Restaurant Payroll Systems – How They Can Improve Your Restaurant’s Profitability

It is safe to say that running a restaurant can be one of the most rewarding ventures if you do it right. That means that managing such an establishment can be challenging in one way or another. This statement is especially true if you are based in New York and have not considered Premier Payroll Solutions. But you might ask, how can restaurant payroll systems boost profits?

New York’s restaurant industry grew by 61%, according to the details herein. The growth of establishments was at 44% before the pandemic, which is double the overall rate of growth, which implies that the sector is quite promising in terms of what restaurant owners can expect going forward.

You also need to understand that several factors dictate whether a restaurant will fail or succeed. Of course, the most critical deciding element, in this case, is profitability. If you are a restaurant owner in New York, you know that you can do excellent business from time to time. 

However, realizing profitability will be a problem if you fail to leverage opportunities to lower costs when losses become a norm. Otherwise, you will be facing various financial challenges shortly. 

Additionally, as a restaurant owner in the New York or Long Island area, you have multiple responsibilities. These responsibilities include being an accountant, business owner, coach, and manager. In that case, you need to complete particular tasks and manage customer experiences and workers simultaneously. These challenges can be a lot to handle.

When that is the case, giving your payroll process the attention it deserves is almost impossible. That is where Premier Payroll Solutions comes in handy. So, how can restaurant payroll systems boost profitability? Here are the details.

How Restaurant Payroll Systems Can Boost Profitability

1. Promote Efficient Labor-Planning

Part of the significant roles payroll plays is tracking labor. Therefore, clearly defining your employees’ roles and paying before hiring them helps you leverage your workers’ training budget. So, your onboarding process for new employees needs to be clear for your labor planning to be more efficient.

Doing so will help you smoothly integrate new workers in addition to ensuring the following:

• Allowing your general managers to plan their workers’ schedules better.
• Setting up the correct tax brackets.
• Collecting the proper paperwork.

Also, you do not need to manually refer to each employee’s profile when planning their payroll or schedule. That is possible by proactively setting up new employee profiles with their available workdays, payment information, job position, and other paperwork in your payroll software. Ultimately, that will boost your restaurant’s profitability.

2. They Automate Calculation of Wages

Still, relying on calculators and Excel sheets when calculating wages as a restaurant owner? You are spending time you should redirect to other valuable activities. The solution is automating the process, and Premier Payroll Solutions can help you. 

Beyond automating the calculation of the hours each employee works, facilitating shift premium calculations is probably the most significant benefit of using restaurant payroll systems. That includes split shift pay, statutory holiday pay, and overtime, which can be a pain when calculating manually. It is even a bigger problem if the wages you pay some of your workers to differ from what the rest receive.

Moreover, when running payroll in various states and provinces, eligibility and calculation rules may vary. For instance, if you operate a restaurant in New York and are considering expanding to other locations, here is what you can expect.

• In Alberta, employees must work their scheduled days before and after the statutory holiday, and such individuals also need to work on the day of the statutory holiday.
• Workers in California must observe daily and weekly overtime. Note that the federal overtime rule, in this case, only follows weekly overtime.
• Qualification for two factors for eligibility for statutory holiday pay is a requirement for British Columbia employees. First, they must be employed for at least 30 days before a statutory holiday. Secondly, such individuals must have worked and earned wages within 15 to 30 days.

It is not unusual to find a restaurant manager who has a strong background in payroll compliance rules but remains prone to making mistakes. Such issues can be extremely costly to resolve, and restaurant payroll systems allow you to reduce the risk of human error significantly. In that case, investing in this tool will ultimately increase profitability.

   3. Facilitate Accurate Timekeeping

There is a direct relationship between payroll and timekeeping. To streamline your payroll processes to save money and time, you should integrate payroll software with a time tracking system. That is possible by automatically funneling manager-approved hours straight to your payroll provider.

You automatically eliminate time-consuming tasks by pushing the hours your employees work to payroll. These are calculating applicable wages and approving hours worked. Reducing the steps and time you spend tracking work hours allows you to save payroll expenses and spare time from improving your sales during non-peak hours, eventually boosting profitability.

  4. Ensure Employer Compliance

Restaurant payroll systems can help your restaurant in ways you may not know you need assistance. One of the areas where that can be evident is the case of compliance. Note that corporate compliance is a general term for company programs for preventing any violations of laws, standards, regulations, and codes.

You also need to understand that compliance works in two different ways. First, compliance with all applicable laws, including state, federal, and local authorities, is not an option. Your restaurant must also comply with appropriate safety and inspection standards, federal regulations on harassment, relevant Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) standards, among others.

Secondly, setting policies and procedures that your workers must comply with is critical. That suggests that posting safety regulations and other relevant standards for employee dissemination may be necessary. You will also need written policies on drugs and alcohol, paid time off (PTO), and progressive discipline.

If you wonder whether written policies and procedures are necessary, understand that they are part and parcel of your restaurant’s overall risk management strategy. For example, failure to spell out policies on progressive discipline may lead to a lawsuit once you decide to terminate an employee. That may be rare, but written policies and your ability to show you complied with the same will protect you. 

Restaurant payroll systems ensure compliance and facilitate the processing of required tax and withholding taxes and the development of employee handbooks with clear policies and procedures. In turn, you will avoid expensive lawsuits, which will improve your restaurant’s profitability.

Conclusion

When shopping for the ideal payroll software as a restaurant owner in the New York or Long Island area, ensure you select a user-friendly solution. That way, you will make one of the intimidating, time-consuming tasks in restaurant management less daunting. 

Such a solution will save you sizable financial resources and the time to think about the next big move for your restaurant. That is what you can expect by opting for Premier Payroll Solutions. If you need a free quote from your local NY restaurant payroll provider, contact us today!