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.

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.

Many businesses start out with basic financial management software, or bookkeeping software consisting of general ledger, accounts payable and accounts receivable. As the business grows, managing inventory becomes essential to the profitability of the business. Three software modules work together to provide excellent inventory management: inventory, order entry, and purchase orders. What are the signs your business is ready to start looking at an inventory management system?

1. You sometimes forget to ship backordered items. Without a system to track items on backorder, it can be easy to forget to ship those backordered items. An order entry system allows you to ship the items that are available, and keep track of those unshipped items, so you won’t forget to ship them once available.
2. You are unsure about when to re-order, and how many of each item to keep in stock. With an inventory system, you can run reports that show demand for each item within the time period you choose, so you’ll know when you are running low, and have a gauge for how many to keep in stock. For example, in the busy sales months you can maintain inventory levels for your customers, but in the slower sales cycle you won’t have a shelf full of obsolete items.
3. You are unsure which items you sell are the most and least profitable. One item seems to be flying off the shelf, while another has minimal sales revenue. Not knowing of which of those two items is more profitable is a huge mistake. If the slow seller is more profitable, a smart idea would be to focus on increasing sales to improve overall profitability.
4. When a customer places an order, you cannot tell whether those items are in stock. If you constantly have to walk back to the warehouse or call somebody to physically check on the stock status of an item, you are doing your customer and yourself a disservice. Checking stock manually wastes your employees’ time. It can also result in broken promises or delayed shipping to your customer. Adding a computerized system for checking inventory can greatly enhance your customer satisfaction, and can improve the efficiency of your business.
5. You have different pricing levels for your products which are currently accessed from a paper file. If you are keeping pricing information on paper, it can be hard to tell which pricing is the most current, and sometimes the correct sheet can even disappear. Having your software keep track of multiple pricing levels is a much more secure and organized way to keep track of pricing. By assigning each customer their respective price level, your orders will automatically show correct pricing when the order is entered into the system.
6. Order entry and order invoicing are currently done in two separate systems. If you have one system to keep track of orders, and another separate system for entering the accounts receivable invoice, you are spending double the time entering the same information. You can save time and reduce manual errors by electronically entering orders and creating invoices.
7. Do you have items that can be sold in different units of measure? For instance, you get a discount for purchasing items by the pallet, but your customer buys them by the carton. Having an inventory management system allows you to receive the items in the unit of measure you choose (in this case, by the pallet) and then sell in another unit of measure (i.e. by the carton). The system will also keep track of the item’s purchase price, and the cost of goods sold, in the unit of measure specified.
8. You track serial or lot numbers on paper or in a spreadsheet. You are tracking serial or lot numbers for a reason, and that reason is to keep track of who got which items, in case of a faulty lot or recall. Having the information on paper can be risky because papers can get lost or damaged. An inventory system allows you to track this information electronically, so you can always run a report to see who got what.
9. Are you wondering why your profitability is down? With inventory management, you can run reports by item, product line, or sales category showing each item’s profitability, so you’ll know along the way the trend for each of the items you sell. That way you can fix the problem early and maintain your profitability.
10. Your inventory is running you! The right inventory accounting software can provide the tools your business needs to increase efficiency, provide excellent customer service, and help you to take control of your financial management.

Looking for payroll solutions?

Payroll is an important part of your business. Staying compliant with payroll tax filing and paying employees on time are both crucial functions. The right payroll solutions help businesses stay compliant with taxes, keep employees happy, and streamline payroll processing.

Here are some of the first things to think about on your journey to finding good payroll solutions, and more specifically, the right one for your business!

Basic, Medium or Advanced Payroll Solutions

Basic: most basic of payroll programs can often be purchased easily off the internet or on the shelves of retail stores. These programs often work very well for business that are just starting up and have only one or a few employees. Remember, you will need to get updated tax information so your tax forms are up to date. Once it’s time to get updated tax forms, this will typically incur a cost. Also, once you reach a certain number of employees or other data, the software provider may require you upgrade to a paid service to accommodate that. One popular provider of basic payroll is Quickbooks Payroll by Intuit. They offer several basic options. Signs you need a basic payroll solution:

• You only have one or a few employees.
• You are just starting to run payroll.
• You don’t have any special payroll needs.

Medium: When your business grows, you start growing in your payroll needs as well. Adding more employees means more employee garnishment types, more ways to pay employees (such as salaried, commissioned, piece rate, and more), and maybe even the management of multiple company payrolls. These are just a few of the signs you need a better payroll solution. Many companies start tracking information by hand and quickly find it frustrating and inefficient. Medium payroll solutions can usually handle the tracking of that information for you, streamlining your job and ensuring accurate payroll data. For medium solutions, you should write down your specific needs and work with a company representative to be sure their software can meet all you are looking to accomplish. Check out CenterPoint Payroll Software by Red Wing Software, which helps thousands of businesses in the U.S. accommodate their growing payroll needs. Here are just a few of the signs you are ready to move to a medium solution:

• Spreadsheet tracking of payroll information is cumbersome.
• You need to enter and track payroll information for multiple locations or multiple states.
• Functions such as pay or deduction codes are more complex than your system can accommodate.
• Your system is bogged down, slow, or experiencing crashes and lock-ups.

Advanced: If yours is a very large business, you may start to require more advanced functions than small or medium payroll solutions can offer. Detailed human resources management, employee and manager self-services resources, and time management are just a few of the things large companies may require for the efficient management of payroll. For advanced payroll solutions, you will likely work at length with a company representative or team about your needs. Implementation and training may take weeks or even months. Check out Lawson Software. Some of the signs your business needs advanced payroll:

• Standard systems just cannot handle your business needs, so software code changes are required.
• You are using several different systems that don’t work well with each other.
• You need much more detail than offered by a payroll solution, such as human resource management, benefits administration, or a multitude of other functions.

Situation: You are using an outdated software system, and there are distinct benefits such as improved efficiency and improved customer satisfaction. But you don’t want to move because the economy seems dismal, and you want to keep your money instead of spending it on software. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help make the decision easier. If you are honest with your answers for each of these questions, your decision will be an easy one, either way.

• Will the time and money saved pay off the new system? How long will it take?

  Accounting software and payroll software for your business typically costs money. If a system is good, it will improve your efficiency enough that the money paid is well worth it. For instance, invoices are processed faster, bringing in cash more quickly. Inventory is accurate, so you know how many items to order and when to order them, so you keep just enough in stock, saving you money on costly ‘dead stock’ or backorders. These are just a few of the benefits you may be gaining by upgrading your software. Be sure that the benefits you gain are immediate enough that the cost of upgrading is worthwhile.

• Will customers benefit daily from the switch?

  You might be wondering, “What can accounting and payroll software do for my customers?” One shining example is that you can give your customers the information they request while they are on the phone, saving you the time of checking and calling them back. How many items are there in stock? What is my outstanding balance with your company? When is my payment due? Every time you have to check something out and call a customer back, that customer is waiting and you are spending double the time on the phone. If you upgrade to a new system, consider your customers. If they benefit daily from your software upgrade, it is probably worth it.

• Do you have a plan to make a smooth transition?

  Any software move involves a learning curve. With a plan in place, you can make that curve much shorter, and the whole process much smoother. Work with your software sales representative to help you develop a plan and timeline for your software switch. This plan can include steps for your own company, as well as additional tools offered by the company providing the software. Many software companies provide a variety of training and support methods. Find the ones that are right for you, and put them in your plan, so you won’t be tempted to ditch the new system halfway through the transition.

• Is there a compelling reason to move, outside of just technology?

  Some people just love technology for the simple fact that it’s new and cool. Especially during a slow economy, you have to ask yourself if this is the reason you are switching, or are there other compelling benefits? Switching for the sake of only technology is not a good idea unless you happen to have lots of spare money sitting around, or your software simply won’t work with new operating systems. Switching because there are true benefits to you, your business, and your customers is definitely reason enough to make the switch, especially during a slow economy.