Tax Season is Around the Corner… Are You Using Online W2s?

Posted on January 13, 2011 by asuresoftware

There’s a great scene in The Shawshank Redemption where Andy Dufresne, in his role as accountant for the warden, ends up filing the taxes on behalf of the entire prison staff. Then, the movie skips forward a year, where an entire softball team waits patiently for their turn with Andy. The warden had scheduled the softball games to ensure his fellow penal officers had the opportunity to use a genuine accountant, and a free one at that. With W2 filing imminent, it’s useful to look at this scene in a broader context. Even an awful person like the warden knew how valuable a good accountant is for filing ones’ taxes. The tax code is an impenetrable mess of a document. It’s very difficult to even understand short sentences on a W2. Taxes, in a word, are a pain.

There are indications that this may not always be the case. There’s no hope for the tax code to be simplified, nor re-written in plainer English. However, what Andy Dufresne did for those government employees was a long, involved and complicated process where ours is usually just putting a few numbers in the appropriate box on our W2 form. We’ve come many, many leaps forward in this area. This may not be in the golden age of taxes, but consider: electronic W2s, online filing, and a government branch that’s accessible via the Internet instead of long lines. Twenty years ago an IRS audit was a completely different process than it is today.

An unintended side effect of all of this is that accountants have less to do than ever before. While millions of people use the Internet for their taxes and have online W2s, the companies who made their money preparing W2s and other forms have been fighting to stay alive. That turn has lead the largest such company in the country, H&R Block, to engage in allegedly predatory lending tactics they call “rapid refunds.” Since most people can file their own W2 with little effort, H&R made millions by doubling as a bank.

As detailed in the Gaston Gazette, federal regulators forced the high-interest lending practice to stop this year. The effective APR rate for loans like this, backed by tax refunds, can be up to 500% in some cases. H&R Block looks to lose the $146 million they made last year with rapid refunds, and maybe more from the resulting stock drop. However, a few others like Jackson Hewitt and Liberty quickly announced they will continue to offer anticipatory loans. There are many in the United States who desperately need money, and these tax preparation companies will happily oblige.

Electronic W2s let the public bypass the entire industry of tax preparation, if they so choose. Certainly you don’t need a live person to help you anymore. After you file your online W2 with the IRS, it takes between eight and fourteen days before your refund is issued, which is fairly impressive for a government bureaucracy.

photo courtesy Burger Baroness

Posted in Current Trends, HR, News, Payroll Interests, Productivity | Tagged automated payroll, HR management, iEmployee, w2 | Leave a comment

Shop Smartly for Software

Posted on January 11, 2011 by asuresoftware

Processing payroll is notoriously time-consuming and complicated, even for the most meticulous of human resource professionals. Keeping up with the tax bureaucracy is a full-time job in and of itself, yet it’s far from the only concern for payroll administrators. Missing a deadline or a small error in computation can result in fines or penalties, and each pay period means another chance for things to go wrong.

Frequently companies will outsource their payroll to avoid these pitfalls, but that’s not always a viable solution. Those looking to keep their payroll in-house need efficiency software, a way to take pay stubs and timesheets into the modern age.

If you’re looking for a better way to navigate your payroll, then efficiency software can help. You’ll want to make sure that prospective efficiency software will be appropriately suited for your company. To help, here are two steps to take while undertaking a payroll software purchase:

1.    ASSESS YOUR NEEDS

It’s easy to overlook the obvious. In this case, oftentimes finding a good deal or buying the “biggest and best” becomes more important than the software itself. Think of it like buying a new car. You certainly could walk into a showroom, tell the salesman you want the bestselling vehicle on the lot, and then immediately sign the papers. The problem is that the top seller might well be a pickup truck, or a minivan, when you really needed a 4-door sedan. Likewise, asking for a great deal could net a useless 2-door economy sized car. What is the reason for buying efficiency software? If you need to eliminate paper timesheets and move payroll into a web-based area, seek those features out. If your company needs physical timeclocks for punch in/out accuracy, you’ll want a service that integrates that with your online payroll and time sheets.

2.    BE WATER, MY FRIEND

In all facets of business, being able to adapt is important. “Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; you put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; you put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend,” said Bruce Lee. He wasn’t just talking about Kung Fu or martial arts; he was espousing a tenant of his philosophy which can be summed up in a single word: flexibility. When you’re picking efficiency software for payroll, the primary objective is to streamline a cumbersome process and maintain accuracy in all related areas. Look for online timesheets that both employees and managers can access, calendars that can be adjusted on the fly, accurate time clocks that enable online sign ins, and paystubs that can be access over the web. These are the cornerstones of business payroll, and if they’re done right, they can flow as easily as water.

Looking towards the future, payroll is only going to get more complicated. Outsourcing numbers will likely increase as a result of this new difficulty, but the truth is that with capable efficiency software, you can keep payroll in-house and still reduce the time, money and energy spent on it.

photo courtesy Hamed Saber

Posted in HR, Payroll Interests, Payroll Software, Time and Attendance | Tagged buying guide, HR, HR management, payroll software | Leave a comment

Halfway Around the World, A Focus on HR Management

Posted on January 6, 2011 by asuresoftware

Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, is rightfully known as a extravagant location. It’s where they custom build islands for the incredibly rich, make the tallest buildings in the world, and seems to be a place where four star accommodations are on the “bad” side of town. Human Resource, or HR management, an essential yet quiet part of the business world, doesn’t quite leap to mind when we think of Dubai. The latest news reported by The Gulf Today perhaps won’t change Dubai’s reputation, but it’s a significant development for those concerned with HR management.

The news is the launch of a club called, rather directly, the Human Resources Club — a strategic initiative to create and maintain dialogue on HR management among professionals and “decision makers.” It’ll provide a chance to review the best HR management practices and experience in all sectors, and give policy makers a direct way to interact with professionals. It certainly looks to be a positive approach and something to keep your eye on. A specific branch of the government devoted to the communication between those on the job and those who write the rules sounds like it’d be the envy of a lot of stateside HR management professionals.

Perhaps the Human Resources Club will set the standard and become adopted all the way over here. In the meantime, though, there are plenty of ways to make HR a smooth, effective process. If that sounds like a contradiction in terms, you might need to take a look at the new generation of human resource software. HR management is notoriously difficult, and it’s fortunate there’s good HR management software to take the busy work away from employees with better things to do.

Human resources software can often be outdated and inadequate. Sometimes it’s almost be better to use pen and paper than a bad human resources software package. The right software, though, will change the whole process for the better. It’s not about a drastic overhaul, or firing the whole HR staff. Simple things, like web-based timesheets that are compatible with virtually all providers, can eliminate handfuls of weekly hours that add up to full days of work at the end of the year. Day by day, the little conveniences of HR management software becomes apparent. Scheduling becomes easier, timesheets aren’t a burden, and submitting information to payroll doesn’t take more than a few clicks. Human resource software can significantly improve HR management.

Photo courtesy of Craig Hill

Posted in Current Trends, HR, HR Events | Tagged HR, HR management, human resources, iEmployee, payroll software, productivity | 1 Comment

Paid Time Off: The Holidays Aren’t Always a Vacation

Posted on December 14, 2010 by asuresoftware

Paid time off, or PTO, is fast becoming the preferred method to track employee leave. Some companies, frustrated at an inelegant system that compartmentalizes reasons for absence, have turned to PTO software to help simplify their records. Paid time off tracking, whichever the implementation method, allows a unified system for employees to manage their time off.

Usually, PTO management entails creating a bank of hours for all employees. The bank analogy is useful, as employees can draw hours at their need. Employers credit additional hours to those banks, usually every pay period. It’s a simple concept. It increases the number of days employees can take off of work, because most employees don’t ever use all their sick leave and they can use the balance for vacation time. There’s no additional cost to the employer, either.

As the holidays arrive, PTO software can help manage the process for all involved parties. Vacation time becomes PTO, management of hours is done automatically, and everyone is happy. Simple, effective and easy. However, there are cases where such a solution, obvious though it may be, isn’t used.

In Plainfield, Illinois, the school board of district 202 reversed a vote that gave 12-month employees four extra days of PTO during the winter break. The decision, while only affecting 76 people, costs around $106,000 in paid time off. There are no shortage of inane rules in this particular instance: certified employees receive 25 days of vacation, non-certified employees get 20. Neither group is allowed to cash in vacation days or carry them over in to the next year.

This vote, the second time the board has attempted to change the four extra days off, is an attempt to close a budget deficit by making employees use their vacation time to take time off during the holidays. It is largely a waste of time and effort.

Plainfield is wasting hours by the bucket on this whole issue. Gathering the school board, calling a vote, restructuring the paid time off schedule, classifying vacation days… none of those are necessary with PTO software in place. PTO management, which is easier and more effective than standard vacation/sick leaves, is further enhanced by PTO software.

Imagine Plainfield’s 202nd school district with a time off software solution that let them adjust their employees bank of hours immediately from a simple interface. They’d save more than the cost of four vacation days, they’d save money on time and hours, month after month. Don’t make the same mistake!

Photo courtesy Stella Blu

Posted in Current Trends, HR | Tagged HR, human resources, paid time off, payroll automation, pto management, pto software, pto tracking | Leave a comment

In House Benefit Administration: Outsourcing is Not the Answer

Posted on December 9, 2010 by asuresoftware


Outsourcing is a popular way for companies to save money. Nearly every clothing and electronic brand of note in the United States does the majority of its business overseas to save money on production and manufacturing costs. This is of course no surprise, but now outsourcing encompasses more than just physical goods. Increasingly companies are sending their paperwork elsewhere, a reaction to the increasing complexity of laws and statutes governing various matters, such as benefits administration.

A recent study from HighRoads puts the number of companies who outsource their health and benefits administration process at 65%. What’s more, a third of those whose administer internally are considering moving to outsourcing to better comply with the new health care reform regulation. With so many businesses outsourcing benefits administration, it’s striking to see this figure from the survey: a majority (59%) of companies who do so don’t know how their costs or services will be impacted over time with current consolidation from principal companies. Outsourcing can’t even provide peace of mind or a stable price point for more than half the companies who use such a service.

Outsourcing is an inelegant, if easy, solution. There are many risks to consider with outside benefit adminsitration, not to mention the excess costs. Benefit administration software is an easier, cheaper, and better way to comply with federal and state law while keeping important processes in house and under control.

Benefit administration software automates the difficult parts of benefit administration and enables companies to manage their payroll with less effort to greater effect. The laws governinig benefit admnistration will continue to change, but it’s unnecessary to hire an outside firm to keep up with them, when benefit administration software is more than equal to the task.

“In the past six months, there has been a wave of consolidation in the benefits administration outsourcing market which has employers uncertain about their benefits outsourcing fees and ongoing quality of services,” said Peter Hirano, a principal at a dedicated benefit administration company.

That’s illustrative of the choice businesses face: keeping a complicated process in house, or risk service and money by sending it elsewhere. Benefits administration software is the best of all options, cutting the red tape, streamlining the time and money spent internally, and giving the accuracy and ease that outsourcing firms promise for a fraction of the cost.

 

Image courtesy the Gold Guys

Posted in About iEmployee, Current Trends, News, Payroll Interests, Payroll Software | Tagged automated payroll, HR, human resources, iEmployee, online timesheets, payroll, payroll automation, payroll processing, paystub, paystub processin | Leave a comment

Help Your Employees Maximize Time

Posted on December 6, 2010 by asuresoftware

There are thousands of ways to waste time on the Internet. There are sports to follow, celebrities to gossip about, videos to watch and things to waste time on. That becomes a problem when the time wasted happens during business hours, and as time tracking studies have shown, it happens all the time. For as valuable and important as computers are in the office, the flip side is that they also allow employees to have a world of distraction at their fingertips. Time management is a crucial skill to master, so here are a few tips to help your employees maximize their time in the workplace.

No Social Media!

Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and the like are fun, enjoyable sites that millions enjoy every day. The problem is that many visit these sites and use social media during office hours — a big time management mistake. A time tracking study by Nielsen found that the average Internet user in the US spends almost a fourth of their time online in social networking sites. Even worse, the 23% of time on social networking sites represents a 7% increase from last year. Time tracking on Facebook and Twitter shows a significant rise in average time spent on those sites per user. The likelihood is that these numbers will continue to rise. Limiting these frivolous sites will be an important and effective time management tool for businesses looking to ensure they’re paying for work, and not for their employees’ idle browsing.

Schedule Breaks

Moderation in all things, an old axiom, is a good idea to keep in mind. The most diligent workers will burn out if they work too hard, and sometimes taking a break can help clear out the mental cobwebs. Rather than focus entirely on productive time tracking, schedule a workday with a short break or two. Employees can stretch their legs, visit their aforementioned social sites, get a snack, and just relax for a little bit. This brief respite from work will help employees work more effectively when they’re back on the job. Time management isn’t just time on the clock, it’s a way to help employees work their best.

Frivolous is Frivolous

While it’s easy to get lost online, often a big time waster for employees is the office itself. Things like paysheets and timeclocks can take as much time away from the bottom line as Facebook does. Time tracking is important, but it can be done in a modern and intuitive way to limit the wasted hours. When time management is most effective it doesn’t limit itself to one area of business.

Time management is a simple and too-often overlooked tool. By ensuring the Internet isn’t social, the work isn’t non-stop, and the processes of the business are themselves efficient, you can take large strides to helping your employees get the most out of the time they spend in the office.

Image courtesy banspy

Posted in Time Management | Tagged efficiency, human resources, productivity, time management tools, workplace efficiency | Leave a comment

Accessibility is Accountability

Posted on November 30, 2010 by asuresoftware

It’s not surprising to hear another news report about an employee exaggerating their timesheets. There will always be people looking for a way to enhance their bank account at the expense of the company, unfortunately. There are hundreds of time management tools in place that employers can use to limit instances of fraud, but those aren’t always enough. What happens when the person committing the fraud is also the CEO of a Human Resource company specializing in payroll for large businesses? The City of Sacramento just found out, and it cost them — along with SanDisk Corporation and Stanley Solutions Inc. — 20 million dollars.

Certainly, this is a rare case, and like most fraudulent payroll scams there’s an individual working to avoid their employer’s time management tools. As these tools become more advanced, so too do the criminals. The best defense against fraud for your company isn’t a locked system, or tighter security: it’s accountability, and the best way to make everyone accountable is to make sure everyone is on equal ground. That’s as simple as both managers and employees having access to the same timesheets, time clocks and pay stubs.

Web based timesheets aren’t just convenient; they can also be an effective tool against fraud. The man who diverted $20 for his own use was the highest ranking person in his company. This means that rather than focusing on a top-down approach to security with time management tools, companies would be best served by making web based time accessible for all staff. If an administrator starts illegally diverting funds through timesheet manipulation, companies with web based timesheets are already several steps ahead of them and likely to catch the criminal before any crime can hurt their bottom line. Web based timesheets are thus an important tool, providing uniform accessibility that helps make all areas of business more accountable. More accountability equals less risk of employee theft — it’s as easy as that.

Time management tools will continue to evolve. Now that web based timeshets, paystubs and time clocks are all available for businesses, they’re able to run their payroll department at a lower cost and to greater effect. With accessible web based time and time management tools, coupled with a comprehensive payroll software solution, accountability will be a side benefit of efficiency.

Posted in News, Payroll Interests, Timesheet Automation | Tagged automated payroll, HR, human resources, iEmployee, online timesheets, payroll, workplace theft | 2 Comments

Take Advantage of HR Software

Posted on November 24, 2010 by asuresoftware

HR is involved with every step of an employee’s stay at a company, from the onboarding process to payroll to benefits packages. And in the past few years, the role of HR has become increasingly complex — even in small to mid-sized businesses. Unfortunately, as the range of areas that they cover expands, the costs of doing the work manually also expand.

Automating HR processes using human resource software  is one way that companies can control costs by increasing efficiency, reducing the risk associated with errors, and securing their place in a competitive talent market. (There’s also the strong impact of reducing paper-based processes, which shows supports for green business practices, saving time, money, and the environment to boot!)

A few ways that HR management software can benefit your company:

Time & Attendance

Attendance management may seem like the most basic and simple of HR tasks, but it presents some problems. You cannot rely on managers to consistently log employees’ sick and vacation time, as human error is common and this will accrue liabilities that ultimately affect a company’s bottom line. Automated time clock management and vacation, sick, and other paid time off policies are a natural solution.

“When I was a young HR Manager, I computed the amount I needed to spend for automating this process and the amount I will pay someone to do the timekeeping and payroll for 100 employees and found that the cheapest system is worth 3 months of the salary of the person I’m going to hire,” wrote one HR blogger. Management immediately provided him with a timekeeping and payroll system.

Benefits Management

The cost to businesses of providing benefits for their employees has gone up over the years, and the lack of an effective HR and benefits management system adds even more to that cost. Automated benefits as part of a human resources software solution will reduce the number of errors and also provide timely responses to employees, boosting morale and faith in the HR department.

Another, less measurable benefit of HR management software is reducing the amount of mundane and repetitive work for the personnel in the HR department. By automating the minute tasks that use a significant amount of time, human resources can then focus on more complex and needed planning and management tasks that benefit the company’s long-term growth.

 

Posted in About iEmployee, HR, Payroll Interests, Time Management | Tagged automated payroll, HR, human resources, payroll automation, payroll software, time and attendance, workplace efficiency | Leave a comment

DOL Beefs Up Resources to Catch Employer Violations

Posted on November 23, 2010 by asuresoftware

The biggest employment lawsuits these days are not sexual harassment or wrongful termination — they’re wage and hour enforcement actions and class action lawsuits brought by the government for improper use of independent contractor status and other employment law violations, writes Vail Daily.

“Of nearly 3,000 class/collective action lawsuits filed in federal or state court through August of 2010, approximately 89% were wage- and hour-related complaints,” said an attorney speaking at an ADP event.

Governments fail to collect more than 30% of employee income and Social Security taxes due to “employee misclassification,” federal officials say. That means businesses are calling employees “independent contractors” to avoid taxes; others classify employees as “salaried” or “exempt managers” in an effort to avoid paying overtime.

 

This past spring, the Department of Labor (DOL) — noting that about 70% of employers are out of compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act — decided to beef up resources in order to increase enforcement of these laws and catch businesses in the act. They received funding for 177 more wage and hour investigators, a number that shot up to 350, as the DOL’s proposed budget for 2011 hit $244 million.

So who are they after? The DOL intends to target the most notorious wage and hour violators — the resort industry, restaurants and construction. But that doesn’t mean traditional office employee time and attendance will be left unexamined. They’ll look at any company that always rounds down, and never up. Businesses that don’t keep accurate time and attendance records of hours for remote workers will be under a microscope as well. For example, there was recently a $15 million settlement by a large retailer for failing to properly pay employees who began their workday at home by checking their computers.

Some other tips from ADP:

  • Require employees to accurately record all work hours and submit completed time records that they certify as accurate in a timely manner.
  • Require managers to review time records and immediately identify inaccuracies.
  • Require managers to report all suspected off-the-clock work so that it can be investigated and corrected.
  • Prohibit employees from reporting to stations before start time.
  • Discipline employees for not properly clocking in and out.
  • In the event of a wage and hour audit, be ready to provide accurate, indisputable records of hours worked.

Finally, make sure you automate your employee time and attendance by using time tracking software — it’s the easiest way to improve your ability to comply with wage and hour regulations. The software is specifically designed to enforce your policies, flag failures to comply and manage these complexities.

Posted in Payroll Interests, Time Management | Tagged iEmployee, online timesheets, payroll automation, time and attendance | Leave a comment

Revamping Payroll Can Save Tulsa Millions

Posted on November 16, 2010 by asuresoftware

The city of Tulsa hired KPMG, a private auditing and efficiency firm, to find problems with the city’s budget and provide recommendations to help save money. Some 1,100 ideas later,Tulsa’s Management Review Office is taking steps to assess the feasibility of implementing those recommendations. The first area of review is the first for many offices, companies, and businesses — the payroll.

Payroll is one of the most fragmented processes, spread across 30 services with 25 full-time payroll employees who perform their jobs by hand. As City Auditor Preston Doerflinger dryly notes: “Find a private company with 4,000 employees and ask if the payroll is done manually.” Various city departments utilize their own system for record keeping, and some sectors, like the police department, can’t even keep reliable records of actual work hours and overtime pay. Accurate time and attendance management is important; such a failure on a city level is staggering.

The decentralized situation exacerbates even little issues. For instance, recent internal audits of time and attendance showed substantial “negative leave,” resulting from lag time on distribution of pay stubs that informed the employees of their vacation time. The employee would take vacation hours, but the paperwork so behind that in actuality the employee did not have the vacation time. Employees didn’t even know how many days they could take off, merely because the paperwork was so slow.

Furthermore, none of the issues were due to incompetent employees or managers. “The problem lies in the way the city is performing the task,” Doerflinger said. “These are good public servants operating in a bad public system.”  Policies set in the fire department, for example, would stay the norm for the fire department, while the parks services might be on an entirely different system. Such a disparity and lack of communication between sectors is extreme though certainly not unique to Tulsa’s payroll: Time and attendance are issues for virtually every business in the world.

In the end, KPMG recommended “automating or outsourcing the city’s payroll operations” and that by doing so, the city would save “several million dollars a year.” Several million dollars by fixing the payroll! Astonishing as that number is, what’s more interesting is the solution: automating the payroll. It’s an easy fix for a difficult area of business; every company could stand to tighten their costs in times like these. With modern payroll software, there’s an immediate and substantial fiscal gain to updating the time and attendance management processes.

Hiring an auditing firm isn’t necessary for every business, but streamlining time and attendance management should be. By implementing the proper software for payroll solutions, even small businesses will save substantial money on otherwise needless losses.

 

Photo courtesy Care_SMC

Posted in Payroll Interests, Time Management | Tagged iEmployee, online timesheets, payroll, payroll automation, payroll processing, payroll solution, time and attendance, time management tools, web based time | Leave a comment