How to Do Payroll the Quick, Painless and Cheapest Way

What’s one thing you dislike about your business?

Does it have to do with payroll by chance?

Unless you’re a math wiz and you love paperwork, you probably don’t enjoy all of the minutia that entails getting your employees paid. You don’t have to shell out even more money on a bookkeeper, though. Here’s how to do payroll on your own when you’re running a small business.

Research Your Duties And Rights

Before you sit down to print out your employee’s checks, learn what federal and state guidelines you must follow in terms of paying your employees. If you’re running an online business, you need to be especially thorough in following your legal responsibilities as an employer.

For instance, figure out how much you need to withhold from each employee’s check. The withholdings will include state and federal income taxes, social security and retirement contributions, FICA taxes, and health insurance plans if you offer them.

At this point, you should also plan out how often you will pay your employees. Usually, businesses pay their employees weekly or biweekly, depending on several factors including their budgets, the amount of employees needing to be paid, and who takes care of payroll services. Remember that you will also have to deposit payroll taxes and reports to the IRS quarterly, monthly, or even biweekly, depending on how often you issue the employee’s payments.

Ensure Your Employees Fill Out Their Paperwork

Before you can process each employee’s paycheck, make sure that he or she filled out the paperwork necessary for legal payment. 

Every employee should submit each of the following forms for you to have on-file for the IRS:

• W4 (Information about tax deductions for individual employees)
• I9 (proof of legal right to work in the United States)
• Standard employee application (as proof of formal employment)

In addition to filling out their federally-mandated paperwork, your employees should be expected to fill out time sheets. This way, you don’t have to be solely in charge of keeping track of each worker’s hours.

Your workers can easily keep track of their daily billable hours by using a timetracking app. This way, you don’t have to spend money on a time-card system or an internal business-wide tracker.

Streamline The Process Of How To Do Payroll Without Expensive Software

After you collect all the necessary info to complete the payroll process, your real task begins. It’s time to pay out your employees and submit 

all local, state, and federal payroll reports.

You can do this without buying expensive bookkeeping software.

Simply use a paycheck calculator to subtract all of your employees’ deductions from their gross payments. Then, print out their checks, and use a check stub maker to give your employees copies of their checks for their own records. Afterwards, use the IRS’s electronic submission system to submit all of your required forms and tax deposits.

Learn More About the Latest Tech

Now that you know how to do payroll without wasting many resources, you’ve just saved your business a lot of money over time. There’s no need to have an extra employee on your payroll just to make sure that everyone gets paid correctly; you can take care of it yourself.

Visit us regularly to learn more about how to use technology to simplify your life. From tips on how to make money online to keeping track of the latest tech trends, we have all of the tidbits you’ll find most useful.