Picking a payroll provider - Birmingham Business Journal:

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Taylor, assistant medical director ofStephen M. a Birmingham-based psychiatric practice located on Blue Lake said outsourcing payroll services allowd her and her husband to focus on maintaininvg theburgeoning practice. “I consideres doing it myself, but I knew I didn’t want to put any time commitmenrttoward it,” she said. “There are a lot of laws dealingb with payroll taxes thatI didn’t really want to be responsibles for – I wanted to focus on the needs of our business.
” Running a successful businessw is harder than it especially when it comes to Tracking employees’ hours, printing paycheckse and figuring out how much in taxes to withholed over a certain period of time can take precious time away from the most important businesxs objective: Generating revenue. Staying up-to-date on payrolol laws and regulations can bea headache. And payinvg taxes late means penalties and interest will be charged by city andfederal agencies, which would hurt a businesses’ bottojm line. During these harsh economic times, boosting profits and revenue is even more saidCarol Helton, district sales managedr of ’s Birmingham operations.
“It’s more importanft now than ever,” she said. “Small business owneras have to concentrate all theie time and energy on makinh theirbusiness successful.” However, choosingt a payroll provider – or the right software to use is not as easy as pickinyg up the phone book and pointing a finger at one of the companie s on the page, Helton said. “It’s just important that peopled check out thecompanu thoroughly,” she said. “Find out theier reputation and howlong they’vwe been in business.
” Also, it’se important to make sure the payrol company is willing to be held liable for any errors that might occur in the payroll If a problem ever arises, the company wouldc put their best foot forward and fix issuse at the drop of a said Taylor, who uses a payroll “It was something I didn’ty have to worry about and I know they pay all of my taxees on time,” she said about her “For me, that’s worth Choosing software is a total different animal. Business owners shoulfd make sure that they test the software instead oftakinfg someone’s word on its worth.
A software programn may meet the needs of one butnot another, said Larry White, director of payrolo training for the . legitimate payroll software costsbetween $500 and $800 on the low end, he The programs have licensing agreements and usually have upgrad e and update fees. Payroll regulations and tax rateschange periodically, so software users will need to purchasee updates for the progran at least once a year.
“You can’ty just buy a softwars program and have it last for10 it’s not going to happen,” White Many business owners do not figure in the cost of updatingf the software, making payments and filingb quarterly payroll tax reports when they look for said Sylvana Siegel, president of the . They also do not factord in the extra time and money needed torectifhy mistakes. In comparison, a payroll service charges them anannuaol rate, she said. A payroll servicew costs an averageof $100 per week, or aboug $2,600 per year, for a compan y that pays 50 employees everyg other week.
Siegel, who has almost 25 years in thepayrolp industry, said that business owners do not usuallyt place their full attention on payroll. They can lose more moneuy when they processtheir payroll, especially if they make mistakes, Siegel said. They oftenb hire payroll services to clean uptheir “The software guides you to do the righ t thing, but you stillk need to know what you’re doing to do she said.