If you engage a company secretary whose expertise is limited to company incorporation, you may fail to capture all the valuable growth opportunities available. Company secretaries with robust tax knowledge, or work side by side with an in-house tax expert, can add more value to your new business venture by:

• explaining the different legal vehicles you can incorporate as, including how they work and their suitability for your situation;
• developing a tax-efficient corporate structure based on your wider operating model and supply chain arrangement, ensuring your business group pays the lowest fair share of tax while extracting maximum profit;
• determining your eligibility for available tax incentives; and
• liaising with executive staff and regulatory bodies to develop a group-wide governance framework that incorporates beneficial, fully compliant tax and transfer pricing strategies.

If you are branching into Singapore and your existing company has a large, complicated structure, these value-add opportunities can help minimise confusion during the incorporation process while also ensuring a bright, prosperous future for your new entity and wider corporation.

Your service provider should be ready and able to take care of immediate issues and capture opportunities to futureproof your internal systems.

• Therefore, starting by developing an in-depth understanding of your business’s current and future payroll requirements is important. In today’s dynamic business landscape, organisations are increasingly asking themselves a series of crucial questions when considering service partners such as: Are we looking at expanding quickly?
• Do we need to consider both a local workforce and different geographies?
• Are we looking at implementing employee share plans?
• Are we adopting a model of FTEs or are they leaning more towards leveraging on the GIG economy?

You can then use this knowledge to search for a team equipped to meet all your needs.

Once you have a shortlist, it is time to check each provider’s ability to assist you. Seek a provider that specialises in:

• establishing robust data security solutions;
• delivering responsive customer support; and
• providing sophisticated human resources management system solutions.

Ideally, they will have a track record of servicing organisations similar to yours (in size, complexity and location), and the ability to adapt to evolving demands as your company grows.

Next, be sure to investigate potential partners’ experience level and service history.

“Fundamentally, payroll is about making sure people are paid the correct amount in a timely manner, so check that the provider has a track record of doing that consistently,” Ken says.

Experienced providers take an exploratory, deep-dive approach to their service delivery. This approach allows them to uncover the specific challenges an organisation is facing and design robust solutions to meet current and forecasted needs.

A wealth of experience also makes payroll teams better at targeting the root cause of problems, resulting in an effective and efficient service experience.

To support seamless payroll administration and cut costs, multinational organisations should consider engaging a globally minded firm with extensive experience navigating the cultural and regulatory complexities of cross-border payroll.

Ken points out that language barriers can also pose a challenge.

“Business leaders sometimes fail to realise this will be an issue until they become familiar with the tasks required to manage their payroll,” he says. “You will need to submit regular forms to governments and agencies, and someone will need to interpret what you’re signing off.”