payroll
“If you can’t pay your people right, you can’t do anything right.”
Sid Williams, Eastman Christensen Company, Salt Lake City, UT
This is a great principle because if it weren’t for employees, we’d all be toast. Whatever you may offer in the way of benefits is great and its important, but whatever you do, make sure that your employees’ checks are there when they are supposed to be there and that they are correct. There is no excuse that can ever justify giving an employee a paycheck that is wrong. We often hear employers complain about employee performance. But these same employers think nothing of not having the payroll checks ready on time or failing to make wage rate or payroll deduction adjustments that may be required. When we had our restaurant and averaged about 20 to 25 regular employees, our payroll checks were ready first thing in the morning on the day following the end of the pay period, twice a month, twelve months a year. Its important.
Its important to protect yourself as well. If you ever end up in court over a payroll issue you need good records; they may be the only credibility that you have. Worse, you could end up in front of the Labor Board; at least in court you have a chance of being found innocent.
Sadly, payroll is not terribly difficult yet it intimidates many people. There are tools out there today to make it a lot easier than it used to be. If you have more than a small handful of employees who are paid by the hour, an electronic time clock that connects to your PC (or Mac, if you’re lucky) is an absolute requirement. If you don’t have payroll software, you can make due with spreadsheets if you still want to do it yourself, but you will have to prepare the returns manually. Several years ago, in a particularly frugal moment, I created a Form 941 Quarterly Payroll Tax Return, in a Lotus 123 file; it linked to a payroll file and printed an official looking Form 941 without having to manually calculate anything. I even added a sentence above the signature line telling the IRS that I thought that they were doing a good job and, right before the signature line I closed with: “Cherry cordially yours”. You can do stuff like that if you own a chocolate store. But, like I said, you don’t need to be intimidated by payroll.
fees
Generally speaking, we charge a minimum of $129 a month to take care of your payroll. This includes preparation of paychecks (twice monthly), tax deposits, quarterly payroll tax and unemployment tax returns, and annual W-2s and social security filings. We can use your own laser compatible checks; or, can arrange to order them for you. (No matter how hard you ask or no matter what you offer to pay, we will not manually write out your paychecks!) You would still need to accumulate the hours for both regular and overtime pay.
We can also assist you if you choose to continue to do some or all of your own payroll. We can help set it up and then monitor it periodically, or we can just take care of the tax filing side. Not only will it be a little more economical, it will also give you a little more flexibility in terms of when and how your payroll is prepared. However you would like to proceed, we’re here to help.