Image by Firmbee from Pixabay
Be Aware of the Pitfalls
The complexities that define payroll compliance can prove daunting, especially when you’re confused over certain regulatory policies governing the tax structure.
It’s easy to overlook certain criteria. Unless you keep up with amendments and re-structures, even the slightest error could cause immense complications for you and your business.
Know the Basic Requirements Around Payroll Management
In a nutshell: the payroll requirement expects you to pay your employees the correct amounts, at the correct time, contractually and lawfully.
All deductions are mandated to reflect accuracy, and each employee is entitled to a detailed payslip. Your business is obligated to file and pay taxes timeously.
Apart from the deductions that are paid to the tax authority, payments allotted for specified deductions, like medical insurance, a pension fund, overtime, and sick leave, to name a few, must be handled with due regard.
4 Ways in which Your Small Business Might Handle Payroll
The Traditional Route: While written methods and spreadsheets have served many businesses in the past, this rather dated way of handling the payroll will only suffice where the business is a very small one, employing 2-3 people at most. The tax office might reject spreadsheets as a reliable source of information.
DIY Software: accounting software has grown in popularity among small business owners over the last few years. Many software programmes offer tailored, user-friendly packages that are easily navigated and time-efficient. Some packages are free to source. Although the software generally deducts and fills in the tax form for you, you’ll still have to fulfil certain processes manually.
Payroll Service Providers: outsourcing your payroll to small business payroll services to manage on your behalf makes a ton of sense. Fully comprehensive services offer you packages that deal with every aspect of your payroll requirements, while others offer select services to their clients.
Accountants and bookkeepers: usually engaged on an individual basis, expert bookkeepers and accountants handle all aspects of the payroll.
Small Business Insights
Small businesses that went digital during the pandemic demonstrated a healthier financial status as compared to those that did not. Initiatives, especially those backed and endorsed at government-level have been put into place to assist small businesses to transition to a digital footprint in major countries around the globe.
What has shone through during tough times, is the overwhelming support many employers and employees have offered one another, adopting a ‘we’ll get through this together’ kind of camaraderie.
Recovery is at the heart of the matter, and while many industries foresee a prolonged struggle, employers face real obstacles. Unemployment figures remain unsteady, and the pressures, real.
Seek the Right Advice
With a strong focus on innovative marketing strategy and client-centric postures, keeping overheads to a minimum and cash flows tight, the business community has re-centred itself, absorbed the blows, and found solutions to navigate the costs associated with niggly realities, like payroll qualms.
Expertise is available at reasonable rates for the small business owner. Rather than face the consequences of malpractice, arm yourself with the necessary tools to keep your business healthy.
