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Tips for Payroll for Small Businesses

Employee payroll is one of the main financial functions of businesses occurring weekly, fortnightly or monthly. For small business owners, calculating employee payroll is a complex process that includes penalty rates, individual loading, superannuation and so much more. Here at M.A.S Partners, we have a few small accounting payroll tips to help streamline your payroll requirements and assist your small business needs.

Pay Schedule
The pay schedule or cycle determines how often your employees will be paid with pros and cons for each schedule. While a monthly payment schedule is easier to calculate your monthly budget and financial reports, your employees can have difficulty in setting their own budgets. Conversely, a weekly pay schedule provides frequent compensation for employees but makes budgeting harder for small businesses as it doesn’t always align with calendar months. You also must take into consideration if you’re paying an accountant a weekly cycle may be more costly. To find the best payment schedule for your business, a small business accounting service can guide your payroll by setting up a Xero account and ensuring the correct contributions are made.

Payroll Systems
As mentioned earlier, it’s essential to decide on a payroll schedule as well as the software used. While some businesses take on payroll manually, it can be time-consuming and lead to errors. Software like Xero is user-friendly and ensures your employees are consistently and accurately paid. However, depending on the number of employees it may be beneficial to hire a small business accounting professional to take on the payroll process. The benefit of small business accountants is that they take the hassle out of navigating payroll to give you peace of mind to pursue more important goals of the business.

Employee Details
Whether you’re taking on payroll alone or hiring an accounting professional, you need the right employee details to ensure you’re paying the right wages. Whenever a new employee starts, create a checklist of their details including their tax file number, bank details and what type of employment they are undertaking. Will they be on salary or hourly payment or as a casual or permanent worker? Having employee details on hand makes it easier to set up your payroll functions in Xero, as well as reporting tax and superannuation to the Australian Taxation Office. If you’re having trouble keeping track of your employee’s details, a small business accountancy firm can office advice on record keeping as well as maintaining your payroll reports.

Contact Us
Having a clear understanding of your employee payroll can offer insight into other business processes like budgeting which is essential for growth. Here at M.A.S Partners, we can offer support in streamlining your payroll, taking the complexity out of paying your employees. As Australia’s original accounting firm, we have almost 60 years of experience in small business accountancy needs. To find out more about our business accounting in Sydney, contact our team here or call us today on (02) 9211 5000.