Payroll administration has many moving parts—and accuracy is crucial to employee satisfaction. After all, employees find few things more upsetting than an incorrect paycheck! If executed improperly, payroll can cause many problems—and potentially put employers at risk for legal issues. For these reasons, many North Carolina employers use payroll service providers to make payroll administration an easy, accurate, and headache-free.
What is a Payroll Service Provider?
A payroll service provider is a third-party company that assists with or assumes responsibility for all aspects of payroll on behalf of another business. Using payrolling services can simplify many things associated with payroll administration, such as:
- Employee time and attendance
- Workers’ compensation
- Unemployment insurance
- Payroll taxes
- Direct deposit information
Even companies with small employees can benefit from a payroll service provider. A good payrolling services partner can help with a range of business functions, ensuring that your business stays on track and avoids administrative struggles.
Here Are the Top 5 Reasons Companies Can Benefit From Using Payrolling Services in Raleigh, North Carolina.
#1. Payroll Tax and Regulation Compliance
When an organization outsources its payrolling functions services, the payroll service provider acts as the employer of record and assumes the risk and liability for tax withholding, compliance, benefits administration, and more.
- Payroll taxes. Keeping up with changing tax laws in your state can be challenging. Using a payrolling service provider can ensure that all appropriate taxes, garnishments, and other payroll deductions are withheld from employee wages accurately and paid on time. Mistakes can be costly, incurring fees and penalties that compound over time. Additionally, employers have payroll tax responsibilities at the end of each quarter and at the end of each fiscal year. Working with a payroll service provider can eliminate the burden of filing complex forms while offloading a substantial risk.
- Compliance. Payroll providers are compliance experts, keeping you updated with federal, state, and local regulatory changes that may affect your business. They can also help you communicate important compliance standards to employees to prevent misunderstandings. Business owners may find it challenging to keep up with changing government rules and regulations. Still, payroll service providers are obligated to stay up to date with rules, regulations, and changes in tax rates for their clients.
#2. Using a Payroll Service Provider Saves Time and Money
Whether a company has ten employees or a hundred, payroll administration requires time and attention. This time often comes at the expense of activities that could build revenue or grow your business. By outsourcing payroll, companies can use fewer resources on mundane activities like totaling hours, calculating taxes, printing, signing and distributing checks, generating reports, preparing and remitting returns to government agencies…and the list goes on. And it must be repeated every week—or as often as you pay your employees.
By outsourcing those time-consuming activities, you can create more time for your employees to spend on strategizing, reaching out to customers, and other activities that can build your bottom line. Professional payroll processors are excellent at making sure they have accurate data and correcting mistakes before they become problems—saving you more time and money. You won’t have to invest time in training new employees when the tax codes change; you’ll already have experts in place. You also won’t be left in the lurch if a key employee leaves the company right before tax season; your outsourced payroll solution will keep things running smoothly.
#3. Helps Organizations Avoid Legal Troubles
Payrolling is not an easy task. Often, one tiny mistake can cost you thousands of dollars. It’s not unusual for an employment lawsuit to exceed the cost of payrolling services for your company. The laws that govern payroll are complex. In addition to state and local regulations, federal regulations include the following:
- Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
- Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA)
- Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA)
- Equal Pay Act (EPA)
- Davis-Bacon Act
Keeping sloppy records, failing to pay employees on time, and filing late or inaccurate payroll taxes can impact your business in ways like these:
- Government audits and fines
- Penalties and interest
- Back payment of missing pay
- Legal expenses
- Poor employee morale
Many employers choose to minimize their risks and take the safer route of using an expert payroll service provider to handle payroll administration.
#4. Ultimately, Improve Employee Retention
Employees want to receive timely, accurate paychecks. Payroll mistakes can incur fines and penalties should your company undergo a government audit, but they can be equally costly regarding employee satisfaction. An employee who has been with the company for a long time and has had a great experience might tolerate a payroll error, provided it is quickly corrected. However, newer or less understanding employees might choose to leave a company that doesn’t fulfill their promise to pay on time and in full. If that payroll mistake is compounded across the organization, then one tiny error can become costly indeed. If your company struggles to complete payroll, it may make sense to use a third-party payroll service provider to keep your employees’ trust—and loyalty.
#5. Access to professional support
When you partner with a professional payroll service provider, you gain access to a team of professionals who know payroll processing inside and out. As specialists in payroll processing, taxes, and compliance, they’re ready and able to assist you with any hiccups or issues that come your way. Gain peace of mind by hiring experts to help you in the following areas:
- 401(k) regulations and payroll deduction integration
- W-9 forms and adjusting accurate deductions
- Calculating and submitting quarterly and year-end tax statements
- Tracking employees’ benefits eligibility and payroll deductions
- FICA, Social Security, and Medicare deductions and payments
Payroll providers also have access to technology and other high-end products that streamline and automate payroll, simplifying deductions and producing more accurate data. Since they can manage your employees more efficiently, they can often pass those savings along to you, making a payrolling partner less expensive than the hourly cost of maintaining human resources, legal, and administrative staff to handle your payroll.
Set your worries aside, and partner with North Carolina’s Payroll Service Providers: Career Foundations
Planning on adding direct hire, temporary or contract workers to your team? Career Foundations expert payrolling services can help you stress less and get more done. We’ll handle all the administrative details, including:
- I-9s, W-2s, and other employment tax documentation
- Processing payroll and distributing checks
- Workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance costs
- Distribution of year-end earnings statements
Use North Carolina’s preferred payroll service provider to give peace of mind and an increased focus on your business. Place employees, you select on our payroll, and we’ll handle the associated administrative burden and costs. You won’t have to worry about misclassification of other employment risks, and we ensure full compliance with all local, state, and federal independent contractor laws and regulations.
Gain Flexibility—Reduce Risk
Contract workers can help your business adapt to changing business demands, but you can face penalties when 1099 contractors and W-2 employees are misclassified. Payrolling can give you the advantage of using contract employees without the risks. By placing your employees on our payroll, we’re responsible for correct classification, benefits administration and compliance. We remain current with all applicable laws and regulations that can affect your business, allowing you to stay focused on your core business—and your bottom line.
