TSP Manpower Company: Payroll system

1. Time-Consuming Processes

Every month, the admin staff at TSP Manpower had to manually enter work hours for each employee into an Excel sheet. They had to input different types of work data, such as:

• Normal workdays
• Overtime hours
• Holiday shifts
• Sunday hours

This process was not only repetitive but also incredibly time-intensive. For a workforce exceeding 150 employees, even small mistakes in data entry required hours of rechecking and recalculation, further delaying payroll generation.

2. Prone to Human Errors

Since everything was done manually, errors were inevitable:

• Incorrect formulas in Excel cells could skew the calculations.
• Misentered pay rates could lead to overpayments or underpayments.
• Missing work hour records caused discrepancies in employee salaries. These errors often resulted in employee dissatisfaction, complaints, and a loss of trust in the payroll system.

3. Difficulty in Handling Complex Pay Structures

The company’s pay structure included various rates for different types of work:

• Overtime rates
• Sunday work rates
• Holiday allowances While Excel sheets could store basic calculations, managing such complex rate structures was challenging and frequently caused confusion. Admins had to manually cross-check every entry against the respective pay rate, which increased the likelihood of mistakes.

4. Lack of Centralized Employee Data

With employee details scattered across different files and sheets, finding or updating information was cumbersome. For example:

• Searching for an employee’s EPF number or NIC/passport details required navigating through multiple sheets.
• Keeping employee records up to date (e.g., when new employees joined or old ones left) was chaotic and inefficient.

This lack of centralization meant that the team was wasting precious time on non-productive tasks, leaving less room for strategic decision-making.

5. Inadequate Reporting and Documentation

TSP Manpower struggled to generate payslips and payroll reports quickly. With their manual system:

• Generating a detailed payslip for each employee was a tedious process that often resulted in inconsistencies.
• There was no easy way to keep a comprehensive history of payroll records for future reference or audits.

As the business grew, this lack of robust reporting became a critical bottleneck.

6. Limited Scalability

The reliance on Excel sheets worked when the company had fewer employees, but as the workforce grew, the limitations of this system became increasingly apparent. The admins found themselves overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data they had to manage manually. Without automation, the system could not keep up with the company’s scaling needs.

7. Employee Complaints and Dissatisfaction

Errors in salary calculations frequently led to underpayments, which naturally upset employees. Handling these complaints meant even more work for the admin team, who had to double-check calculations and address concerns one by one. This created unnecessary friction between employees and management.