By Steve Kania
Many of your clients may be looking for the lowest priced payroll solution they can find. It may seem like payroll software fits this mold, but a low priced could actually end up costing you more. Not to mention the potential hassles that could arise from using a less than robust payroll product.
If your clients are considering a payroll software product, be sure to remind them of the following:
• How will they apply and pay for quarterly tax updates?
• Employee access to view paystubs is absent but may be desirable.
• Archiving/backing up is a lot of work. Payroll involves copious amounts of data collection, reports, employee information, etc. With payroll software, it may require a lot of manual work to store this information somewhere that’s easy to find. Compare this to a good online payroll services provider that should have all that information stored online and easily accessible at any time.
• The software is typically only on one computer. This means any time someone wants to run payroll, they need to be at this specific computer. They should have access to mobile payroll and the ability to run payroll anywhere.
• You may get software support, but what about payroll support? Payroll software programs will likely provide customer service support if something goes wrong with the software. But a serious question about payroll? It’s not something to guess on, and a more comprehensive payroll product would provide help on things like payroll taxes and more.
It’s understandable that small businesses want to save on costs, but if they come to you asking about payroll, be sure to remind them of the cost of wasted time and potential mistakes.