Most people want to keep their data close. For small business owners, that can also include your payroll data. (But don’t worry. CSI doesn’t sell your data.)
Whether it’s for our payroll or monthly accounting service, you may wonder why we need your historical payroll data. In this article, I’ll explain the answers.
At CSI Accounting & Payroll, we’ve provided financial services to small businesses for 60 years. That means we’ve answered these questions hundreds of times:
- Why does CSI need my payroll data for their accounting service? Aren’t they different services?
- Why does CSI’s payroll service need my data from before I worked with them?
- Will CSI help me with my historical payroll data?
Payroll History for an Accounting Service
I can see how someone might be hesitant to give payroll data to an accounting service. Is it really necessary?
If you need back work handled, yes. Payroll is normally a business’s largest expense that needs to be documented in your bookkeeping, so ensuring it’s entered correctly is critical to understanding your profitability. If we need to go back and fix your bookkeeping, we need these payroll numbers.
That’s all for the accounting side!
Payroll History for a Payroll Service
Now, there are also misconceptions about why a payroll service might want your historical payroll data. Here’s one that I’ve heard a few times:
“I’m switching payroll providers mid-year. The first will prepare W-2s for when I worked with them, and CSI will prepare W-2s for the rest of the year. CSI won’t need my payroll information from before I worked with them.”
This is not true. Only the provider that you work with at the end of the year prepares your W-2s and handles year-end filings. They need the data from the entire year to do that.
There’s a way to avoid all of this. If you switch to CSI at the very end of the year to start running payroll at the beginning of the year, then we won’t need your historical payroll data! (However, that isn’t always the best time to make a change.)
How CSI Sets up Your Payroll History
When you start with our payroll service, we get to know your payroll before setting up your account for you.
You just provide us with the historical data or share your payroll system’s login information so we can pull it all together for you. If you were doing payroll by hand, we ask that you ensure it’s formatted clearly and contains the proper information beyond just net check amounts.
One added bonus of having CSI set up your account is that it enables us to catch any errors right away. We can correct them with amended returns. We want you to start our services with accurate data so everything is seamless moving forward.
Put Your Payroll Data in Good Hands!
Now that you know why we need your payroll data for our services and how we set up and check your data, are you ready to check out our services?
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! First, learn more about what your investment might look like by clicking the image below:
