Common payroll Mistakes
You’re not alone. Thousands of business owners struggle each year to get a payroll solution that’s just right. But without such a program, they could find themselves spending even more money and time dealing with payroll issues that otherwise would have been prevented with a reliable payroll solution. Payroll solutions, if designed and installed correctly, will eliminate a huge number of problems. Here’s why:
payroll solution Most payroll solutions automatically print all of the necessary paychecks for an employee’s employees, with nothing extra needed by the employer. This can be convenient, but often the programs are designed poorly, resulting in incorrect data fields being presented to the employees. These incorrect data fields can cause incorrect, or even fraudulent, payroll calculations.
Now, here’s where we go wrong. You wouldn’t think there’s a problem with the payroll provider because everyone is familiar with how the payroll process goes. However, this isn’t always the case. The problem lies in the payroll process itself. Many companies have outsourced their payroll process to a third party company, but the results have often been less than satisfactory. Whether it’s an in house payroll process, or a third party company doing the work, the outcome doesn’t match the expectations of the end user.
Let’s say you have a small retail business with four retail departments. Naturally, you want to make sure all of your employees receive their salaries on time. So how do you accomplish this? You simply follow your logical thinking… you hire a payroll solution, write in your payroll checks manually, and hope that the customer service gets them the timely compensation they deserve. In today’s world, this isn’t realistic or even logical.
If you’re not using an online payroll service, then you know the hassle of manually preparing employee payrolls for each employee. While it’s possible to prepare each employee’s payroll by hand using a spreadsheet, there’s a huge learning curve involved that’s well worth taking. Online resource services allow you to take care of the complex part of the equation while leaving the easy part to an expert. Once the initial learning curve has been overcome, you can focus on hiring the best employees, developing and implementing new training initiatives, and streamlining your workplace communication processes. With so many resources at your fingertips, the payroll department should never be considered optional.
The second most common mistake made by small businesses is issuing paychecks quarterly. The fourth most common mistake. Six months is too long to issue payroll checks only once a year. Our society seems to move quickly enough that many people forget that tax forms are filed for the entire year. Most importantly, most people don’t print out the tax forms. Printing the tax forms quarterly eliminates any possibility for human error.
The last common payroll mistake is to hire a company payroll administrator or payroll service to manage the entire process. There are many options available to small businesses when it comes to managing payroll. When it comes to employee benefits, however, you have no choice but to go with an online service. Your best fit is a complete online solution designed to save you time, create and print your employee benefits, and track your spending.
The time has come for you to take control over your employee benefits and spend that time working on the aspects of your business that matter. The time-consuming process of managing payroll isn’t something you have to deal with. Small businesses have a choice between an outsourced employee benefits administrator and a payroll system. Don’t choose the administrator based on cost alone. Choose the payroll system based on the features it provides and the level of compliance it meets.