What Different Types of Advice Does a Payroll Specialist Provide?

Before you start looking for a payroll service, you’re going to want to learn about what kinds of advice your payroll specialist will be able to offer you. 

After all, working with a small payroll provider means a much more hands-on, traditional service than large providers who just lease their software as a service.

Since we’re a small payroll provider, you may be wondering what types of advice your payroll specialist is qualified to give you. We’ve briefly touched on this in our article about what a payroll specialist handles for you, but we’ll dive into much more detail below. 

At CSI Accounting & Payroll, we’ve worked with small business finances for over 50 years. That means we can advise across the board for most payroll (or related) topics, including increasing payroll benefits and reducing payroll issues.

Plus, when you work with CSI, you have a dedicated payroll specialist who knows your business and your payroll. You can contact them with questions via phone call, text, or email and expect a prompt response.

Here, we’ll talk about the advice our payroll specialists give based on:

• Payroll setup, changes, and compliance
• Tax and regulatory guidance
• Employee compensation, benefits, and incentives

Payroll Setup, Changes, and Compliance

Let’s start with the basics. What do small business owners picture when they think of payroll advice? 

It’s typically a quick phone call to get help with setup, changes, or other things to keep them in compliance.

(One important difference to note is that CSI doesn’t make our clients set up their payroll like the large payroll providers do; we handle this for you! However, we know you may still have some questions.)

Here are some examples of payroll setup, changes, and compliance advice that your payroll specialist can give you:

• How often to pay your employees when buying or starting a business
• Best practices for starting or ending payroll when opening or closing your business
• How to classify a worker as an independent contractor or employee
• Fixing missed payments, underpaid, or overpaid employees
• Setting up a payback schedule through payroll deductions for payroll advances or loans
• How to access and read payroll reports
• Compliance for hiring employees in states that you haven’t before (including when to start paying taxes to certain states & which states to pay taxes to for multi-state employees)
• Everything you need to know about your payroll tax responsibilities (which taxes, amounts, & where they go)
• Everything you need to know about how changes to payroll tax laws affect you

Tax and Regulatory Guidance

You’ll want to make sure you’re always on top of payroll taxes. This can be complicated without a professional on your side, but a payroll specialist can advise you on:

• Clarification of tax information or other correspondence from the government (plus how to avoid it in the future)
• Navigating a payroll tax audit (and what information you will need for it)
• How to ensure your Forms 941 tie out to your Forms W-2 if your numbers aren't adding up correctly in the payroll software
• How to report additional W-2 information at year-end (also detailed in a checklist that we provide to our clients)
• How employee compensation is taxed (wages, reimbursements, tips, overtime, etc.)

Employee Compensation, Benefits, and Incentives

Hire better employees. Retain them for longer. Sounds good, right?

It’s important to offer great employee benefits, but it can be intimidating to consider all of your options, limits, and tax implications. Luckily, a payroll specialist can advise you on:

• Options for employee compensation and what to base them on (bonuses, commissions, hourly, salary, etc.)
• How exempt and non-exempt statuses tie into compensation (following FLSA rules)
• Options for employee benefits and their tax incentives (retirement plans, HSA plans, bonuses, etc.)
• Options for employee reimbursements and per diem limits (parking, transportation, etc.)
• Other things you can do for employees that you may not be aware of (such as using a company vehicle for personal use, and how that would be taxed)

Personalized Payroll Advice Is Only One Call Away

Now that you know about the different types of advice a payroll specialist can offer you, are you ready to check out payroll services?

If so, please consider CSI Accounting & Payroll! To see if we can be a good fit for your business, click the button below for a free consultation:

Not ready to talk? That’s okay! In the meantime, learn more about our payroll pricing.