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Payroll terms to know
By Christine
Selvig • Bankrate.com
Before you pick a company to do your firm's
payroll, it's a good idea to take the time to learn and understand
the optional services that are available and their prices.
- Tax filing option involves automatic filing
of payroll reporting and making deposits and payments to the necessary
government agencies.
- Courier delivery option means your checks
or deposit notifications and reports will be hand-delivered to
your office each payday. This service may be free or can cost
up to $10 per pay period.
- Payroll reports give you an accurate record
of payroll and employee taxes paid during each pay period.
- Direct deposit is an increasingly popular
option in which your employees' checks are directly deposited
into their checking accounts. This eliminates problems of lost
checks or alternate check delivery dates in case of a holiday
or weekend pay date.
- Check signing option gives you the option
on having your signature duplicated on your payroll checks. Some
companies have a one-time, setup charge for this service. Others
charge you once to set it up and charge you again each payday
when you use it.
- Internet report service options allows you
to access your payroll reports via the Internet.
- New-hire reporting option gives payroll
services the responsibility of filing reports about newly hired
employees to the appropriate federal agencies within the appropriate
time periods.
- Department summaries are reports detailing
employees' hours and related costs during each pay period. These
reports are valuable tools for smaller organizations. For example,
doctors in some group medical practices use the department reports
to identify payroll expenses for nurses and other support personnel
who work specifically for them.
- Pretax payments include disbursements to
your employees' "cafeteria" benefits plans and 401(k) plans.
- Payroll activities include the record keeping,
new employee reporting, check processing, state and local tax
compilation, and payments.
-- Posted: Oct. 11, 1999
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