Local payroll software offers competitive advantage to SMEs

MANILA, Philippines - Most small and medium-sized entrepreneurs today have at one time or another relied on internationally branded software to manage day-to-day operations.

A growing number, nevertheless, are realizing the competitive advantage offered by locally developed programs that address the needs of Philippine businesses, particularly in the area of wages and other human resource-related benefits.

Chingky Fuentes, senior partner of IT solution provider Synthesis Innovations, discloses that software designed to accurately figure out company and employee payments to Philippine government agencies is gaining a following.

SyncWages, which allows companies to easily comply with the requirements of the Social Security System, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), is now used by a number of companies in manufacturing, semiconductors, services and multinationals starting up businesses in the Philippines.

Synthesis produces SyncWages, an out-of-the-box streamlined payroll software that enables quick computation of wages and government reports.

When the BIR revised the tax table last year, for instance, a number of companies appreciated the flexibility offered by SyncWages.

Unlike other software programs that are “hard-coded” and can be readjusted only by the supplier to accommodate such changes, SyncWages gives users the option to tweak the program according to their needs.

Fuentes relates that growing companies and even full-sized ones especially appreciate the option to customize programs to address their specific needs.

“Computing wages involves a number of permutations. The more employees there are, the more potentially complicated the permutations become. A program that can easily handle changes can make all the difference for a growing business,” she says.

She notes that enterprises are finding out that software programs that offer flexibility and accuracy free up personnel for more important functions.

Fuentes says, “They appreciate a program like ours that can be synchronized with any timekeeping tool and can systematically compute time-ins and time-outs, add the registered overtime, cross check with authorization forms, apply all necessary deductions and print out a comprehensive report.”

Such programs allow them to focus on growing the organization, the prerequisite for an expanding and profitable business.