Does your business use a payroll service? If you are currently managing your payroll needs on your own, you may want to consider switching to an easy, seamless payroll service. Processing payroll in-house can be frustrating, time-consuming, and prone to costly errors. According to Paychex, around 60% of businesses today use an online payroll service provider to streamline and automate the payroll processing system. Plus, there are tons of reputable, high-quality payroll providers available to suit a variety of business budgets today. If you are thinking of switching to an automated payroll system, make sure not to miss these 8 signs your business needs a payroll service.
Related: 10 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Payroll Service
1. You’re a small business owner
If you’re a small business owner, you know that oftentimes it feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day. You have tons of responsibilities to accomplish every day, and the thought of managing payroll on your own on top of those tasks seems impossible.
That’s why small business owners today choose to use a cost-efficient payroll service. Online payroll services help you completely automate the payroll process, so you can pay employees on time and process taxes without all the tedious work. Plus, most small businesses save money on payroll when they use an automated service.
2. You don’t want to budget for an accountant or bookkeeper
Paying an accountant or bookkeeper to manage your payroll and taxes can be very expensive. In fact, it can cost you tens of thousands of dollars a year, depending on whether or not the bookkeeper is on salary or part-time. In fact, according to Indeed, the average cost of a bookkeeper’s salary per year is about $40,000.
Luckily, with automated payroll services, you no longer have to worry about hiring an extra employee to run your payroll needs. Using a payroll service means you are freeing up tons of time internally so you can focus your time and attention on other business necessities.
3. You want to run your payroll online
Gone are the days when payroll has to be processed using tons of paperwork! Moving payroll processing online comes with tons of added benefits:
- Completely automate the payroll processing system
- Record employees’ time and attendance digitally
- Generate payroll reports
- Offer electronic payment methods to employees
- Give employees access to online portal and digital pay stubs
- Deliver W-2 forms electronically
- And much more
Conveniently, most popular online payroll services, such as Paychex, offer customizable dashboards that suit your business’s needs and boost productivity. Additionally, your online payroll software will give you immediate access to any documentation you might need to access. Forget about sifting through file cabinets and keeping paper trails of pay-related documents!
4. You want to avoid missing deadlines
You probably already know that managing taxes can be very complicated. There are IRS deadlines you need to hit, or else you’ll be slapped with pricy penalties. Not to mention, managing payroll on your own means you need to constantly remember payday deadlines to get employees paid on time.
When using a payroll service, deadlines are completely automated so you don’t have to worry about forgetting or missing deadlines! You can rest assured that with the touch of a button, you’ll hit your tax and payday deadlines with no stress whatsoever.
5. You don’t want to worry about tax calculations and compliance
Did you know that 40% of small to midsize businesses suffer from IRS penalties due to errors in their tax filings? Oftentimes the reason for these penalties is due to businesses processing payroll on their own, without an automated payroll system. Calculating payroll taxes is a complicated and tedious process, and it can be easy to run into human error. Not to mention, there are lots of other tax compliance laws that you have to keep in the front of mind to avoid incurring additional penalties and fees.
Automated payroll services help you avoid the complications of tax calculations. These services calculate taxes for you, file them automatically and on time, and help you avoid any error. Additionally, most popular payroll services today, such as Paychex, will take on the tax error liability. So even if there are tax errors (which is unlikely), you won’t be responsible for penalties.
6. You want to provide employees with a self-service portal
One convenient offering that payroll services offer to businesses is an employee self-service portal. Self-service portals are very beneficial to both business owners and employees. They save business owners and HR teams tons of time as they allow employees to take control over their own payroll information. Additionally, they allow employees to quickly go online, rather than turning to HR, to access information such as:
- Pay stubs
- Paychecks
- Timesheets
- Time off requests
- Paid time off balances
- Payment methods
- Health benefits, workers’ comp, 401k
- And much more
Many payroll providers today also offer employee financial health tools so that employees can make informed decisions about their income.
7. You want to integrate your payroll and HR needs
Most business owners today will require both payroll and human resources to run their business every day. These two necessities alone can feel like a daunting, time consuming task. Luckily nowadays, most payroll services offer the option of streamlining your payroll and HR needs all in one place.
When you choose a payroll service that offers HR administration, you reap the benefits of having benefits management, insurance services, recruiting and onboarding tools, labor compliance kits, and more. The best part is that many of these payroll services accomplish HR work for you, so you can free up tons of time internally to focus on running your business.
8. You want a built-in employee time tracking system
If your business needs to keep track of employees’ time worked, you may need a payroll service. Most payroll services today allow you to keep records of employees’ time and attendance and integrate this data with your payroll system. Time and attendance systems are especially useful for businesses that work with hourly employees, contractors, or freelancers. This way, you can accurately and seamlessly keep track of employee shifts and pay them accurately without the hassle of tracking it manually.
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