True cost of running payroll — measure, benchmark, and reduce it

Help needed: how do you calculate the real per-paycheck and per-employee cost of payroll at your company, benchmark it, and decide whether to automate or outsource? Please share first‑hand results, not vendor marketing.

Suggested standard formulas (feel free to adapt):
- Annual payroll cost = gross wages + employer payroll taxes + benefits administration costs + payroll provider/service fees + tax‑filing & compliance costs + allocated overhead (HR/finance time, IT, misc) + amortized implementation/licensing costs.
- Cost per employee per year = Annual payroll cost / number of employees.
- Cost per paycheck = Annual payroll cost / total number of paychecks run per year.

What to share (brief, numeric where possible):
- Company size, payroll frequency, multi‑state or contractor mix.
- Your computed cost-per-paycheck and cost-per-employee (before & after any change).
- Key KPIs you track (time spent per payroll, FTEs handling payroll, error rate, compliance incidents, % automated).
- Benchmark sources you used (reports, surveys, vendors, public data).
- Vendor or automation experience: vendor names, pricing ranges, hidden fees (tax filing, year‑end, garnishments), implementation time, integration pain points.
- Concrete outcomes from automation or outsourcing trials: time saved (hours/payroll or FTEs), dollars saved (annual), reduction in compliance incidents, and payback period.
- Lessons learned and one tip you’d give others evaluating automation vs outsource.

If you have a spreadsheet or calculator template, please attach or paste a link. If you want, I can summarize submissions into a simple benchmarking template for the thread.