As an employer there are certain payroll responsibilities that are required by government agencies. These agencies can be federal, state or local. These responsibilities include activities like withholding amounts from your employees compensation to cover income tax, social security, Medicare and other payments but it is not limited to these factors only. So in other words we can say that payroll is the total amount of money paid by a business to its

employees over a set amount of time. Again there are certain specified taxes that are taken by a government agency on employees wages, tips, and other allied compensations. These are known as payroll taxes. There are certain amounts that are withheld by the employer from the employees account to pay for the federal income, social security and Medicare taxes. A business also has the responsibility of reporting and depositing payroll taxes to the appropriate agency which should be in an accurate and timely manner. Late or inaccurate deposits may attract penalties and interest charges. Therefore carrying out all these tasks by the business owner solely can be a real headache. But first we would look into the concepts of payroll for a small business separately.

Payroll Concept

Payroll can be defined as the sum of all financial records of salaries, wages, bonuses and deductions in a company. Now for paying an employee for the services, which he has rendered, the employer issues a paper document, which is known as paycheck. While physical paychecks are commonly used in United States, recently the physical paycheck has been replaced by electronic direct deposit.

Now to access the paychecks an employee uses a card that looks like a bank debit card, which is known as a payroll card. A payroll card is a handier instrument as compared to a check casher because it can be utilized at all

participating ATM machines to withdraw cash, or in retail environments to make purchases. The payroll card account is on the employers name and is held as a single account by the employer. That account holds the payroll funds for all the employees using the payroll card system.

Small Business Meaning

A small business is an enterprise, which has a limited number of employees. The legal definition of small business may vary from country to country, but the general accepted notion is that, a business which has employees less than a hundred, is considered as a small business company.

Is Small business payroll service a suitable response

Handling payroll might cause much of a headache to even a well-experienced and a careful professional. So opting for a payroll service becomes the need of the hour. But before going for a payroll service you need to check on certain things.

1. Making a Right Decision:- First of all we must try and find out whether a payroll service is right for our small business. Small business firms with a permanent, salaried staff and having minimal changes in tax obligations may well be better off processing internally because it would be more convenient and cost-effective. However this scenario is not always applicable regarding processing paychecks internally because it may not be always cost-effective.

It costs you the valuable hours of employee time every day plus expensive accounting software and training. In addition to this, the person who handles your payroll needs is liable to make mistakes if he doesnt have proper knowledge of payroll procedure and access to a sound payroll program. Therefore outsourcing your payroll activities will be a more affordable and effective option to remove this burden. In that case a small business payroll service can be regarded as a timesaving and cost-effective option for internal processing.

2. Understanding the Need:- Typically the small business payroll services handle a range of payroll tasks which consists of, calculating paycheck and carrying out tax obligations for each individual employee, printing and delivering checks and providing management reports. However by paying some extra fees also the business can get some extra payroll services, which many payroll services offer. Currently there are many services who are offering tie-ins with 401(k) and section 125 mutual fund plans, thereby facilitating employees to set up automatic deductions from their paychecks. Filings of state and federal taxes for the businesses are some of the services which are also offered by some small business payroll services. So as according to your needs youll select the services and pay the same.

Payroll Softwares a Better Option

Nowadays small business payroll softwares are continuously evolving and are becoming more and more user-friendly and more accurate. The parameter to evaluate the usefulness of small business payroll software is determined by the features and the services that the business payroll software is providing. Though there are some problems of initial time lags in inputting data, the software minimizes it with its amazing speed of calculation. Besides it forewarns you if there are several entries with similar data. Payroll and tax filings are typically handled by small business payroll softwares for small businesses. Therefore we can say that it simplifies the tedious task of documenting, figuring or executing a payroll which can be either on a weekly or in a monthly manner. This software saves time and manpower.

Instead of using a separate manpower force in or having full time employees only for executing payrolls we can use this software and make use of the manpower source for some other uses. The cost of the payroll software depends on the payment duration and also on the number of employees working. Also the tax procedure of the state where the business is setup determines the cost of the payroll software. The features in the software may also vary a little bit due to the above said reasons. This software can be easily sourced as it is easily available the market and can also be purchased online.

There are also some business payroll software providers who give you a free trial period, so that you can have a better idea of the software before using it. Therefore you would be in a more decisive position as you would be able to find out whether it meets the needs of your company. Apart from this there are many small business payroll software companies, which assure you service and up gradation for a definite period of time.