3 Pointers for Making Payroll
Just as you expect your customers to pay for their alarm systems, your employees expect a paycheck. Consistently meeting your payroll results in happy, loyal employees (and avoiding any trouble with the IRS). Padgett Business Services recommends taking a proactive approach to creating a payroll system that will work for your small business.
Here are a couple of tips to help make payroll:
1. Have a strong understanding of your monthly expenses and accurate profit projections. This step is key to meeting each payroll deadline. You will also know if you can afford to keep employees on full time, or if you should move some to part time—or perhaps hire an independent contractor at an hourly rate.
2. Keep track of what you are spending. Are you overspending on alarm inventory that isn’t moving? Have you recently invested in some expensive advertising and/or organizations? Perhaps you have too many staff on the payroll to turn any profit. In any case, you need to invest in your business intelligently to generate a return.
If some of your investments are eating up your profits, carefully review which of them you may be able to eliminate. Paying closer attention to your inventory management is one solution, and so is reviewing your current marketing plan to be more effective.
3. Get some help. If this is not your area of expertise, there are lots of services that specifically help small businesses with payroll and bookkeeping services. Besides writing checks, other important aspects of payroll include:
- •Filing quarterly reports
- •Withholding employee taxes
- •Paying withholding to government agencies
- •Issuing W-2 forms at year’s end
- •Making summary filings at the state level
- •Managing employees’ health and pension plan contributions
- •Handling state disability, unemployment and family leave assessments
Therefore, hiring professional help may be worth your while. Remember, making payroll is essential to company morale. Planning ahead and taking a proactive approach to payroll will ensure you meet it every pay period. For more resources related to running your alarm business, visit Alarm Capital Alliance.