The reporting of tax liabilities to multiple state and federal agencies is one of the most onerous and scary requirements of having employees.

Over 25% of businesses experience a penalty for errors, late filings, or other mistakes filing employment tax, averaging over $700 each year.
(Source: IRS data book 2010)

Large companies may make deposits and file reports several times a week. That’s hundreds of filings in multiple states each year. Automating this process provides significant savings.

No matter what size the company, compliance to eFiling requirements, ever-changing forms, and meeting new guidelines legislated into existence during the year is difficult, and opens you to significant fines and penalties for non-compliance.

Moving to eFiling

Any change in the way your business operates should be made for the purpose of improving efficiencies, lowering expenses, limiting liabilities, or to keep up with changing requirements in regulations or marketplace.

Changing payroll reporting and payments to eFiling meets many, if not all, of these reasons. The simple interface and comprehensive nature of many of the forms and payments solutions available, provide efficiencies to virtually any other reporting and payment options. Automated error-checking functions eliminate virtually all rejections, as well as eliminating the liabilities associated with potential fines and penalties. One of the biggest changes in the business regulation environment is the stated goal of the IRS and SSA to make all communications and business practices to be conducted electronically.

Since many states take their lead from the federal standards, it will not be long before virtually all state and federal payments will be required to be sent electronically.

The Problem

Moving to electronic payments is inevitable. The question is how to go about changing over from your current process to electronic delivery.

With over 170 state and federal taxing agencies and myriad different processes, formats, forms, and deadlines, many businesses have just thrown up their hands and outsourced reporting to payroll services and paid very significant fees to do so. In many cases they simply felt they had no choice. The threat of non-compliance is just too scary.

Other companies have hired additional staff and decided to use agency websites to process payments and reports. Again the business is faced with going to several different sites, none of which have the same process. Those businesses are faced with unique logins for each site, separate tracking methods for each site, and multiple contacts to try to resolve any issues that may occur while transcribing in payroll data or attempting to export/download multiple files for the various sites.

The Solution

Find a solution that is integrated in your payroll module and does not require transcribing information, creating exported files, or transcribing to a website. The solution should provide automated payroll reports that are filled in automatically with your payroll data and can be eFiled with just a few clicks. The interface should be intuitive and simple to understand. A replica of the actual form displayed onscreen and the review process very simple. The steps required to eFile should be few and well defined.

The solution should support all of the federal and state agencies you file with and include unemployment, wage withholding, and new hire reports and payments.

There should be a single login to eFile and view all filing histories. Any filing should be time-stamped and dated to provide an audit trail.

There should be a calendar system that provides reminders for filing deadlines that could be received via email, desktop alerts, or even text messages to your cellular devices.

Compliance guarantees should be part of the service. All negotiations with state and federal agencies concerning filings should be conducted by representatives of the service. Any fines or penalties incurred because of service errors should be paid by the service.

Finally it needs to be affordable. An annual subscription that includes all of your filings for twelve months should be based on how many employees you have and should be less than outsourcing to a payroll service.

Wow, lots of these new tech startups are creating applications that can really help businesses! Global mobile payments solutions with super low fees, a new tool for people to learn JavaScript, and a way to have 17,000 PhD level scientist contribute to solving a problem. Exciting advancements in technology! Read the full story here.

Red Wing Software offers such time saving features as direct deposit, online tax filing and more. We are excited to now provide our customers the option of offering their employees pay cards, via our partner, smartOne Pay Card.

The smartOne Pay Card is safer than carrying cash, more convenient than having to seek out check cashing facility, and cheaper than paying to have a check cashed. It also gives employees access to a Visa or Mastercard debit Card, which allows them to make in-store, online or over-the phone purchases. In addition to all of this, employees will be able to more effectively track your spending habits with the monthly personal statements of card activity.

In order to use smartOne Pay Cards for your employees along with CenterPoint Payroll, direct deposit is required. To add direct deposit to your system, contact Red Wing Software at 800-732-9464. For more information about adding smartOne Pay Cards, contact our product expert Wade Speelman directly at: 402-602-4052, e-mail: wspeelman@tsys.com, or visit www.smartonesolutions.com.

If you do anything online, you have probably heard of the term 'phishing'. Phishing is a type of scam whereby the scammer sends e-mails, posing as a real organization, in an effort to try and capture your personal information. The e-mails are typically made to look official, and sometimes it's hard to tell whether the e-mail is real or fake. Often, the tone of a phishing e-mail will be urgent, and will request you click on their link right away or your account will be frozen, or some such bad result. Phishing e-mails can be made to look like they come from your bank, internet provider, eBay, etc.

The IRS has a good page about phishing, where they describe what it is, examples of what it might look like, and what to do if you receive such an e-mail. Click here to go to their site and read the fully story.

You know you need it for your business, but what is the best way to sort through all the accounting systems out there? These days there are many different ways to purchase accounting systems. Here are the main ways to find and purchase accounting systems today.

Partner

Many accounting software companies sell their products through partners, who are often referred to as VARs or Value Added Resellers. The main benefit of purchasing your software from a VAR is that they are typically located near you and can provide training and implementation help, and can also help support you as time goes on. Sometimes VARs will be listed on a software company’s Web site, or else you can simply call the company and ask if there is a VAR near you.

Retail Stores

Most basic accounting systems can be purchased at retail stores these days, such as office supply stores. You may get a better price on software when purchasing it from a retail store, but you also may miss out on some of the services you could get by purchasing through a VAR or other reseller. And without talking to a company representative, VAR or reseller, it is hard to know whether the system can handle your specific needs. The more complex accounting systems won’t typically be found at retail stores.

Accountant

Your accountant could be a great resource in helping you select the right accounting system for your business. A great advantage to working with your accountant on this is that he or she knows your business and what kinds of special features and needs you have that accounting software could help with. Accountants usually have the experience and knowledge of available systems, and which one would fit best for you. Some accountants are resellers or partners of software companies, and others simply make recommendations.

Online

The term “accounting software” is searched for in Google about 40,000 times per month! People are going to the Web to do their research to find out which accounting systems are out there. However, searching for the term ‘accounting software’ does not give you a neatly organized, comprehensive list of accounting systems. Instead of doing a Google Search, use www.findaccountingsoftware.com or www.capterra.com. Both of these Web sites help you narrow down your search by plugging in your price range and the features you need. You can even talk to representatives of the Web site via phone and have vendors contact you. These Web sites can save you many hours and give you a comprehensive list of companies, so you can find the one that is right for you.