If you’re a business owner, the chances are high that you are familiar with payment systems and the struggle of paying someone who isn’t on your payroll. Where your payroll system may work perfectly well with your contracted employees, it can become a bit more tricky when working with volunteers, speakers or short-term employees. In this article, we’re going to discuss how your business can pay people who aren’t in your payroll system, in an efficient way.
Understanding payroll systems
Before we dive deeper into the ways of paying people who aren’t on your regular payroll let’s first look at what a payroll system is in itself. Whatever system you may use, it all comes down to the same thing: paying your regular employees who are contracted to work for your business every week, month or any preferred timescale. When employing someone, it’s crucial to keep track of their working hours, as well as taxes, bank account information and other private information such as their full names and birth dates. In other words: private information that needs to be secured. This is why it’s important to invest in a payroll system that offers security for your business and your employees.
However, when it comes to hiring people on a short term basis, whether that’s for an event, a project that is only running for a month or people on a volunteer basis, paying them is always a nightmare. It is not effective to add them to your regular payroll system but simply transferring the money into their bank account is another no go. When it comes to paying people that aren’t necessarily on your payroll, vHelp comes in handy.
vHelp is a platform that makes reimbursing volunteers, research participants, temporary staff or anyone not on your payroll super easy and accessible. Even if it’s just a one-off payment!
Payments to volunteers or temporary workers
So how does a platform such a vHelp make it easy to send payments to one-off volunteers or other temporary workers? It’s actually very simple. The creators of vHelp have created a platform and app that allows organisations to register and safely store their bank account details. They get volunteers, research participants or temporary staff to send them an expense claim through the website or app. As a business owner, you will receive these payment requests in a clear overview that gives you the ability to either accept or deny the request. For the approved claims, the money will be taken out of the organisation and passed to the user securely. The result? Quick payments, lots of time saving and a successful collaboration from beginning to end.
The Difference Between Reimbursements and Payments
When it comes to paying or reimbursing volunteers, it’s important to understand the difference. Freelancers/contractors and volunteers/service users can require different forms of payment. Whereas some may be provided with a contract, in which is defined how much they will get paid and what they will deliver for your business, it can be less clear for other temporary or ad hoc resources. In some cases, a freelancer or contractor might send you an invoice after the work has been completed which needs to be paid within the next 30 calendar days. However, especially when it comes to volunteers, research participants or speakers at events, it may be the case that they only have to be reimbursed for their expenses. Think of travel expenses, work meals or staying at a hotel for the night before an event. These types of payments are extremely difficult to process when the people in question aren’t on your payroll system. Luckily, vHelp makes it possible to quickly pay or reimburse these people without fuss.
