Rapid Results: 3 Steps To Transform Pay Run Approvals

Accountants can often find themselves in a holding pattern, waiting for client approvals on pay runs - a tedious process that can take longer than anticipated. This wait time doesn't just delay the pay run, but it also creates inefficiencies, hampers productivity, and can lead to potential errors in the process.

Here's a three-step strategy that significantly accelerates the approval process for pay runs, with 86% of pay runs created in Telleroo approved within a day.

Step 1: Establish clear roles and responsibilities

Establishing clear roles and requirements is a crucial first step in reducing the time taken to obtain pay run approvals. Within your accountancy firm, this means ensuring that everyone understands their responsibilities. This ranges from who creates the pay run, and who scrutinises the details for potential errors, to who seeks the final approval from the client. When everyone in the team knows precisely what they need to do and when, it reduces the potential for confusion and delays.

Externally, with clients, clarity is equally important. Clients should be aware of deadlines for providing necessary inputs and approvals. They should also know who their point of contact is within the firm for any questions or concerns regarding the pay run. By setting these expectations upfront, you can foster a more efficient and effective process, resulting in quicker pay run approvals and improved productivity within the accounting practice.

It's also crucial to align with your clients as to whether you can approve pay runs. 38% of accountancy firms using Telleroo have permission to approve client pay runs.

Step 2: Set user permissions

Telleroo works with the established roles and responsibilities within your firm. You can set up approval roles that mirror your processes with clients, ensuring that each pay run follows a consistent, streamlined path from creation to approval.

Clients and team members have individual logins and can be assigned as a:

• Viewer - Can view pay runs and payments but bank details are censored.
• Creator - Ability to create pay runs for approval and set up connections to other apps such as the Xero bank feed.
• Reviewer - Set up a review within your firm to review the pay run before it reaches your client.
• Approver - Can approve pay runs that are awaiting approval.
• Admin - Allows the user to add/edit users to Telleroo. This includes the ability to amend their own roles.

You can assign team members to multiple clients, with different roles. Using a single log-in, team members can access all the clients they have been assigned to.

These permissions are applicable to supplier, payroll, and expense payments. Telleroo stands out as the only app that offers a two-way sync with both Xero Bills and Xero Payroll. However, clients may be using various other systems, and this is where Telleroo excels. It seamlessly integrates with popular providers and simplifies any required imports.

Payroll software is the most popular choice for additional integration. 83% of client accounts that have additional integrations within Telleroo are incorporating alternative payroll software.

Step 3: Make approvals easy with automation

Telleroo's automatic email notifications act as a significant time-saver. Instead of manually chasing clients for approvals, Telleroo automatically sends email prompts to those responsible for giving the green light. These reminders help keep the process on track and ensure that no pay run lingers in the approval stage longer than necessary. Clients also receive notifications and reminders when they need to fund their account for payments to be sent.

Here are the results for pay runs created in 2023:

• 86% of pay runs have been approved within a day.
• 95% of pay runs have been approved in less than five days.

You can view Telleroo's end-to-end bulk payments solution for accountants here. Telleroo saves hours for PEM and ensures urgent requests take seconds for Wenodo to complete.

Do your clients use Xero Payroll, or are they part of the 83% using alternative payroll software? Let me know in the comments!

Steven Redmayne