle automatic enrolment, if they are familiar with RTI, and enquire about how they stay up to date with legislation that governs your business. They need to keep your business in compliance, which will avoid fines and penalties for failure to file documents in a timely fashion.

3. You should ask how they vet their employees, and about their security and handling procedures for the sensitive information associated with your employees and their payslips. You must be able to trust the outsourced payroll specialists with the data you send them; having peace of mind is essential in any business dealings that you undertake with an outside source.

4. Along these same lines, enquire about how you will transfer data to them, the security that is involved, and what will occur if there is a breach in their security. In today’s world, maintaining integrity with documentation is a requirement of any business organisation. Try to use the format that they like to use and keep your own documentation organised so that you can easily access it when it’s time for you to submit it to the payroll specialists. This can also help you to answer quick questions that may arise with a particular payroll work order.

5. Ask how they handle mistakes that are made by their payroll professionals. You will want to know how quickly problems will be addressed and what steps will be taken to correct problems with payslips or reports that are prepared on your behalf.

6. Finally, will the company provide professional development for you that pertains to the latest trends in accounting and payroll? It’s important for you to be on the same page with your payroll team so that the collecting and exchange of information will be smooth and error-free. It’s important that you continue to learn about advances in the payroll sector that can impact how you deal with your employees.