As business owners, we are all looking to cut costs. We are constantly trying to find areas of our business where we can save some money, right? Doing your own bookkeeping is an obvious one and for many so is payroll. We have previously given our thoughts on why you should not be doing your own books. You can find out what our thoughts on this are by clicking here
This BLOG will talk you through some of the reasons that we think you should stop doing your own payroll. We do understand that you may believe you only have a smaller workforce so what is the point in paying someone to process your weekly, fortnightly or monthly payroll.
After all, with some of the cloud-based accounting software, it feels like it is doing all the hard work! It is simple; with everything set up and ready to run automatically… At face value, it seems like a great idea.
You maybe consider that hiring a payroll specialist is an expense that you can avoid. They aren’t cheap and surely you can do just as good a job. Perhaps you could even hire a part-time administrator to look after your payroll run for you.
We understand that you are confident that you can handle it yourself, in the office. No need to look for outside bookkeepers or payroll experts. You can make sure that your staff gets paid the right salary and you can do that on time. What could go wrong, right?
Truth is, lots actually! We have put together just a couple of reasons why you should stop doing your own payroll and instead get an expert to help you out.
Doing your own payroll is a time waster
Chances are that you are a tradie or at least have a background in the trades rather than in finance. With that in mind and your lack of knowledge, you’ll likely spend a large amount of time calculating employees’ work hours. You will then need to figure out the correct taxes and other deductions to be made. Then, of course, there is the need to create and distribute payslips and process the payments and the paperwork. Then there is the filing.
While getting payroll right is a crucial part of running any successful business, is it really the best use of your time?
You could have a bit of a background in bookkeeping or accounting. Even if processing the payroll would be well within your grasp do you really want to spend your precious time doing these tasks? Focusing on the core aspects of your business is likely to be the most productive way for your time to be spent.
You can leave payroll to a payroll expert while you do what you are good at!
Some business owners relish new skills. Expanding their knowledge base is one of the reasons they got into running their own business. If that is you then there is no reason why you can’t learn these skills. At least learn enough that you understand the complexities. Our advice though is to leave the doingness to an expert!
If you have a yearning to learn about relevant tax adjustments and benefits procedures, then go ahead and do that. But then again, is there some other learning that you could undertake that would benefit you and your business more?
A payroll specialist knows the ins and outs of taxes, overtime, and contributions. They understand the impact of sales commissions and bonuses. The truth is this… a payroll specialist is a professional who can do it better. A bonus is that while they are doing that, you can get back to doing what you do best.
Truth is it might cost you more to do it yourself
One of the most common mistakes made by small business owners is thinking that they are saving money by doing everything on their own. Remember, time is money.
Just think about what your time is worth. It is worth remembering too that a job that would take you away from your business for 4 hours may only take a professional one hour.
You can spend your time more productively on business activities that drive profits and growth.
Don’t forget too that if you get your payroll wrong or you fail to do it on time, you can get penalties which can mount up to quite impactful amounts. These fines will also put you on the radar of the ATO and that is not somewhere any small or medium-sized business owner wants to be!
These fines are avoidable if you contract a payroll specialist instead of juggling this task with other jobs that need doing.
Is There a Better Way to Do Things??
So, at the very least hire someone internally to undertake the responsibility of payroll. They can take care of your superannuation responsibilities and all that goes along with this.
If you think hiring a full-time in-house payroll staff is not practical, that your business is not quite ready for that, there are other options. You could always come to us at Tradies Advantage and let us take care of your payroll.Whether you need weekly, fortnightly, or monthly processing, our team is flexible enough to do it for you. Our knowledge base is huge and our commitment to you and your employees and contractors is 100%.
As payroll experts, our team can keep your employees happy with timely and accurate wages. We will ensure that you maintain tax compliance, and we will ease any back office concerns.
So get in touch with us today and give yourself and your personnel the peace of mind you deserve! Click here to arrange for a FREE Accounting Systems Check.