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Home : Essentials of Payroll : Automate Fax-Back of Payroll Forms
Automate Fax-Back of Payroll FormsAutomate Fax-Back of Payroll FormsA payroll clerk is the unofficial keeper of the payroll and human resources forms. Employees come to this person to collect these sheets, which can vary from a request to change a payroll deduction to a request to change a pension deduction amount. If a company has many employees or many locations (which necessitates mailing forms to recipients), the chore of handing out forms can take up a large amount of staff time. To avoid distributing forms to employees, you can set up an automated fax-back system. This best practice requires employees to contact a computer, either using a touch-tone phone or through the computer system, and request that the appropriate form be sent to a fax number accessible by the employee. If the employee has computer access, he or she can also download the form directly and either fill it out on his or her computer or print it, fill it out, and mail it back. Because all of the forms are digitized and stored in the computer's memory, it is possible to make the transmission with no human intervention. For example, an employee accesses the system through a computer, scrolls through a list of available forms, highlights the needed item, enters the send-to fax number, and logs off. The form arrives a few moments later. Under a manual distribution system, it is common practice to issue large quantities of forms to outlying locations, so that the payroll staff is not constantly sending them small numbers of additional forms; the disadvantage of this practice is that these forms end up being used for a long time, frequently past the date when they become obsolete. An automated fax-back system eliminates this problem by making available for transmission only the most recent version. This is a boon to the payroll staff, who might otherwise receive old forms that do not contain key information, thus requiring them to contact employees to gather the missing data, or even forcing employees to resubmit their requests on the current forms. In addition, the system can automatically send along an extra instruction sheet with each distributed form so that employees can easily fill out forms without having to call the payroll staff for assistance. An automated fax-back system can be expensive, so you should determine all costs before beginning an implementation. The system includes a separate file server linked to one or more phone lines (for receiving touch-tone phone requests, as well as for sending out forms to recipient fax machines), plus a scanner for digitizing payroll forms. The best way to justify these added costs when servicing a large number of employees is that the system saves a large amount of staff time. Without enough employees to justify costs, the system should not be installed. Be sure to leave enough time in the implementation schedule to review the variety of fax-back systems on the market prior to making a purchase, as well as for configuring the system and testing it with employees. If the system has an option for document requests both by phone and computer, then implement one at a time to ensure that each variation is properly set up. 113
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