Payroll Tips

In most cases, payroll is the biggest cost to a company’s overhead. Payroll processing can also be very time consuming and costly to administer. The good news is that there is always room for improvement and with a couple of revisions, you can streamline the process into a well-oiled machine.

1.  Keep It Simple: The challenge we encounter most dealing with small businesses is a complex payroll system. Employees are not on the same schedule; salaried employees are paid semi- monthly and hourly employees are paid monthly. Setting a set schedule for everyone takes much of the guess work out of your calculations. Having clear and simple payroll policies will help establish clarity in your organization. Overly complex rules surrounding vacation pay or commission pay can lead to overly complex calculations that also lead you to errors in payroll.

2.  Choosing the Right Software: How are you calculating payroll? An Excel spreadsheet? That is perhaps not the best way to keep track of the employee’s pay and the remittances due to the government. Talk to us about what types of technology might work best for your situation.

3.  Free the Paper: Have you considered to go paperless? Did you know the right software can enable you to email your employee’s paystubs automatically? Forgoing the printing of paystubs can save you time and money spent on ink, paper, envelopes, mailing supplies, and employee time spent on processing the paper paystubs.

​4.  Staying Current: Remitting your source deduction payments to the government on time is the biggest favour you can do to yourself. This not only avoids penalties and interest but also a snowballing effect of large unpaid balances.

Staying current also refers to staying up to date on new payroll legislation such as changes to holiday pay rules. Staying up to date on new legislation ensures that you remain compliant, avoiding audits and more penalties.

5.  Keep a Schedule: Are you surprised every time that payroll creeps up on you? Setting a payroll reminder and keeping your employees on a schedule will help reduce expectation gaps and give you more time to consider your task. Nothing spells disaster more than a rushed job.

6.  Seek Professional Assistance: Still have issues? Contact us. We would love to help.