Every company has to deal with payroll. It’s inevitable, and as a business grows, payroll can become incredibly complicated and time-consuming. At minimum, you are likely to look for the best payroll software, but it’s possible that a full-service package is a better option. While you’re browsing different solutions, you’re going to see a lot of different prices. Some are clearly out of the question, but from the payroll services for small business that are in your price range, you’ll wonder what you really get for any extra cost. Is it best to go with the cheapest option? Let’s explore that idea thoroughly.
Considering Cost
In any business decision, you have to consider the cost. It doesn’t matter how amazing a service or investment might be. If you can’t afford it, it’s out of the question. Cost always matters, and it will always be one of the primary concerns when choosing a service. That naturally applies to payroll as well. While you’re comparing payroll providers, cost will absolutely be one of, if not the most important single factor.
But, cost isn’t everything, and you already knew that. With some purchases, contracts or investments, what you get is fairly standardized. Going for the cheapest option that lives up to those standards is obvious. In other areas, the return on investment is hard to predict and can vary radically. As you might imagine, payroll can be one of those areas.
In general, you expect a few basic things from online payroll services. Any should handle the payroll ledger and payroll distribution. Beyond that, there are no clear standards in the industry. You’ll see countless different packages and options, and you need a systematic way to compare them. Aside from cost, you can break the most important components of a payroll service into four categories: security, services, flexibility and responsibility.
Security Essentials
Payroll, even small business payroll, involves sensitive and protected information. Odds are that you will want digital tools to help with your payroll management and execution. They’re invaluable in these respects, but they raise the risk that you can unintentionally leak protected information. Clearly, security is a major concern, but not all payroll services take the same approach to security. Most will make some claims, but if you aren’t an expert in cybersecurity, you’ll want some way to verify your service.
There is a way to do that. Payroll security is not carefully regulated, and service providers can work professionally without specific credentials. That said, there is an optional credential that shows a service’s commitment to high-level security. The certification is called SOC 1 standards. The standard is maintained by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. It involves an audit that validates security controls and operations for a service provider. Any payroll service with this certification is a cut above the average in terms of security.
It is possible to find competent payroll security without this certification, but you will have to invest more time and energy into your research. You’ll need alternative ways to verify that your security concerns are being met. If you can’t do that, look for another provider.
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Range of Services
There are specific functions you need your business online payroll service to perform. These functions come in the form of features and services, and you absolutely have to compare services and features when you are shopping for your payroll service.
It’s where you will find the most variance. While you can expect that every service will handle essential service, that’s where expectations should end. Only some will integrate their functions and features into your existing infrastructure, which is an invaluable service. Troubleshooting and strategizing will vary as services too.
Something that is easy to overlook is vertical knowledge. If your payroll service has experience with your industry, they can make specific offers that help you with your daily functions and long-term goals.
On top of all of this, you want to evaluate their customer service. How do they treat you? What contact resources do you have if you need special help with something? What are they willing to do to help your business succeed? This aspect of services is all about soft skills, and a service that offers better communication and soft skills will likely provide a better experience.
Flexibility and Scalability
Every business changes over time. Payroll service needs to be able to adapt to your business changes. Flexibility is key; it helps make for a good relationship and gives you more options and control over how you handle payroll. Even if the service is doing the bulk of the work, the decisions and execution are still largely up to you. When a contract has room for change and adaptability, it goes a long way towards helping you find a way to move forward as business conditions change.
A similar concern is scalability — a word that shows up in every discussion of software and technology solutions. There’s a reason for that. The hope is generally that the business will grow over time. A good plan for scalability allows your payroll service to grow with the company. Without a scalability strategy, you’ll find that your payroll service eventually becomes a burden, and you will have to change. If you are convinced of the scalability solutions in the first place, then you can stick with your service indefinitely and feel better about the decision.
Responsibility and Recovery
The last category pertains to responsibility. You choose a professional service specifically to avoid mistakes and problems. It’s fair to have those expectations, but every service is ultimately provided by humans (no matter how advanced some of the technology used by the service may be). Mistakes, problems and even disasters can and will occur despite the best efforts of both parties. When that happens, what responsibility does your payroll service assume? This needs to be clearly defined in any service contract. If nothing else, these definitions help to form a solid plan of action when things do go wrong. This helps to avoid costly delays and disputes.
On the same level, recovery plans are essential. Any payroll service worth its salt will be able to address the concept of recovery. What happens if servers go down or files are lost? Surely, there should be a backup system in place. Beyond that, there should be a plan of action that already outlines how to utilize those backups.
You can get beyond simple problems and look into legitimate disasters. For all that happened with the COVID-19 pandemic, there is one thing that is universal. It impacted every single business, and it focused everyone to think about a disaster and recovery plan. You can judge a payroll service by how it fared through the pandemic to get a good feel of what you can expect in the face of another disaster.
Since you have to have payroll, and it can get complicated, it makes sense to consider professional payroll companies. Now that you have criteria for evaluation, you can look carefully at your options and try to select the best payroll service for your business.
