How to Manage Payroll: 9 Steps for Your Small Business

This is especially true for companies that still use a manual timecard system as they are exposed to high risk for discrepancies. Documenting your payroll process is an important step in managing payroll. This strategy helps when analyzing and auditing your payroll system as it highlights each step and makes it easier to identify weak points in the process. Once you develop a payroll process that works best for your business, document these procedures and share them with the payroll team to help ensure each payroll staff member understands their role. It is therefore crucial for businesses to build a payroll team with the skills required to handle the level of payroll tasks your company needs.

It boasts a score of 4.5 from 1,900 reviews on G2 and a score of 4.7 from over 3,800 reviews on Capterra. Users mostly mention Gusto’s easy-to-use interface, which we can attest to, given our hands-on experience with its payroll process and its is land a current asset excellent customer service. Make sure that you’re paying the right employment taxes/Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes (i.e., Social Security and Medicare), the right local and state tax, and the right income tax per employee. Double-check your payroll process to ensure that every employee gets paid accurately and on schedule. Monitor your payroll tax deposits to ensure they keep to a regular schedule according to your tax liability. The next step is to calculate net pay by taking the gross pay amount and subtracting deductions.

They can also search a knowledge base for answers to their questions or open a support case or live chat session to access TriNet customer support. After reconciling it, you’re ready to run payroll, which means approving direct deposits and the preparation of checks. It can take a few days for direct deposits to fully transfer to employee accounts and for checks to be printed and distributed. Some payroll products offer same-day or next-day direct deposit, but others may need longer than that.

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may need to include specific information on pay stubs typically provided to employees when wages are paid, either electronically or in paper form. Employees should review their pay stubs and report any payroll mistakes. Paycor is designed for small small business taxes and management to mid-size businesses, offering a payroll solution designed specifically for businesses paying 10 employees or less.

Stay covered at tax time

Running payroll can feel intimidating to a business owner who’s never done it before. You’re a business owner, so you probably feel like you do five people’s jobs. Payroll software can often integrate with your accounting software to automatically prepare payroll journal entries. Let’s say you own a small hardware store, where employee Christina worked 45 hours last week. If you’re not sure which one is the best solution for your business, consider using one that has the flexibility to change overtime. Rippling allows you to easily toggle between its traditional software and PEO solutions, making it a great solution for businesses as they grow and scale.

Manage payroll and access tools and services in one place

They also say its customer support is unhelpful; the chat bot does not offer relevant solutions and when they email customer support, it often doesn’t, either. They say the limited features the platform offers makes it a good option for companies with five to 10 employees but no more. When you hire a new employee, its team of tax experts notifies the correct state entity as balance sheet taxes and pensions required by law. The platform also calculates, withholds and remits payments, then files your taxes on the federal, state and local level. Then, it prepares and delivers W-2 forms to your employees when needed. Finally, for employees, it will manage your unemployment taxes and claims on your behalf.

1. Overall, this process was self-explanatory and required no learning curve.
2. A good rule of thumb is to check your work at least two days before you run payroll.
3. Having an efficient payroll system limits the likelihood of mistakes that affect your business’s bottom line.
4. Once you develop a payroll process that works best for your business, document these procedures and share them with the payroll team to help ensure each payroll staff member understands their role.
5. This implies that the larger the number of employees, the greater the transaction fee.

What Is a Payroll Report? Guide for Small Businesses

There are no essential “industry standard” qualifications for personnel entering payroll positions, but you can always look for relevant payroll accreditations that prove their math skills. When you hire a new worker, you can invite them to self-onboard through the employee portal, so you’ll easily gather their W-4 or W-9 form and contact information, and they can sign up for relevant benefits. I could also use filters to group data by department or pay type, for example. Through TriNet’s PEO, you can outsource all of your HR and payroll functions or you can choose which functions you want to outsource and which you’d like to keep in-house. Detailed analytics are also offered in color-coded pie and bar charts for a straightforward interpretation of data. When I clicked on an element of the pie chart, a screen popped up to show more granular data regarding the broader data point represented in the graph.

Steps in the payroll process

OnPay Payroll Plans start at $40 per month (base) and $6 per person per month. Gusto PayrollPlans start at $40 per month (base) and $6 per person per month. If you have hourly employees, you must track the time they spend on the job.