Employees often link their worth to paychecks, so making payroll mistakes can hurt morale. How to manage payroll for a small business is a crucial aspect of ensuring your employees are paid accurately and on time. A time-tracking system can simplify the process and prevent errors, especially when paired with a payroll manager who can handle taxes and filings on your behalf.
Find a provider that stays updated on local and federal changes to make the process easier and faster. This will allow you to spend more time growing your business.
1. Create a Calendar
To Manage Payroll for a Small Business involves a lot of moving parts. It requires collecting employee information and timesheets, running payroll, calculating deductions, issuing payments, and reporting taxes. Keeping up with federal, state, and local rules and regulations can also be challenging. It’s important for small businesses to keep track of their payroll management processes and to ensure they are running accurately each pay period.
To do this, it’s important to establish a schedule for payroll processing and issue dates. This will help avoid misunderstandings between you and your employees about when they can expect their paychecks. This will also give your HR team a better idea of when they should start to collect payroll data and submit timesheets.
Cloud payroll software usually features a calendar showing employee pay dates, holidays, and business closure days. This minimizes confusion and aids HR in scheduling payroll tasks.
Timely acknowledgment of employees is crucial, whether weekly, biweekly, or semimonthly. Late paychecks harm morale and productivity. Thus, ensuring on-time payroll processing is vital for all pay cycles.
As your company grows, appointing a payroll point person or hiring a dedicated payroll manager may be necessary. Someone experienced in managing payroll will help you avoid costly errors and stay current on the latest rules and regulations. They can also handle the more complex aspects of tax compliance and reporting.
2. Organize Your Records
Whether you keep payroll documents on paper or electronically, there are many ways to organize them. However, consistency is key to effective recordkeeping. If your team has a system that works for them, it is best to stick with it. This ensures all records are easy to find and nothing gets lost or misplaced.
Organize files for swift access, particularly during emergencies. For instance, amid prolonged requirements like COVID-19, quick retrieval of payroll records is vital. Tag-based systems categorizing files like health docs, pay stubs, and W-2s facilitate easy locating and retrieval for your team.
In addition, you need to be sure that your payroll files meet federal requirements and state guidelines. According to Patriot Software, you must keep records of employee classifications, overtime, minimum wage exemptions, tax withholding forms (W-4s), payroll tax filings, and wages and hours data at the federal level.
Regarding state-level requirements, you must follow the Department of Labor rules and other governing agencies outlined. Then, if you need to, you must dispose of the documents after their required retention period has expired.
If you are not comfortable handling your payroll in-house, a full-service provider is an option that can save you a lot of time and money. These companies can keep track of all your paperwork and even handle filings with the IRS and your state’s tax departments for you.
3. Set a Cut-Off Period
Incorporating a payroll process into your business is a necessity. It should also be done as soon as you start hiring employees. With a system in place, it will be easier to keep up with payroll and not miss any deadlines. It will also allow you to manage employee expectations and avoid disappointments caused by late paychecks.
The first step in setting up a payroll system is determining which employees are considered hourly or salaried and how often you want to pay them. You will need to check federal and state laws for minimum wage requirements and other regulations that may apply in your area. It is also necessary to decide how to handle deductions such as health insurance, 401K contributions, and other benefits.
After establishing work hours and gross pay per person, compute deductions and taxes. These are subtracted to ascertain net pay, ensuring it meets minimum wage and accurately accounts for overtime. Small businesses can handle payroll or use a service. Doing it in-house requires an accountant aware of local regulations. Understanding tax types, collection, and payment is also crucial.
Using a software program that will automate calculating wages and making paychecks is a good idea. Using a time-tracking app or biometrics will help to speed up this process and reduce the chances of error. The software will also record employee attendance and generate reports that can be easily downloaded to the payroll file.
4. Make a Budget
Payroll taxes are a big part of the equation for small businesses. These include income, social security, Medicare taxes, and local payroll taxes like business licenses, permits, and sales taxes. Failing to pay these taxes on time can cost your company hefty fines and penalties. It’s also essential to keep detailed records of all transactions for legal reasons and to help you avoid mistakes in the future.
Creating a budget for payroll management will give you a clear picture of how much you can afford to spend on payroll. Depending on your business needs and size, you may need to make some sacrifices or choose cheaper options. For instance, you can set up a direct deposit account for your employees so they get their paychecks faster and more reliably. This option requires a little up-front work but is worth it in the long run.
Deciding how often you want to pay your employees is important, whether weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Many states have minimum pay frequency laws, so check to see what yours is. You’ll also need to figure out how to pay your employees through direct deposit, paper checks, or reloadable pay cards.
A good payroll system will help you make these decisions quickly and easily. It should also provide reports to help you track employee totals, absences, and more at a glance. Some tools even allow you to integrate your accounting software for a seamless workflow.
5. Hire an Expert
Unless your business is one of the rare ones that can handle payroll and other human resources tasks in-house, you should consider hiring an expert to help you. Payroll manager can help you identify and eliminate inefficiencies within your payroll audit processes and work with accounting to develop strategies to improve your company’s financial health.
When choosing an expert, it is important to consider their experience level. Those who have spent thousands of hours learning their craft can typically complete projects faster than those with minimal experience. This can save your business time by reducing the possibility of costly re-work and extended project timelines.
It is also important to consider the expert’s communication style. Everyone has a unique style, and finding an expert who can communicate effectively with you and your team is important. Having a conversation about how they prefer to collaborate can save your business time in the long run by eliminating any miscommunication issues that could occur during the project.
A quality payroll service streamlines processing, maintains compliance and offers user-friendly features like customizable reports and direct deposit. The top choices for small businesses are SurePayroll, Gusto, and QuickBooks. SurePayroll excels as a comprehensive PEO solution, while QuickBooks integrates well with favored accounting software and provides solid support.
