7 Payroll Best Practices

One of the biggest mistakes many companies make, year after year, is in underestimating their payroll process. This is something that calls for strategic thinking, solid teamwork, and consistent execution if you’re going to do it right. And you want to do this right. 

Remember: you’re dealing with a messy combination of numbers, budgets, timesheets, and governmental departments. Payday takes a lot of work to get right, and it’s your job as payroll manager to make make it happen.

Looking for payroll best practices to use in your Deland office? Check out our official list of recommended practices, and let’s sharpen up your payroll process a little.

Maintaining A Policy Manual

Take some time out, right in the beginning, to set up a payroll manual which you can update as you go along. This will make a handy reference tool and give you something to call up for pay periods, W-2s, and PTO policies. 

Distribute the manual to all relevant employees and ask them to reference it when they have a question. Send out notifications whenever important updates are made. 

Map Out The Year Ahead

Worried about tax deadlines creeping up on you? Quarterly tasks keeping you up at night? From Deland, Florida to Juno Alaska, the one thing you can count on is that these dates will remain the same, across the board. Maintain a complete calendar of important dates and deadlines for the year to stay up to date with your upcoming deadlines.  

Provide Forms In A Timely Manner

This may sound like obvious advice, but make sure you execute your W-2s, 1099, 1095-C and other submissions. Late filing penalties are no fun for anyone, especially smaller businesses, so keep track of your deadlines for submission, both to the IRS and your employees.

Classify Employees Properly

File the right tax forms more easily by making sure you have your employees properly classified ahead of time. Full-time employees. Independent contractors. Exempt. Nonexempt. Whatever your staff makeup, make sure you properly classify your employees and you’ll be off to the right start.

Be warned: IRS fines aren’t the only consequence of incorrect classification. This can also lead to miscalculating state wages and reported ACA hours, which could lead to further financial penalties. Save yourself time and money by simply classifying employees correctly in the beginning.

Track Everything

Keep records of all employees, and consider a staff management system to keep everything together. Once you start hiring, firing, and retiring across your workforce, these numbers can get complicated quickly.

Reconsider Your Payroll System

Test our your payroll system for any potential errors. Chances are, you’ll identify several things you didn’t know didn’t work. Once you’ve seen where you can improve, consider an automated system to help save yourself a little time and a lot of potential errors.

Develop A Strict Payroll Approval Process

It’s important to know your budget, understand your pay periods, and keep track of your schedules. There’s got to be a payroll process that you integrate and stick with, developing an approval process for hours worked and revising anything a manager may have overlooked. All of this adds up and can speed up your payroll budget significantly if you figure out the best process and stick to that, permanently.

Payroll Best Practices

So now you’ve gotten the hang of your payroll process with our expert payroll best practices. Congratulations. Want to make it even easier, with a highly-rated payroll service in your Deland business? Get in touch with us, today, to find out how Vision HR can help you succeed.