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How to Manage Payroll for Your Small Business

Staffing businesses can utilize automated payroll processes to harness the power of their workforce data. In doing so, they not only streamline operations but also gain a competitive advantage, propelling their growth in today’s dynamic business landscape. By partnering with Withum’s OASyS Team, staffing businesses can achieve all of the above. Managing payroll manually is a challenging, time-consuming task that often leads to errors. Alternative options to managing payrolls on your own include payroll software, hiring a payroll specialist, or outsourcing to a third-party payroll management firm. Payroll management is a process that requires a lot of steps, tracking and documentation.

  • For example, any taxes you owe for the month of July must be deposited by August 15th.
  • No matter what, your business or company must be compliant with both federal and state laws.
  • We’ve even heard of some business owners who’ve found it to be so simple they’ve done it while sitting on a horse—more on that later.
  • Time and attendance software helps streamline payroll administration and calculations.
  • Jeff is a writer, founder, and small business expert that focuses on educating founders on the ins and outs of running their business.

Here are the most common questions about payroll best practices and compliance. Employee classifications play a significant role in determining proper compensation. It’s essential to regularly review and update these classifications to ensure accuracy and compliance. It can be a lot of work to keep up with all the laws and requirements, so many businesses use specialized software or systems to help them out. As a small business, you already have a Social Security Number for filing your taxes.

My concern is that the payroll info was sent to Intuit twice for the same pay period. By now, you have a solid understanding of payroll compliance and the strategies and tools available to ensure efficient payroll management. Maintaining payroll compliance resilient shoppers push retail sales up 0 7% in september is crucial for businesses to avoid legal issues and financial penalties. Once you’ve found and signed up for a workers’ comp plan you like, your work is basically done. You should be able to set up automatic recurring premium payments as well.

How to do payroll in 9 steps in 2022

It gives you access to important data including payroll costs, absentee rates, productivity levels, and tax payments. For example, IRS regulations require you to keep all payroll tax records for a minimum of four years. Violations can result in costly fines from the Labor Department, IRS, and state agencies.

  • Consider opening a separate payroll bank account for your collected and contributed taxes.
  • Document the steps for printing and filing payroll registers and tax reports, along with the names of the individuals to whom you will be handing the paychecks and pay stubs.
  • Firstly, you need to make sure you pay your employees the correct amount for the work that they do, in a timely fashion.
  • Her experience has allowed her to learn first hand what the payroll needs are for small business owners.

There are many different time sheet solutions, including systems that integrate right into your payroll system for even more accurate information across the board. The next step is to calculate net pay by taking the gross pay amount and subtracting deductions. If you have employees who are paid on an hourly basis then you’ll likely want to use an automated time tracking system.

Review and Approve Time Sheets

Regularly update your security software to protect against new threats. Train your employees on data security practices, such as recognizing phishing attempts and using strong passwords. By taking these steps, you can safeguard your payroll data and maintain the trust of your employees. It’s not unusual to hear of occasional complaints about payroll computations. However, frequent incidence is a clear indication of the need to conduct regular audits of the entire payroll process. This is especially true for companies that still use a manual timecard system as they are exposed to high risk for discrepancies.

If you are giving employees paid time off (PTO), you’ll want to track this as you process payroll. Record the tally of hours worked on a spreadsheet, noting any PTO that should be paid as well. Learning to manage payroll on your own requires paying attention to the legal and tax requirements involved. We’ll break down the process and important considerations to keep in mind.

The two types of workers’ compensation insurance

User-friendly interfaces and robust reporting tools are crucial for effortless reconciliation and real-time financial analysis on a monthly and quarterly basis and beyond. Additionally, businesses must assess if their payroll provider can handle daily payroll processing, which can provide a competitive edge in the staffing industry where agility is key. Evaluating services offered by payroll companies against the unique needs of your business guarantees seamless operations and enhanced strategic planning.

How to Manage Payroll for Your Small Business

This includes employee time tracking, tax forms, benefits enrollment, and more. With centralized data management, you can easily access and update employee records whenever needed. Documenting hours worked, overtime, deductions, benefits, and any other payroll details is important. By doing so, you can ensure a clear record of each employee’s compensation. A pay-as-you-go workers’ compensation policy lets you calculate and make insurance premium payments whenever you run payroll. These smaller payments may be easier for businesses to budget for than the estimated, upfront premium payment required with traditional workers’ comp insurance programs.

Once you’ve accepted a quote, the software should guide you through integrating workers’ comp with payroll. The process should be extremely straightforward, but if you run into trouble, don’t hesitate to contact your payroll solution’s customer support team. Once you have a quote you feel good about, you should be able to accept it directly through the payroll software you’re using. Contact your payroll company’s customer service team or speak directly with the workers’ comp insurance company you’ve chosen for more specific guidance. Depending on the tax laws in your state, you may have to file state income taxes for your employee(s) too.

Plan for these additional payments and ensure the payment date is within the current tax year so you can appropriately adjust the employee’s income tax on tax forms. In this post, we will discuss how to manage payroll effectively and share 10 best practices for creating an efficient system in your business. We will also explain how payroll software including the Factorial financial workspace can help you streamline the process and ensure accuracy and legal compliance. That way, you can build a happy and productive workforce and avoid costly non-compliance penalties that can damage your business. Keeping up with the complexities of employee withholdings, minimum wage legislation, and IRS forms can be daunting.

As a result, it’s critical to report and deposit payroll taxes to the appropriate agency on time, every time. A payroll policy is an established set of internal guidelines and regulations for managing each stage of the payroll process. This includes the administration of salaries, timekeeping, payroll schedules, and payment methods.

Plus, by automating all these processes, you can free up time for your payroll managers. If you’ve received court orders for wage garnishments, consider using payroll software with garnishment management services to stay in compliance and avoid penalties. For employees who have temporary work visas, pay attention to expiration dates, since employers are responsible for knowing when to update employment forms without official notice. While there are many payroll services and software options on the market, we’ve extensively studied many of the market leaders and isolated our favorites. It can be hard to define the difference between payroll software and services, but we’re defining a payroll service as a third party that handles the entire payroll process for you. Many payroll software providers perform services as part of their software offering, such as processing tax payments for you.

After reconciling it, you’re ready to run payroll, which means approving direct deposits and the preparation of checks. It can take a few days for direct deposits to fully transfer to employee accounts and for checks to be printed and distributed. Some payroll products offer same-day or next-day direct deposit, but others may need longer than that. Until you’re sure how long it will take to complete payroll by payday, it may be helpful to allow some extra time for processing.