09/ 20/ 2006
by Amy Cates
The decision to hire a payroll service lies in how far you want to be removed from the payroll process--and how focused you need your accounting staff to be on other tasks.
"We outsourced payroll from day one," says Mike Gilroy, CFO and founder of JetSouth Corp., a fixed-base operator offering aircraft fueling and maintenance services. Gilroy also was a practicing CPA for 12 years and saw firsthand the advantages of handing payroll over to an outside company.
Accurate payroll records. The software used by payroll companies accurately calculates salaries, commissions, overtime and other compensation and produces the appropriate records for business owners to review and keep on file. "Any payroll vendor will provide the business owner with competent software," Gilroy says. "As a business owner, the biggest advantage is I get to review a signature-ready product."
Fulfilled tax obligations. Meeting tax deadlines and filing the appropriate forms for your employees are as important as increasing your business' bottom line. Withheld taxes, Social Security, FICA and federal and state unemployment taxes must be filed and paid on time. An outsourced staff fulfills these obligations and gives the business owner peace of mind.
A streamlined accounting staff. Keeping payroll in-house may seem like a cost-saver, but Gilroy points out that the cost of hiring a trained and experienced staff person is far greater than outsourcing the service. Handing over payroll duties cuts those costs drastically and actually streamlines your accounting department. "It frees them up to handle more important tasks than the ins and outs of payroll," Gilroy says.
A well-managed payday. While Gilroy admits his payroll is not complicated, he does have hourly workers, along with overtime and double-time hours that must be compensated. A payroll company can readily calculate, print and distribute employees' checks. "I couldn't imagine not outsourcing payroll," he says.
