The logic of making money while spending it is an idea that remains valid in almost every aspect of life. Within this structure of thought, there is an unbreakable bond that extends from the individual, which is the smallest unit especially in terms of economic power, to institutional structures and from there to states. When we consider a large part of this chain in terms of business life, personnel costs, which occupy one of the most important shares in the operations of companies, are considerable.
When we think of individuals, they can be seen as small units, but the institutions where these individuals work are; In the simplest form, there are constructions that started or continue in the neighborhoods where we live, new facilities are opened every day, technology companies that make these algorithms understandable to us as digital life enters our bones, and many more have many personnel who manage, decide and implement their operations.
When we consider this incredible employment burden, the need to follow up many details in payroll processes within Human Resources Management, such as employee personnel transactions, salary payments, SSI and tax burden calculations, emerges. Every new need creates new business development areas and creates a need to update the laws regarding business life according to the requirements of the age.
The operational implementation and monitoring of all these developing events requires a high level of expertise and experience.
Additional law packages that need to be published in order to address the socioeconomic conditions of the countries or the deficiencies in the system remain on the agenda. The reflection of unlimited human needs in the changing world, as in daily life, is also seen in the programs where we follow Human Resources Management processes.
Especially since salary accrual transactions are processes that produce data for official notifications, it is important to be able to make updated calculations actively and quickly in parallel with the published laws. When we look at these processes, called payroll processes, as a branch of Human Resources Management, we can list the most crucial ones as follows.
- Tracking personal information
- Net to Gross / Gross to Net calculations for items such as wages and additional payments
- Scorecard preparation and calculation procedures
- Overtime management
- Overtime compensation transactions
- Union calculations
- Incentive law discounts
- Additional payment management
- Special deduction management (Enforcement, Installment Advance, Automatic deductions from Accounting Currents, etc.)
- Private insurance calculations (Automatic Participation BES, Health, Life Savings, Life Non-Accumulating, etc.)
- Accounting for the fee (Cost Center / Project basis, etc.)
- Bank payment transactions
- Compensation and Compensation Burden calculation procedures
- Minimum Labor Tracking
- Allowance/per diem calculations
When we look at these processes, every Human Resources professional who is devoted to this job and contributes to payroll processes agrees that they are all more than just a heading and that more in-depth work is needed in HR practices. In Human Resources Management, we carry out the transactions required by the legislation for payroll calculations, sometimes with studies that will contribute to our personal development, and sometimes with calculation formulas and macros nested in excel files.
In fact, sometimes we come to the point where we wish someone could do these things. There is also a classifying aspect of this job; In the 2000s, the task of compiling the documents we received through output channels into folders seems to have now been turned into keeping them in files on the companies’ main computers.
So, how possible is it to run an ideal payroll process in Human Resources Management and eliminate human error as much as possible? It is always possible with correct data entry in systems where the calculation algorithms are correct, where controls built into the system work instead of manual formulas, where the user is guided and the transitions in the process stages are interactive with each other.
In addition, while it is desired to make things easier in payroll processes in Human Resources Management, on the other hand, there is a need to give up classical ways of doing business.
For example, “starting payroll preparation from the first day of the month instead of always doing our payroll preparation processes at the end of the month” could be a good method, instead of keeping the information about who will be paid what and which deductions will be made from whom in the tables at the end of the month, it can be recorded in the system on time and the system automatically brings this to your monthly wage tally when the time comes.
Another example to change the way we do business is to “ensure that control and notifications made to official authorities at the end of salary calculations are managed through a single source.” In other words, the accrual items that occur when payroll is calculated should now be your only source. Every report and every notification should come from this source. If an arrangement is to be made, it should be made from this source.
What are the operations we will benefit from this resource? SSI notifications, bank payment orders, accounting accruals and hundreds of reports to be prepared are the results we can draw from this source.
The concept of payroll in Human Resources Management is needed by all industries that provide employment, and since there are no processes that have found application in an industry, it is extremely important that systems that make payroll calculations can work with common solutions instead of producing sectoral solutions. In other words, companies that do not have the same industry and are considered different customers with different payroll processes can be exemplified in this context.
For example, when you think of a holding company, it is obvious that it provides workforce in more than one sector. Let’s assume that this holding includes a company in the mining sector, a company that works on a project basis and engages in construction and contracting works, and a company that produces steel using unionized workers. In a structure that provides employment of this type, the flow of information that is desired to be kept centrally must of course be carried out through a single system and reporting must come from a single source.
In addition, while “Actual Service” calculation can be made for workers working underground within the payroll system for the company operating in the mining sector of the holding, incentive calculations should be made and reported systematically, based on the work carried out within the scope of “Overtime Equalization” monitoring and “R&D” activities of the steel production company in the same payroll system.
In addition, in the construction industry, for example, in the company whose projects are ongoing in the Southeastern Anatolia region, “Minimum Labor” should be able to be tracked and “Daily Scores for Normal Working / Overtime tracking” should be entered instantly by the users on the construction site through the system and approvals should be obtained through the system according to the HR approval route.
In holistic payroll processes in Human Resources Management, it is extremely important to include the required features of the system used in a single system.
Especially in the digital transformation processes experienced in large-scale companies, the necessity of using a common software for each department in order to create corporate memory in terms of HR data is felt. As it is known, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems are preferred to meet the needs of medium and large-sized companies in this context.
In addition, in companies that have difficulty in managing the requirements mentioned in the payroll application processes in the Human Resources Management modules of ERPs, unfortunately, there is no end to the person-dependent prepared tables and manually followed transactions. In our country, when payroll processes do not progress through systems, companies encounter advanced issues where manual calculations are not possible.
Some incentive calculations, for example; Unless the manual calculation of many of them or tracking of incentive expiration dates is done within the system, it puts a burden on Human Resources teams that they cannot handle, and sometimes results in companies losing their incentives due to mistakes made. Here, the ideal solution that ERP systems should have in Human Resources Management is to save time for the user and draw an easily controllable process in reporting.
So, to summarize, when we consider ERP systems holistically, which issues should be taken into consideration when making a choice?
At this point, applications in ERPs should present the operations needed by companies in the payroll processes of Human Resources Management to their users with the content of the Payroll Module. Apart from the classically required operations, it should include many functions that provide convenience to the users by creating automatic payrolls in wage calculation preparations and payroll preparation operations.
In terms of screen experience, users should be able to easily carry out many transactions and reports via table-type screens that users are familiar with. In addition, all existing incentive types should be able to be calculated in payroll transactions in response to companies’ need for incentive calculations. It should support users with processes that eliminate manual intervention, especially in R&D activities, from calculation to reporting of incentives.
In the SSI notifications section, it should be ensured within the Human Resources Management processes that users can easily receive declaration data even in the most complex declaration records. When project durations are tracked, it should be possible to create project-based costs, from creating values based on incentives through payroll calculation to reporting processes, and many more results can be obtained from the system.
In ERP’s Human Resources Management modules, additional payment transactions can be made from user screens even in standard installations with full parametric functions, additional payment calculation setups can be made from user screens, use of bulk advances in deduction management, installment advance request, approval and follow-up process, enforcement, alimony, union deductions, etc. Many more deduction processes should be managed and different deduction items needed should be created within the system.
At the same time, as in wage definitions, payments, deductions, etc. are made according to all currency codes defined in the system. values should be calculated.
In addition to all these transactions, ERPs should also have features in terms of wage confidentiality in Human Resources Management. For example, every table field in the system where the fee passes should be kept encrypted in the database. With this type of feature, even the most authorized user in the system who does not have an authorized user on the payroll should not be able to access wage information.
In a wage calculation in the payroll module, all detailed accrual items needed for a monthly payroll of just one person, from normal working hours to overtime, from additional payments to deductions, from private insurance to per diem/per diem calculations, from compensation calculations to incentive calculations, should be created. The classic Gross Wage we know, SSI Base, SSI Premiums, Income Tax Base, Income Tax, Stamp Tax, etc.
Apart from such items, these values of any overtime item or additional payment item (SGK Base, SSI Premiums, Income Tax Base, Income Tax, Stamp Tax, etc.) should be recorded in real time, one by one, in the accrual. In this way, the actual cost of any payment item can be easily obtained from ERP periodically.
Thus, there will be no need for manual estimated calculations, and detailed receipts required for accounting accruals should be created automatically in ERP. With the same features, budget calculations in the payroll module should also be made and budget calculations in different revisions in real time should be used in ERP.
Within ERP Applications, cost calculations that can meet every need should be ensured, the values of these calculations should be archived and presented in a wide perspective in reporting, and real-time employee costs, actual and future, should be kept holistically and in the most detailed way within the ERP system. The impact it creates in improving users’ ways of doing business and the solutions offered should save users time.
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