Online payroll comes with many powerful advantages. Every day, small and medium businesses across the country make the switch.
Why make the switch to online payroll? What are the advantages of making the switch? Today, I’m going to explain why so many businesses around the world have made the switch to online payroll.
Time Savings With Online Payroll
Want to save time every payroll period? Online payroll is one of the easiest ways to do that. With online payroll, saving time has never been easier. You and your employees can save time while running payroll and avoid hours of extra work during tax season.
How does online payroll save you time? Here are a few of its most valuable time-saving advantages:
- No calculations required; just enter hour data and the software will do everything else
- Receive notifications for upcoming form submission deadlines
- E-file auto-completed tax forms directly from your payroll platform
- Employees can often enter hour data themselves
- Manage payroll on-the-go using mobile apps or any web browser
These are just a few of the time-saving advantages of online payroll. In some small businesses, the manager runs payroll. In other businesses, you may dedicate an employee to running payroll. After you make the switch to online payroll, you can spend that time doing other productive things.
Avoid Tax Penalties With Online Payroll
Taxes are one of two things you can’t avoid in life. If you try to avoid taxes, you’re going to receive a tax penalty.
Tax penalties are rarely cheap. If you fail to file your taxes in an accurate and timely manner, then the IRS will automatically hit you with a 5% to 10% penalty on the amount owed. If you continue to avoid taxes, you may be assessed a penalty of 100% of the amount owed – and both you and your employee will have to pay that amount.
Let’s say you miscalculated your employees’ payroll taxes this year. Instead of deducting $12,000 from their paychecks over the year, you deducted $10,000. You forgot to pay the IRS $2,000 per employee.
Now, the IRS will hit you with a 10% automatic penalty per employee plus a 100% penalty to both you and your employee. If you have 10 employees, that works out to a total of $42,000 plus an extra $20,000 for the original amount owed. Yikes.
Payroll services let you avoid all of these penalties and never worry about the IRS again. In fact, some payroll service providers will even guarantee total protection against tax penalties from the IRS. These companies are 100% confident in the accuracy of their payroll software.
Easier, More Efficient Bookkeeping With Payroll Software
Most payroll services integrate well with your existing bookkeeping software. In fact, with many bookkeeping services, you can easily export data to your payroll software – which means you’ll never have to enter data twice.
If compatibility is important to you, then both QuickBooks and Intuit Online Payroll offer an excellent deal. You can save money on both services by subscribing at the same time, but you can also enjoy world-class compatibility and a unified interface.
Many businesses don’t synchronize their bookkeeping and payroll software. Efficient businesses make sure all their services are synchronized together. Thanks to today’s online payroll software programs, bookkeeping is easier than ever.
Payroll Software Cost Savings
Up above, we talked about the time savings offered by payroll software. Time savings and cost savings go hand in hand, because – as we all know – time is money. Click here for free payroll software trials.
However, there are some specific cost saving advantages offered by payroll software. Those advantages include:
- No IRS Penalties
- Cheaper costs than accountants or accounting departments
- Plans starting as low as $10 per month
- 100% accurate payroll taxes according to state and federal law
Accountants can cost $200 per hour or more. You may not be able to avoid accountants entirely, but you can certainly simplify your business’s accounting process and save a lot of money in the process.
Whether you employ an entire accounting department or you assign an employee to perform basic bookkeeping, the cost savings advantages of online payroll can have a powerful impact on your business.
The Easiest Tax Season You’ll Ever Have
Most people don’t enjoy tax season. Tax season is stressful, time-consuming, and often expensive. With online payroll, you can enjoy one of the easiest tax seasons you’ll ever have.
Online payroll software simplifies tax season in a number of different ways. First, it ensures you deduct 100% accurate payroll taxes throughout the year. Second, it reminds you when all payroll tax forms are due. From W-2s to 1099 forms, you’ll never miss tax season again thanks to online payroll software.
Some payroll software simply notifies you when forms are due. Other payroll software will actually fill out these forms with all required information – in which case all you have to do is click ‘Submit’.
In either case, this is a way better – and more accurate – option than calculating payroll through your bookkeeping software or performing manual calculations.
Manage Your Business On-The-Go With Payroll Mobile Apps
If you’re a small business owner, then it may feel like you never truly get a vacation.
Once you subscribe to online payroll software, that may change. Online payroll solutions lets you easily manage your business on-the-go using mobile apps or any internet-connected device.
Most mobile apps are full-featured and you can run payroll, edit employee data, and perform all other necessary functions on your mobile device. Intuit Online Payroll’s mobile app, for example, is particularly good at providing full access to your account.
You can run payroll while you’re at a resort in Mexico, for example, or easily manage payroll data while working from home.
