Discover the Advantages of Back Office Software for Staffing Agencies
June 25, 2024
Staffing software plays a vital role in a staffing company’s operation. Staffing software can help companies be more efficient and streamline tasks to drive business growth. Deciding on the right ATS and CRM solution is often a topic of discussion. Your back office software is just as important though, as it’s the heart that keeps the whole business circulating. If you currently don’t use back office software, you may be wondering what the advantages are to using a back office software for staffing, compared to other payroll and accounting solutions. In this article, we will take a deep dive into what back office staffing software is and the advantages of back office staffing software for staffing and recruiting agencies.
What is Back Office Staffing Software?
The first question to ask is what is back office staffing software? It is simply software designed for staffing that helps manage payroll and accounting tasks. These tasks can include payroll processing, billing, compliance management, general ledger management, accounts payable and receivable, reporting, and more. Back office solutions that are integrated with front office staffing software give staffing companies a bonus advantage, as it completely streamlines a staffing company’s business workflow.
If you are not using a back office staffing solution, you may be using a third-party solution to handle payroll and accounting. This is certainly a viable option for staffing agencies. The power of staffing-specific back office software, though, can help take staffing companies to the next level and drive business growth. By leveraging the advantages of back office staffing-specific software, you can avoid a lot of the hassles and workarounds that come with integrating separate solutions within a workflow.
Key Advantages of Implementing Back Office Staffing Software
Back Office staffing software that is fully integrated with a front office solution can bring instrumental results to staffing companies from improving overall efficiency and accuracy to cost savings and financial insights. We will look at all of the advantages of back office staffing software solutions from which your business stands to benefit.
Greater Efficiency and Visibility
A fully integrated front and back office solution allows information to flow between the two systems, eliminating double data entry. Information processed in the back office software can also be viewed immediately in the front office for full transparency. For example, payroll checks, W2’s, client invoices, and more could all be viewed in the front office. Greater visibility of back office information in the front office lets the whole team see what has been processed without the need to interrupt the back office team with questions. It also eliminates the need to toggle back and forth between solutions, keeping all of your data at your fingertips. Another advantage of back office staffing software is great customer service in the event that a customer or employee calls to ask about their invoice or check.
Elimination of Steps
Another staffing software advantage of an integrated front and back office solution is the ability to eliminate steps in your payroll and accounting processes. Since all information flows from front to back office, time is saved by eliminating the need to export and upload spreadsheets into a third-party system. All information in the front office is readily available in the back office for payroll and accounting.
Industry-Specific Needs Addressed
Staffing has very specific needs that can’t be addressed through non-staffing-specific payroll and accounting software. For example, if you place both direct hire and contract workers, you need multiple invoice formats to successfully process them with clients. Other staffing-specific situations could be a company having multiple EIN’s, branches, and line of business requirements. Staffing-specific back office solutions are designed to accommodate these unique needs.
Cost Savings
Staffing companies can also save money. All costs of an outside payroll and accounting service can be eliminated, including cost per check or W2. By bringing back office tasks in-house, you can eliminate the number of solutions used and save on costs by using one system for everything, while also cutting your reliance on outside companies and vendors.
Real-Time Financial Insights and Reporting
Back-office staffing software provides real-time financial reporting and insights for strategic decision-making. A full front and back office solution opens the door for even greater insights into your business. Back office data flows into the front office, giving front office users visibility into profitability, hours worked, billing, gross margin, sales analysis and more. Again, all information that is processed in the back office automatically populates to the front office for instant insights. Users and managers with the appropriate security can have access to this information to improve company profitability.
A front and back-office integration also allows staffing and recruiting companies to run advanced reports, such as general ledger reports, sales analysis, gross margin reports, client billing, commission reports, and revenue forecasting. These reports give “big picture” reporting insights into your business to see how you are financially performing, what areas are good to focus on for continued growth, and what areas need improvement. Access to these reports at your fingertips eliminates the time spent manually pulling information from different databases to build reports. This can cause errors and inaccurate reporting.
Enhanced Candidate and Client Experience
Streamlined back office operations allow staffing companies to better serve candidates and customers. Back office solutions that integrate with a full staffing software suite can give candidates and customers access to self-service tools through a Web Portal. This can include access to view paychecks, W2’s, 1099’s, invoices, and more. These self-service tools give your candidates and customers the power to access any of their information, at any time. Best of all, they are seeing your company branding each time they log in.
Choosing the Right Back Office Software for Your Agency
We reviewed the benefits of using a back office staffing software solution, but how do you choose the right system for your staffing company?
You will first want to assess your staffing agency needs. Make a rubric of must-haves and nice-to-haves as you assess staffing software solutions. This will be a guide to you as you see back office demos. Once you see all of the benefits of an integrated solution, you can determine if this back office software presents the right advantages for your company. You can see if your current ATS provider has an integrated back office, if not, it may be worth shopping around for a complete front and back office solution for your staffing business.
As you view demos, evaluate the user-friendliness of the software and ask about support services. If you encounter a problem while processing payroll, will you be able to get immediate help? We all know the importance of processing payroll on time, so if any issue were to arise, support being readily available is critical.
Lastly, be sure to involve all of the key people that will be users of the system in demos and in the decision-making process. They will be the ones using the system every day, so it will be important that they find the software easy to use. They will also be less likely to resist change if they are able to give input on the system they use.
Overcoming Challenges in Implementation
Switching to a new software solution is always a major change. There are many moving pieces involved. There are certain steps you can take to help ensure the transition goes smoothly.
The first hurdle you may encounter is resistance to change. It’s important to inform the whole team why the change is being made and how it will benefit everyone. It will also be beneficial to appoint one person to be the main lead and point of contact with the software provider. This is the go-to person that the software company will be in contact with during the implementation process. This will eliminate too many people being involved and help the implementation process go smoothly.
Training is also essential. Be sure not to skip training and involve all users in the training with the software provider. All software solutions have best practices for using the system, but a back office solution is especially complex. It is essential to have everyone using the system be properly trained so it is understood how to best use the software for success.
Lastly, be sure to set realistic timelines. You don’t want to have too aggressive of a timeline for the transition where you don’t have the time to properly implement the new system. See what the software provider suggests as a timeline and follow their lead as they are the experts in implementing back office solutions.
Back Office for Your Staffing Agency
As you can see, there are many advantages to using a back office staffing software solution. Your entire front and back office workflow can be streamlined to increase your staffing company’s overall efficiency. Manual tasks can be eliminated, and time can be saved, so more time can be dedicated to placing more candidates and growing business. Let’s also not forget about all of the reports and analytics that become available in order to see key insights into your business. If you currently aren’t using a back office staffing software solution, now is the time to reevaluate your back office processes and consider transitioning to a fully integrated front and back office solution.
Ready to make the transition to a complete front and back office staffing software solution? Schedule a demo of Ultra-Staff EDGE and see first-hand how your staffing company can capitalize on growth by making the transition.
Written by Jennifer Roeslmeier Mikels
Jennifer Roeslmeier Mikels is a Sr. Digital Marketing and Brands Manager at Automated Business Designs, developers of Ultra-Staff EDGE Staffing Software. Jennifer regularly publishes articles about key topics surrounding the staffing industry with both local and national staffing associations.