Archive for June, 2009

Worker’s Compensation and Other Payroll Issues

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Outsourcing to a company like Priority Pay Payroll can give you more than just the ability to spend your time more wisely and the knowledge that your payroll is being handled by the experts. There are many other benefits you’ll receive with your decision to outsource your payroll processing.

Right now, paying your insurance premiums might be a hassle and one that seriously dents your company’s cash flow each time. But insurance is vital for a business to have, so you have to keep paying the premiums. With Priority Pay Payroll, you can enjoy the EasyChoice program. Instead of paying estimated premiums based on what you expect your payroll expense to be for a year, your premiums are based on your actual payroll amounts. No more guessing and either overestimating and costing your company too much or underestimating and not having enough insurance.

With Priority Pay Payroll EasyChoice, you pay each payroll cycle. Your insurance is finally based on the actual amount of your payroll. This gives you a more accurate insurance amount and prevents the need to spend a large lump sum. Instead, your insurance burden is spread out along with your payroll. This gives your company more cash available and takes away the insurance burden you previously faced. No more huge deposits based on guess work and no more need to catch up with a huge payment at the end of the year. That alone may make outsourcing your payroll a good decision for your company.

With EasyChoice you also have the benefit of having the premium payments automatically deducted. You don’t have to pay in advance or even write checks for the insurance. And you won’t have to pay finance charges for the service. The program is offered through a nationally recognized leader in the industry with competitive rates and round the clock toll-free customer service. This is a program that helps you contain costs and makes outsourcing with Priority Pay Payroll and even better decision for your company.

The ability to comply with laws and regulations also makes outsourcing a good idea. You won’t have to worry about keeping up with changing tax laws and rules, handling tax filings or reporting new hires when you let Priority Pay Payroll handle your payroll processing. We all know that payroll processing goes far beyond getting checks to your employees. So we handle the details for you so you can concentrate on building your business instead.

Federal law requires that new hires be reported to appropriate state agencies. And these state agencies can set their own deadlines and rules about what needs to be reported and by when. Priority Pay Payroll does this reporting for you automatically. We’ll send you a report each week and forward a copy to the appropriate agency. And each pay is done with an eye toward the annual tax filing, so that when that time comes around everything is in order and ready to go. Not only does outsourcing give you more time, it ensures that your payroll is handled properly.

Environmentally-Friendly Priority Pay Payroll System

Monday, June 29th, 2009

If you’ve been doing your payroll the same way for years, it’s time for you to look into paperless payroll at Priority Pay Payroll. Not only will this allow you to outsource the time-consuming task of payroll documentation and payments, but you’ll be helping your company take an environmentally-conscious step by eliminating the paper waste associated with payrolls. Even if you have overhauled your payroll system in the last few years, the switch to a paperless system can be your next step.

The hours spent by HR departments just on payroll are hours that aren’t spent on other tasks. There are any number of issues that pop up on a daily basis that HR professionals need to handle. But with several hours of payroll duties to perform and a chunk of them occurring regularly on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, some other tasks can get short shrift because there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. By outsourcing these monotonous tasks to Priority Pay Payroll, your HR employees are freed to up to thoroughly handle other problems and crises.

While simply outsourcing your payroll can improve the flow of your business, outsourcing it to Priority Pay Payroll and switching to a completely paperless system helps your company show its employees and the community that you’re committed to the environment. That alone is worth making the switch, but the simplicity of receiving all your reports and checks via email is also a reason many businesses do so.

Priority Pay payroll will provide your business with check stock so you can print checks in your office. Over 30 reports and all employees’ check stubs are there and ready to print, as well. You can eliminate the need to even print checks if you opt to have your employees switch to direct deposit. Priority Pay Payroll offers direct deposit service, so that even check printing and distribution is eliminated, and employees can enjoy the convenience of automatic payments.

When you consider all of the payroll reports that must be printed each pay period that are used and quickly discarded, the idea of a paperless payroll system just makes sense. There’s so much less paper waste and your company will use much less ink. Even if your company is committed to paper and ink cartridge recycling, there is still a benefit to going paperless as both these processes still do generate some pollution. The wear and tear on printers also increases the speed with which they end up in landfills.

Why not outsource your payroll and go paperless at the same time, since payroll is one of the most time-consuming and repetitive tasks in small business and medium-sized business? First, the switch to a paperless system can be a difficult and time-consuming one for those with no experience but outsourcing it makes the transition easy. And outsourcing payroll can be a liberating thing for your HR department, increasing productivity in other key areas. You get that double-benefit by choosing Priority Pay Payroll for your paperless payroll needs.

Small Business Payroll Processing

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

When you decide you want to outsource payroll processing for your small business, you want a company that understands the special needs of your business. But you want a company that’s also equipped and experienced enough to handle corporate payroll, too. Priority Pay Payroll has large clients, but specializes in the needs of small and medium-sized business. With over 30 years of experience in professional payroll processing, we can handle any business’ needs.

It might be tempting to choose a processor that handles only corporations, because the common assumption is that bigger is better in most situations. But with a company like that you’re likely to be paying for services and features that don’t apply to smaller business because they only offer one general set of services. And even if they have packages that are scaled down for smaller business, their prices are likely to be higher than necessary.

Priority Pay Payroll, however, focuses on small and medium-sized businesses so that you get exactly what you need without the expensive extras that eat into your outsourcing budget. We have a true service bundling approach so that the basic payroll package contains everything you need for regular payrolls as well as year-end reporting and tax filing. And you’ll find features you might not find with other processors, like included new hire reporting.

Federal law requires that you report to state agencies on each new hire and rehire. Each state can set its own requirements and deadlines for this reporting, and the rules can change so it’s necessary for a small business to keep up on these compliance rules. Priority Pay Payroll automatically handles new hire reporting for you with each payroll. You’ll receive a report listing new hires and rehires in that payroll, and the report is forwarded to the appropriate state agency so there’s one more task you no longer have to worry about.

If you don’t pay your employees weekly, you can contact Priority Pay Payroll and inform them of new hires between payrolls so that the reporting can be done then. This will ensure that you never miss a deadline for reporting in the case of monthly or bi-weekly payrolls. How much time does it free up for you when you no longer have to worry about things like state deadlines and reporting requirements?

Priority Pay Payroll takes these time-consuming and tedious tasks out of your hands. Not only does it give you more time back to work on other aspects of your business, but you get the peace of mind that comes from knowing that these things are handled efficiently and correctly. You’ll never have to wonder if an employee has been trained well-enough to really handle payroll and keep your company in compliance with various state and federal laws.

And you’ll never to have to decide that it’s better to do it yourself and take time away from building your business to handle payroll tasks. Priority Pay Payroll gives you back that precious time while making sure your payroll is correct and on time.

Figuring Outsourcing Costs

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

Priority Pay Payroll specializes in offering affordable payroll processing for small and medium-sized business. Many businesses don’t outsource because they’ve looked around at various companies and have decided that the cost is not worth the convenience or that the amounts companies ask for the services are too high for their budgets. But the true cost of outsourcing is almost always less than the actual amount that you pay a company for their services.

In fact, despite the fact that outsourcing your payroll to a company like Priority Pay Payroll is an added expenses, your company can actually make more profits by outsourcing and generate more money than is paid out for the service. How this can occur isn’t always immediately obvious, but if you break down the expense and the benefits you can see where outsourcing can actually be worth many more times the actual cost.

If you’re the owner of a business and you’re doing the payroll, that’s several hours each week that you could free up to allow you to do other things. By outsourcing to Priority Pay Payroll, you give yourself the ability to spend that time doing things that directly affect the health of your business. Instead of figuring payroll taxes and writing checks, you can be building your business. And as the owner, you’re already aware that no one is as concerned with the growth and the future of your business as you are. So you can commit more time to growing your business, without having to add more hours of work each week.

If you have an employee who does the payroll each week, by outsourcing to Priority Pay payroll you give that employee more hours in which to do other things. Even if that employee isn’t directly in sales or customer service, say he or she handles chiefly administrative tasks, that person can still spend those hours doing other things that are more in direct relation to business building and income.

Payroll processing is one of things that must be done and must be done correctly. It’s a tedious, monotonous task that must be done each week, but doesn’t directly contribute to business growth. Because it’s not a core business activity, it’s an ideal task to outsource. You can free up your time or an employee’s time and allow for that time to be spent on growing the business, making more money and getting ahead.

When you look at the price you pay a company like Priority Pay Payroll it might seem like an unnecessary expense until you take all that into consideration. How much can you increase your company’s income by having extra hours to devote to that goal? You have the potential to bring in several time the amount that you spend on outsourcing, which makes it a wise decision rather than just an unnecessary added expense. Letting Priority Pay Payroll handle your payroll outsourcing can be the key to making more money instead of just one more thing to fit into your budget.

Ease of Using Priority Pay Payroll Services

Friday, June 26th, 2009

The downturn in the economy has made running a small business even more convoluted and vexing when it comes to making every dollar stretch as far as possible. One of the ways in which small employers can make managing their payroll responsibilities easier is through the use of Priority Pay Payroll services.

Payroll Processing

When customers sign up with Priority Pay Payroll, they initially set up employee profiles in order to make payroll processing easier. The employee profile contains employee information including pay rate (hourly or salaried), tax filing status information, rate of vacation/paid time off accrual, sick time accrual, and any other deductions like health insurance, retirement fund deductions and anything else applicable to employee information.

With each pay period, customers submit time sheets to Priority Pay Payroll and their pay cycle is completed within a short period of time. Customers can either print paychecks in their own office using paper stock supplied for checks from Priority Pay Payroll or they can have paychecks printed and laser signed by Priority Pay Payroll and those checks forwarded to the customer for distribution to individual employees. For extra security, Priority Pay Payroll also offers envelope stuffing services where paychecks are placed in sealed individual envelopes for privacy. Another service is direct deposit, which allows pay to be deposited into employee bank accounts so they need not be concerned about needing to run to the bank to deposit their paycheck

Reports

Priority Pay Payroll sends customers several different General Ledger reports. With each payroll cycle, a summary report is emailed to the customer, along with copies of each pay stub. Detailed General Ledger reports are also sent to customers, and these reports contain information about GL accounts and totals for each payroll cycle and monthly totals. This information can be used to enter monthly or payroll cycle GL transactions or can be exported directly into existing customer accounting software, including QuickBooks.

Tax Deposits and Return Filing

With each payroll cycle, Priority Pay Payroll calculates correct and accurate payroll tax amounts from employee payroll. These amounts are deducted from employee paychecks and those amounts, along with appropriately correct and accurate corresponding payroll taxes are deposited into IRS and state tax agency accounts.

Both the IRS and state agencies require quarterly and monthly payroll tax returns be filed. Priority Pay Payroll not only makes sure that payroll taxes are accurately calculated, but also uses that information to complete and file quarterly and annual tax returns on behalf of their customers. Use of Priority Pay Payroll means that small businesses will have their payroll taxes paid and returns filed in a timely manner, but that they would be correct.

Summary

Priority Pay Payroll services allow small business owners to not only save money because they are able to focus their attention on building their business and engaging in their own expertise. Additionally, since all of Priority Pay Payroll services are electronic, businesses are able to maintain payroll records on their computer systems or request a CDROM containing all of their payroll history information. This frees up expensive and valuable office space for other uses.

When to Outsource Payroll Processing

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

Priority Pay Payroll understands that outsourcing is a big step in the life cycle of a business. Fortunately, payroll processing is one of the easiest tasks to outsource. That’s because it’s not a task that’s vital to your business’ ability to earn money. Payroll is important, both because your employees deserve to have their paychecks presented to them correctly and because of the need to withhold the proper amounts for taxes to make sure you’re in compliance with the law. But it’s not a task that does anything to help your business grow. That makes it a prime candidate for outsourcing.

Outsourcing your payroll to a company like Priority Pay Payroll is something that your business can do from the very beginning, if possible. Very often, a company will start out doing payroll in-house because it’s less expensive to do these tasks this way when a company is trying to get off the ground. Also, sometimes in the beginning there isn’t much payroll to speak of. This is true of a lot of sole proprietorships that start out as a one-person business. As the business grows, then employees are hired.

As long as the owner can do the payroll or can pay an employee to do it, it might seem like a good idea to do it in house. The idea of outsourcing anything might seem like a waste of money, especially in the beginning when the cash flow is tighter and everyone is struggling to make the business succeed. But the perceived cost of outsourcing to a company like Priority Pay Payroll is far greater than the actual cost, as the benefits of doing so can be worth so much more than the amount it costs to do so.

This may even be more true of smaller businesses than larger ones. That’s because if you take the dollar amount of the cost of outsourcing your payroll processing and compare it to the potential financial gains of doing so, you could find the potential earnings to be several times more the amount of the outsourcing.

When you or an employee are free of the hours spent figuring payroll, taxes and other necessities, that means you can spend those hours doing things that help the business grow. You regain time to put toward other tasks—tasks that can directly and indirectly contribute to the income of your business. You can find new clients, sell existing clients on more products or services, work on marketing your business, and any number of things that build your business. And you can work on these business building tasks all because you’re paying a company like Priority Pay Payroll to handle a repetitive and tedious task for you.

So rather than looking at your budget to see if you can afford to outsource with the cash flow you have now, you should also consider how improved your cash flow could be by removing the task of payroll processing from your plate and outsourcing it to Priority Pay Payroll instead.

How to Do Payroll Online

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Payroll is a vital part of any company, provided that it has employees working for it. You cannot run a company with employees if you are not properly conducting payroll and making sure that your employees are paid. There are a number of payroll processing services out there that are capable of making the entire process easier. Why do payroll on paper when you can do your payroll online with the help of a payroll processing company such as Priority Pay Payroll?

Conducting your payroll processing campaign online through the help of Priority Pay Payroll is easy, straight forward and intuitive. It does not require any training on your behalf. You can strike up a relationship with Priority Pay Payroll and nearly immediately begin to pay your employees, processing your payroll online through Priority Pay Payroll without much work at all.

Getting started with conducting payroll processing online through Priority Pay Payroll is really simple. It begins with supplying the necessary basic information about your company. Information will also need to be provided for each of the employees that is working for your company so that they can be paid properly and in a timely manner. Set up does not take much time at all, and does not require answers to any difficult questions. If you already have the company details and employee details that you need, then you are ready to get started. You will be asked to provide tax identification numbers because Priority Pay Payroll will help you file your payroll taxes as well as pay your employees on time every time.

There are a number of other payroll processing services that Priority Pay Payroll offers, including envelope stuffing, envelope sealing, direct deposit, workers’ compensation insurance premium payments, general ledger reporting and basic accounting and much more. If you are serious about streamlining your payroll processing endeavor, then you should work with a company like Priority Pay Payroll that will be capable of wrapping all of your payroll processing needs into one single endeavor.

Once you have begun working with Priority Pay Payroll, running payroll for your company will not take much time at all. First, you provide the payroll data for your company and each of the employees that works for you. You can enter the hours for each employee or contractor, then create the paychecks. The payroll processing calculators that Priority Pay Payroll uses are completely accurate and will make sure that your employees are paid the right amount every time, and that your payroll taxes are submitted properly with every pay period.

Once your payroll data has been properly entered, you can pay your employees instantly by printing out laser signed checks, or by direct depositing the funds into each employee’s account. You can also pay your payroll taxes and file the necessary legal forms with little effort, because Priority Pay Payroll handles all the tricky stuff.

More Benefits of Outsourcing Payroll

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

There are a number of reasons why you should outsource your payroll to a company like Priority Pay Payroll. Here are some great benefits to why you should outsource your payroll processing operations to Priority Pay Payroll rather than trying to attempt them your own self.

1 – By outsourcing your payroll processing operations to Priority Pay Payroll, you can free up more time for other business endeavors and operations. We know that you have a lot to think about, and a lot on your plate in your business. By outsourcing your payroll processing operations to a company such as ours, you can free up a lot of extra time that can be better used in some other way. Payroll processing is a truly time consuming process. If you want to free up your own time and your staff’s time so that you can all pursue value added activities as well as revenue generating activities, then you need to be willing to give Priority Pay Payroll a call.

2 – By outsourcing your payroll processing operations to Priority Pay Payroll, you can avoid one huge technology headache. A constant question that ends up coming up for small business owners is whether or not they are currently outfitted with the best version of their payroll processing software, or the most recent information regarding taxes on their computers. If you use the wrong tax tables, for example, you may end up having to pay stiff penalties. By outsourcing your payroll activities to our company, Priority Pay Payroll, you can remove all of these terrible headaches and ensure that your payroll is all being run smoothly and seurely.

3 – By outsourcing your payroll processing operations to Priority Pay Payroll, you can leverage expertise from people outside of your company. Most business owners and people in charge simply do not have time to keep up with the state regulations, federal withholding rates, government regulations and forms and so on. If you outsource your payroll to someone else entirely, then your business can take advantage of expertise beyond what you know. You do not have to have a large company in order to outsource your payroll services to a company that has the expertise you need.

4 – By outsourcing your payroll processing operations to Priority Pay Payroll, you can keep private payroll knowledge and information from walking out the door with an employee. If you have a controller or a book keeper that is charge of your payroll processing operations, and they decide to get a new job, then they may end up walking out the door with valuable and vital information about your company and your payroll, and this is dangerous to the security of your company. If you use an outside company like Priority Pay Payroll to handle your payroll, then this business risk is completely eliminated because we will keep your information private, safe and secure, and we will never share it for any reason.

Payroll Outsourcing Costs

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Payroll outsourcing costs might seem unnecessary especially to small businesses or businesses just getting started. But when you compare that cost to what you gain by using a company like Priority Pay Payroll, the benefits of outsourcing become clear.

First of all, small businesses spend a great deal of time on payroll processing. In fact, it’s been estimated that about 40% of the time spent in small business on administrative tasks is spent on payroll. When you outsource your payroll, you gain back that 40% of administration time and can apply it to tasks that contribute to the income of the company. If just one employee, manager or owner handles payroll, that’s over one-third of their administrative time spent working on payroll. Priority Pay Payroll lets you reclaim that time, which makes that person more efficient in building the business.

You should be aware that your cost for outsourcing does not have to be excessive, but it can be if you don’t choose a firm wisely. Highly-inflated costs are not uncommon. You need to look at the issue of price in a practical way. The lowest-priced payroll processing firm might be the cheapest, but that doesn’t mean it offers you the best value. If there are errors that cause delays, problems and even extra expenses, that’s no bargain.

And for some low-priced companies, everything beyond the very basic payroll services cost extra. So you could end up spending as much as with a higher-priced company if you don’t make sure of what you’ll get before you commit.

Like the lowest-priced firm may not be the best value, the highest-priced firms may not be the best in the industry either. The tendency today is to equate low-cost with low-quality, and unfortunately the opposite holds true. People think that if something is expensive, it must be well worth the money. And this isn’t always the case.

Even the highest-priced firm may charge extra for certain services that you weren’t aware of, and a high price is no guarantee of experience and skill. Priority Pay Payroll, however, has bundled services in convenient, plainly-priced packages so you always know what you’ll get. Combine that with over 30 years experience processing payroll, and the competitive prices truly are a great value.

And something to bear in mind when looking for payroll processing outsourcing is how convenient the company makes the switch. While cost might be foremost in your mind, you have to consider the cost of hours you may have to spend making the switch and fixing problems while helping your company transition.

A company should make this transition as easy as possible. And if they don’t, it really doesn’t matter what their rates are because you’ll pay heavily in lost productivity and time. The company should do a complete audit of your payroll, and then should be able to get everything set up in about 2 to 4 days. Priority Pay Payroll can handle this for you, and make the transition from time-consuming payroll to the ease of outsourcing a painless one.

Green Payroll Processing Services

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

With renewed interest in creating a green working environments, the introduction of Priority Pay Payroll Paperless Payroll services has become an attractive prospect for small business owners. Paperless Payroll services allow business owners to not only feel good about protecting the environment, but also save them time and money in the long run.

Employee Profiles

When first starting with Priority Pay Payroll Paperless Payroll services, customers will need to set up employee profiles for all of their employees. As employee information changes or employees leave their employee or are added, an employee profile must be updated or created. From employee profiles, payroll information like vacation time, paid time off and sick time are calculated. Also salaried employee information is used to calculate payroll payments. Tax deduction information is also contained in the employee profile.

Payroll Processing

It used to be that payroll processing was an accounting activity that literally took small business owners or bookkeepers several days or at the very least and entire afternoon. Once time sheets had been submitted, hours had to be calculated, taxes had to be figured into the calculations and eventually, hopefully, paychecks would be written, signed and distributed to employees in a timely manner. T hat was if there were no hiccups along the way.

Priority Pay Payroll Paperless Payroll services not only have changed this entire process, but these services have actually turned payroll processing into an easy and worry free activity. With each pay period, employees submit time sheets which are then submitted to Priority Pay Payroll electronically for processing. For staff who are salary based employees, payroll is calculated automatically based upon the salary information submitted when setting up their employee profile.

Payroll deductions are quickly calculated for every employee, along with accrual of vacation, paid time off and sick time which may apply.

Checks can be either printed in the convenience of customer offices or be laser signed by Priority Pay Payroll and forwarded to the customer to be distributed to employees on pay day. Priority Pay Payroll also offers Direct Deposit services which makes payroll processing even easier for customers.

Reports

Once payroll processing is completed by Priority Pay Payroll, an email containing copies of all employee pay stubs for the pay period and a summary deduction report is sent to the customer. This email is in Adobe format and is easy to read and understand.

Customers can also request a CDROM of all Priority Pay Payroll payroll processing history for their own company data storage or to have as electronic documentation to give to their accountant or CPA.

Payroll Taxes

With each pay period, payroll taxes are calculated and deducted from employee payroll checks. Priority Pay Payroll also calculates employer payroll taxes. All of this information is compiled and included in the payroll email report sent at the end of the payroll cycle. Priority Pay Payroll also makes sure that the proper tax forms and tax amounts are deposited with the IRS and appropriate state agencies, so that customers avoid potential tax penalties for late payment.