Human Resource and payroll administration experts have corroborated to launch an information portal dedicated to help businesses across the continent with payroll and tax management.

Africa Employment Legislation Library is an international initiative that is focused on information share that will help users with challenges pertaining to the legal, practical and other considerations that form part of the payroll discipline.

It is hoped that the initiative will attract and secure the participation of recognised industry bodies like the Payroll Authors Group of South Africa (PAG).

Negotiations are underway with PAG to possibly offer the service to payroll vendors, which, as organisers of the portal explain, will help to ensure that everyone receives the same information and interpretation for development.

Initial funding for the development of the initiative was provided by Centric Holdings.

The key factor behind the establishment of the portal is to have in place a centralised location that will serve to facilitate information gathered from across the continent pertaining to payroll.

Legal specialists involved in setting up the Library acknowledge that this information is not always readily available and without an effective, reliable online channel, is often difficult to source.

“Our intention is to provide the user with relevant and up-to-date information. We source this data from different areas and the results of a thorough evaluation process. Documents are scrutinised, analysed and interpreted before it is incorporated into the offering. Revenue authorities and government portals are tracked for new publications and legislative updates,” explains Nicolette Nicholson, Head of Legislation.

In addition to the benefit of a single, reputable source of valuable information, the user also has peace of mind in knowing that what they are assimilating and applying has been ratified by seasoned legal professionals.

“This removes the burden of the user having to make sense of the maze of inaccurate or outdated interpretations within the employment market,” adds Nicholson.

The initiative is supported by the efforts of a dedicated team of researchers and staff who collectively ensure that the site is regularly updated.

Africa Employment Legislation Library is a membership-based initiative and offers all stakeholders in payroll the opportunity to join through either its Basic or Premium membership packages.

There are a host of services attached to each offer and payroll vendors can obtain additional membership to development requirement specifications, at an additional cost.

To date, the short-term objective of those behind the portal is to have 24 African countries fully documented by the end of 2013, with the longer-term aim of adding all 54 countries by 2016.

For more information, click through to http://www.africalegislation.com/