The Advantages of Professional Payroll Services

Just like hiring an accountant to do your yearly taxes or monthly bookkeeping,  outsourcing your payroll responsibilities can save a small business owner lots of time and money!  By taking a time-consuming chore off your plate, it frees you to focus on all the other aspects of running your business. Here are just some of the reasons to consider having a professional do your payroll.

The Advantages of Outsourcing Payroll Services

Writing checks, keeping accurate records, calculating and paying payroll taxes, and communicating with your employees can be very demanding and costly, especially if you are a small business owner. Outsourcing your payroll services can reduce cost, save time, and make sure that your taxes are correctly calculated. Managing a company’s payroll is considered a big hassle even by the most experienced professionals. Outsourcing payroll is a great alternative to in-house processing and can even help you save money in the long run.

Truth be told, for very small businesses it is actually recommended that they process the payroll themselves. But, if you are a small business owner, you should take into consideration the time needed and the cost associated with in-house payroll management. Without good knowledge of the process and without access to specialized payroll software, it is very easy to make costly mistakes. For example, employees, as well as tax agencies, have to be paid on time and in full, or your business will have to pay penalties.

When to Outsource Payroll Services
Processing your company’s payroll in-house requires at least the purchase of a computer, the payroll software and the training required in order to use it. Keeping up to date on changes in personnel, salaries, or tax requirements can prove to be a real hassle, so the person or team that handles your payroll must be highly trained and professional.

If your payroll expenses are fairly stable, in-house payroll management can be done without a lot of effort. But if your payroll changes on each pay period, or if you have a lot of employees that don’t work a set amount of hours each week, then outsourcing your payroll services might be the better choice.

Benefits of Outsourcing
Payroll companies normally handle calculating each employee’s salary and taxes, printing and delivering paychecks, and supplying management reports. Additional services that a payroll company may offer are: automatic check signatures, direct deposit of checks, or issuing W-2 forms. Hiring a payroll management company can have many benefits that will make running your business a lot easier. Here are the most important:

• Save time – Hiring a professional payroll company will free up time and employees, allowing the more important areas of your organization to benefit. Processing payroll, writing and delivering checks, calculating and paying employment taxes, preparing and delivering tax forms, and handling payroll inquiries are all very important parts of running a business, but your employees’ time can be spent more effectively by improving customer service, finding more business, or releasing a new product line.
• Reduce costs – You must not underestimate the cost of in-house payroll processing. The time and resources spent on internal payroll management must be taken into consideration when you consider hiring a payroll company. In most cases, business owners find that, by employing a professional payroll service company, they will save money that can be used to improve other sides of their business.
• Avoid IRS penalties – The IRS estimates that over 40 percent of small businesses in the United States pay penalties of over $800 per year. These penalties are the result of late or incorrect filing and payments. Besides being a hassle, calculating and filing payroll taxes can attract fairly large penalties if done incorrectly. Most payroll companies offer the guarantee that you won’t have to pay any penalties if you use their services. Plus, by using a payroll service, you are also guaranteed that the tax paperwork is completed and filed on time.

In Conclusion
Whether your business needs to outsource payroll services or not depends on many individual factors, and you should carefully analyze all the data before deciding to hire a professional or do your own in-house payroll management. Always exercise caution before hiring a payroll company. They will be handling a very important part of your business, so a high level of professionalism and customer service is very important. Finding and hiring a good payroll services provider will save you and your employees a lot of time and even money, allowing you to concentrate on more important parts of your business.

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The Most Helpful Reports for Small Business Accounting

Most small business owners know that data entry - when it comes to your accounting - is important.  What's equally important is interpreting those numbers into meaningful and digestable information that can help your business thrive.  There are as many types of accounting reports as there are software tools to create them.  Here are 10 that may come in handy for you.

The 10 most helpful reports on your accounting software
By Elizabeth Gillam of myob.com

When you own a business it’s all too easy to be caught up in the day-to-day running of the business. You find yourself working in the business, not on the business.

It is tempting to stay in the comfort zone of the day-to-day rather than face the reality of the business by researching your reports.

But the only way you can truly know how your business is going is by checking your back-of-house reports to find your Key Performance Indicators. Knowing your numbers and understanding the data in your reports helps you to be a better manager — and run a better business.

Get into the habit of printing and analysing your daily, weekly and monthly reports to improve your business performance. It only takes a short time each morning, and it increases your chances of meeting your targets and budgets exponentially.

To help you out on which reports to run, let me suggest my top 10.

1. Analyse Sales report
You should run this report daily; it keeps you on your toes and details your sales history.

You have sales budgets, and it is important that you meet them. This report shows you the productivity of your sales team. It also tells you who your most important customers are — the ones who spend the most money.

Learn who these customers are to be sure you are giving them excellent customer service.

2. Sales Customer Detail report
This report shows you which customer is ordering what. This enables you to better know your customer and offer them superb customer service by suggesting other items they might like to purchase from you.

This report also enables you to set your production or ordering schedule. If you are selling items, then your stock levels need to be replenished.

3. Sales Register
This report should be done each morning to track where you are on outstanding quotes, sales in progress and finalised sales.

Your sales people value leadership, and this report allows you to have a conversation with each salesperson every morning to set their daily task list.

4. Aged Receivables Summary
Use this report to monitor your cash flow — the cash you have on hand to pay bills and run your business.

I’m sure you have terms on your invoices, and it’s important that your clients or customers don’t abuse their privileges. Each time a customer takes longer to pay their account, the more it costs you.

Make it a habit to print this report every week and ring each customer whose account is outside your terms of trade. The squeaky wheel gets the grease — make sure you are that squeaky wheel.

Want more invoicing tips? Read 6 quick fixes to improve your invoicing process.

5. Cash Flow Analysis report
This report is gold for the business owner. It will show you what cash will be coming into and out of your account over a set period of time.

If this report shows a negative, it will give you all the more reason to use the aged receivables report from above to identify those customers outside trading terms and ring them to get their money in.

6. To-Do List Receivables report
This report should be run daily. It will tell you whose account is due when.

It’s a great opportunity to ring a client when their account is due to firstly offer further sales assistance and potentially sell more product. You can also mention that their account is due.

This is a great initiative to not only build sales but also to offer superior customer service.

7. Bank Register report
Run this report daily to check to your bank statement.

It helps to identify that your sales from the day before have in fact been banked and that the right amount has been banked. The number of times I have seen money disappear from when it leaves your office until it hits the bank is mind-boggling.Finding an error the next day is always easier than trying to find it next week or next month.

8. Undeposited Funds report
This report helps you keep an eye on transactions that have been paid by the customer and receipted in your system but are yet to hit the bank.

It gives you an idea of how much cash is sitting in your store and whether it is over your insurance levels. It will also show you how much money you have waiting to be settled from credit card transactions.

9. Profit & Loss report
This is a monthly report that is essential for any businessperson to use. It shows you how much profit you have made.

Diving deep into this report will show you where your sales and expenses are coming from. Paying close attention to small improvements on every line of this report will lead to greater profitability.

Want to get a handle on the key drivers of increasing profit? Read more here.

10. Profit & Loss Report to Budget
This report compares your actual figures to those you budgeted for previously in the year.

It will show you if you are on track to reach the goals you set yourself and your business when you prepared your budgets. It helps you to run a tight ship.

Having a software system is a given in business. Using it effectively is the difference between a good businessperson and a successful businessperson.

To view the original article, click here.

A Quality Experience with KMI Insurance

    

In classic small business owner fashion, I realized a few weeks ago (in the middle of the night) that I needed business insurance immediately.  In fact, I needed it a while back and was playing catch up. After scrolling through client and vendor contacts, I decided to go through the Richmond Business Alliance (RBA) directory.

Bingo!  I have done business with fellow Richmond Business Alliances members before with great success.  I had also chatted with Kate of KMI Insurance at quite a few of the RBA’s monthly networking events.  I vaguely knew that she worked in the insurance field, but I mostly recalled the intelligent and full of laughs conversations that we’ve had.

In less than a week, Kate and her staff coordinated to go from first phone call to executed policy. Throughout all of this communication was excellent.  When I had a question, it was answered.  When I asked for her recommendation, she gave it and then explained it.  My needs were accommodated promptly and professionally.  I cannot recommend more highly the services of KMI Insurance.  I would also like to recognize that without our membership in the RBA that this business relationship may not have been formed.

If you have insurance needs, please give Kate a call.  I’m glad that I did.

Upcoming Deadlines for Small Businesses and Self-Employed

There are some upcoming tax deadlines for Small Business and those who are Self-Employed.

September 15th

• Third Quarter estimated tax payments are due. Form 1040-ES.
• Final day to file for Partnerships that filed with Form 1065 and for a 5-month extension.
• Corporations that filed a 6-month extension file a calendar year Form 1120 or 1120S.

October 17th

• Final day to file tax return for Self-Employed if you filed for a 6-month extension in April.

For a comprehensive list of deadlines visit www.tax.gov/calendar/

How We Helped Design By E

It’s no secret that we help all kinds of businesses, big or small, reach their goals and find their individual success. We have clients from all different backgrounds and we’ve learned that no client is created equal. It keeps it interesting because we are faced with a variety of unique problems to solve and we love finding great solutions for our clients' financial future.

One of our newer clients, Design By E, is no different and they offered a new kind of challenge for us. They are a small firm who specialize in creative multimedia and marketing.  Despite being small, they experienced big growth in a relatively short amount of time. They were growing at an exponential rate and needed financial direction when they sought out the services of Accounting Works Solutions.

Having been the sole proprietor of the company, the founder, Enrique Mendez, was able to create a healthy budget for himself from the start. However, the unique and valuable services offered by the company quickly gained traction throughout the small business owner community in Richmond and he was able to acquire some pretty reputable clients in a short amount of time.

In order to keep up with their gain, Enrique hired two full-time employees and needed help organizing his company's financial future quickly as his business became more complex.

When they came to us, we were we able to analyze and figure exactly where their finances stood and write down a plan for them to budget for the future. The plan included setting money aside for taxes, savings and company growth.

We reached this plan by carefully looking at their profit margins and seeing where their strength and weaknesses lie. We asked them to pay attention to those areas where they were the most profitable and maybe adjust their strategy when it came to less profitable projects.

“Accounting Works Solutions really helped us take our business to the next level,” says Enrique.  “We found ourselves so busy with work that we often forget to pay attention to our finances. Stephen was a such a big help and crucial for our future as a company.  I feel confident going forward that we’re going to continue to be profitable!”

At Accounting Works, we not only offer accounting solutions but also financial planning for growing businesses. We’re excited to have a wide portfolio of clientele and will always do our best to help our clients be at their best. If you always find that your finances are the last thing on your list to worry about, it may be in your best interest to make sure that your business is operating the most efficient way possible. We can help you achieve those goals! It can save you hundreds and maybe thousands in the long run when you talk to an expert. So give us a call today and see if you’re the best you can be!

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