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Here’s What to Think About if You’re Expanding Your Business (And Therefore, Your Payroll)

CMMA Blog

If you’re planning to expand your business, one of your top priorities should be making sure you’re in position to classify and pay employees and independent contractors properly. This is especially important if you’re looking to hire people in any state without any red tape. Today, we’ll talk about what it takes to run payroll and when it’s helpful to engage a partner.

Doing Payroll Right

Since payroll is always a complex, high-stakes business, it’s worth investing anything required on the front end to make sure you do it right. Whether you train an in-house team or engage a partner, they need to be in position to classify correctly, stay on top of laws as they change, identify and respond to the different tax requirements, and have a system in place that allows the process to be simple, accurate, and fast. This helps you avoid future fines and legal battles.

Doing it right means doing the following:

  1. Learning local employment laws. This includes identifying regulations regarding working hours, holidays, sick pay, insurance, and more and having a (preferably automated) system in place to follow those rules.
  2. Onboarding workers. This includes collecting information such as name and date of birth as well as tax forms, background checks, benefit status, and work eligibility.
  3. Storing and securing data. Since you’re dealing people’s personally identifiable information (PII), you MUST have a way to secure that highly-sensitive data. The fines for mishandling data are serious, so you should be equally serious.
  4. Authorizing payments and ensuring your employees get paid accurately.  This includes identifying the appropriate deductions/taxes, keeping accurate records, paying on time in every location, sending out notifications, reporting as required to government institutions, etc.
  5. Having a system in place to identify and adjust to changes. You don’t always have time to wait weeks to adjust to new laws. Things evolve rapidly, so your system needs to be ready to evolve just as rapidly.
  6. Staying compliant. Laws are different from place to place and do change frequently, so your payroll management software solution should have systems in place to ensure  compliance wherever you operate.

Would Outsourcing Payroll Benefit Your Business?

Outsourcing payroll is especially valuable in certain situations. If a company needs to hire employees in multiple states, is growing rapidly, and/or needs to hire temporary workers frequently, engaging an Employer of Record (EOR) could be a game changer. An EOR mitigates compliance risks, increases payroll efficiency, and eases the administrative burdens of managing a workforce.

The Bottom Line

Payroll is one of the most complex and challenging aspects of operating a business and should be given appropriate attention by every business. When a company is growing, payroll is one of the most important aspects of business to have in good working order. The right people on your in-house team or the right partner are essential. If you think a partner would be beneficial to your business, reach out ! Relax: We got it.

The post Here’s What to Think About if You’re Expanding Your Business (And Therefore, Your Payroll) appeared first on PayReel .

To view our Partner blog, click here

The Closest Thing to an Easy Button For Contingent Workforce Management

CMMA Blog

Ask anyone who manages a contingent workforce and the answer will be swift: an easy button to make it simple, convenient, and organized would be worth an awful. Any system or company that handles contractor payroll should include certain features (like online timecards, approvals, benefits-tracking, and more) to get as close to an easy button as possible.

Features of Headache-Free Contingent Workforce Management

Online Everything

Paper-free paperwork. It’s enough to make even the busiest folks sleep well at night. Being able to do everything from engaging/onboarding a worker to receiving timecards and submitting approvals online just makes sense.

Custom Reporting

Custom reports can serve to increase productivity or provide valuable insight into what is working well as well as where there’s room for improvement. It’s one feature that can make a huge difference in the way a system/payroll partner meets a company’s needs.

Consolidated Invoicing

When you have a bunch of invoices to pay to multiple vendors, it can get a little complicated. The vendors might be contractors themselves or the vendors that provide the contractors. Being able to bundle all invoices (according to the job, event, or in whatever way makes the most sense) and pay them as a single invoice can be a game changer for budget tracking and just plain simplicity. Having a payroll partner that offers this option can be invaluable, especially for companies managing many events or projects.

Ability to Manage Multiple Projects at Once

Speaking of multiple projects, being able to manage all of your events or productions at one time and in one place is a huge benefit. When you’re handling a multiple budgets and staff members, being able to do it all in one place is more than just convenient. An online system where you can just log in and see all of the projects you’re working on simplifies something that has the potential to be incredibly complicated. For one thing, it means you can skip some of the impeccable record-keeping previously required to manage the paperwork on concurrent projects. Online systems that allow you to pick any project/event and quickly identify the people working on them, the time cards that have been submitted, what has been approved and what still needs approvals, all broken out according to project and billing code is a huge time saver.

The Bottom Line

We know managing a contingent workforce can be challenging, but we’ve been working to make it as easy as it can be. If anything you see above might make your life better, contact us and tell us about your situation. You just might be able to hang up and say, “That was easy!” Seriously. This is our jam.

The post The Closest Thing to an Easy Button For Contingent Workforce Management appeared first on PayReel .

To view our Partner blog, click here

Is Your Brand Ambassador an Employee or an Indepndent Contractor?

CMMA Blog

Clients tell us they grapple with worker classification over and over. They wonder whether workers should be treated as W-2 employees or as 1099 independent contractors. It can be a complicated subject and every time the game changes, the rules change, too. Fortunately, with brand ambassadors, it can quickly become simple. The answer comes down to the way you answer one question. 

How Does The IRS Distinguish Between an Independent Contractor And an Employee?

One of the most foundational questions the IRS considers is how much control the employer has over a worker’s schedule, payment, and other aspects of their job. The greater control the employer has, the more likely the worker will be considered an employee. For example, workers will be considered employees when most of the following statements apply: 

*Clients set expectations for work hours
*Workers perform services and expectations in a certain order (as directed by the client)
*Workers submit reports
*Workers perform their duties onsite at a specific location and for a set event
*Workers are paid hourly rather than on a project basis

Independent contractors, on the other hand, are autonomous workers and are not required to set a schedule (i.e.: show up at a specific time for a specific event) or perform tasks in a certain order. They are also often paid on a project basis rather than hourly. 

Where do Brand Ambassadors Land And Why Do Companies Care?

The above description for an employee usually applies to brand ambassadors. Their work simply does not look like the complete autonomy the IRS requires to consider a worker a true 1099 independent contractor.

If the answer really is this simple, why do companies want to justify a different decision? One of the most consistent arguments for attempting to classify any worker as a 1099, regardless how thin the justification, is that it’s cheaper. And it is! At least up front. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that the IRS is paying attention. Should you ever get caught misclassifying a worker, you’ll find out it’s not so cheap after all. Aside from the money you risk sinking into paying criminal and civil penalties, you also risk losing credibility along with energy and valuable human resources spent dealing with the issue.

It’s stressful. It’s costly. It’s just not worth it.

The Bottom Line

In most cases, we’d absolutely recommend calling a brand ambassador a W-2 employee. If you need advice on your specific situation, our team knows this stuff inside and out. 

 

The post Is Your Brand Ambassador an Employee or an Indepndent Contractor? appeared first on PayReel .

To view our Partner blog, click here

The Hidden Benefit to Paying Contractors in 30 Days

CMMA Blog

Internal processes, red tape, and backlogged accounting departments make it hard to get checks in the mail. We definitely understand. Even when a practice is common among other companies, a slow corporate freelance payment policy might prevent you from working with the best people.

Paying Contractors On Time Is Good For Companies

We know that keeping workers happy can be a pain the arse. Still, like many things, a different perspective makes all the difference. Top contractors get booked quickly. When you pay contractors quickly, they’re more likely to answer your calls and ramp up your projects in a short amount of time. For busy department heads with big projects and short turnaround times, there’s nothing better than diving right in with tried and true creative partners. Saving time, money, and hassle by working with people who just get what you’re looking for is priceless.  Paying later than your competition can get you blacklisted or moved to the bottom of a contractor’s long to do list. The true pain is having to go through the entire process of finding someone who is a good fit and bringing them up to speed just because your tried and true contractors have prioritized other companies.

If the benefits to you aren’t enough, think about it from the workers’ perspective. Freelancers single-handedly juggle creative work, billing, marketing, and more. That means the person who sees your invoice in their red column is often the same one you’re expecting to bring their all to your next project. What seems like an insignificant to a big company can have a major effect on a small business’ cash flow.

Don’t Be a Hoarder

Just because many large companies have made it a practice to hoard cash and squeeze small businesses to increase their own bottom lines doesn’t mean you have to follow suit. Not only does it add pressure to those you work with, it’s just not ethical. You may justify it by saying it’s not as bad as the latest headline maker’s illegal and greedy ways, but shady practices of any degree have no place in your business.

The Bottom Line

Paying contractors quickly is worth the investment. If it’s not feasible to transform your internal process, get a partner involved. You get the peace of mind of knowing you’ll always be in good standing with contractors. It pays to hire someone with systems in place.

Hiring contractors is a beautiful thing: It gives you a fresh perspective and talent without having to bring on full-time team members. Just make sure you do it right. Going from Net 90 to Net Now will save you time, keep you in good standing with contractors, and ensure you can feel good about the way you do business. Rather than trying to save Benjamins up front, take Benjamin Franklin’s advice and “Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.”

The post The Hidden Benefit to Paying Contractors in 30 Days appeared first on PayReel .

To view our Partner blog, click here

The Road to IRS Hell is Paved With Preventable Mistakes

CMMA Blog

A case involving embezzlement, tax liability, and good intentions added up to a nightmare for one man. Dr. Robert McClendon’s story proves there’s no amount of caution too intense when it comes to payroll tax liability.

IRS Mistakes Cost Big (Even When They’re Not Your Fault)

In a sobering case reported in Forbes, a man who loaned $100,000 to a struggling business was fined $4.3 million for said company’s payroll tax liability. When you dig into the details, it’s not as unfair as it may seem at first blush, but that doesn’t make the situation any less painful for Dr. McClendon—the defendant and a legally-deemed responsible party. As the Forbes article states, “You can be ‘willful’ under the tax law even if you didn’t have a bad motive or evil intent.”

So what was the kiss of death for Dr. McClendon?

Responsible & Willful: A Mismatch of Million-Dollar Proportions

Dr. McClendon owned the business to which he loaned the money and the cash went toward the seemingly noble goal of paying employees to prevent shuttering the doors altogether. While it was an employee who’d embezzled the funds earmarked for payroll taxes, the case against Dr. McClendon was strong enough to prove him responsible and willful . He wasn’t responsible for the embezzlement but he was responsible for choosing to pay employees instead of the payroll taxes, which by that time, he knew about. The case against Dr. McClendon withstood the legal tests and left the doc to nurse his own wounds. Ouch.

How to Protect Yourself

Either learn the rules of payroll taxes and precisely follow them or hire a qualified company to do it for you. One benefit to hiring a payroll service is that hiring a payroll service takes the burden of having to understand all of the rules off of company leadership.  The payroll service takes on the liability and frees up the small business to focus on business.

The Bottom Line

There are too many ways to get in trouble with the IRS to choose ignorance. With fines and possible jail time on the line, legitimate small businesses must take payroll taxes seriously. The government sure does.

 

The post The Road to IRS Hell is Paved With Preventable Mistakes appeared first on PayReel .

To view our Partner blog, click here

Want to Hire an Employer of Record (EOR)? What You Need to Know.

CMMA Blog

Compliance is hard, time-consuming, high-stakes work. Many companies are finding that keeping on top of the ins and outs with an in-house team gets harder as laws change (and then change again). Whether you hire a payroll service or build a team to do the job, you want to be sure they’re fully in position to protect you and your company. 

Here’s what to look for when you think it might be time to hire an employer of record

They Diffuse Legal Landmines 

Contractor/freelancer payment and compliance regulations are ever-changing. Hedging your bets on the legal front means:

  • Mitigating compliance risks
  • Making sure you are compliant
  • Educating yourself on practices that could compromise you
  • Tracking benefits eligibility
  • Tracking changes in minimum wage and sick leave policies in each state you operate
  • Answering questions, including whether or not you can pay once a month or fill timesheets out ahead of time. Hint: you can’t.

Quick And Accurate Payment

Beyond compliance, services with the following features make payroll a breeze. 

  • Online management for employees and managers  
  • Fast payment
  • Overtime tracking
  • Education on overtime policies so employees don’t make a habit of working overtime without getting prior approval
  • Benefits eligibility

They’re Ready For Changes

The most effective teams have someone who researches changes as they happen and takes the necessary steps. They read forums like a boss and stay up to date on payroll regulations. Navigating the increasingly complicated waters of payroll services means making sure you’re following all regulations, rules, and federal and state laws. 

The bottom line

Labor laws and fair pay standard practices are in a constant state of change. The gig economy and the worker classification challenges it brings to the forefront are top-of-mind topics for the government, employers, and employees alike. Pick someone who can stay ahead of the curve so you never even have to think about payroll services and compliance. Life and work is chaotic enough.

PayReel makes compliance and payroll the easiest part of your day with a full range of services. We make sure our clients are able to hire who they want, when they want and see that everyone is paid properly. Contact us anytime at 303-526-4900 and meet the PayReel team here!

The post Want to Hire an Employer of Record (EOR)? What You Need to Know. appeared first on PayReel .

To view our Partner blog, click here