To Outsource Payroll or Keep In-House - That is the Question

When it comes to processing payroll, there are many ways it can be done. Which is best for you will depend on time, knowledge, comfort level, whether you need job costing, turnover rate of staff, the variety and types of benefits your company offers, how many states you deal with, wage garnishments and the complexity of your payroll. I remember when I first started working with payroll - 3 months later I had forgotten what reports I used and how to calculate what I needed (it wasn't built inside of QuickBooks back then) for quarterly reports so I spent quite a bit of time "relearning". I had a client who decided it was more economical to outsource payroll - not because she couldn't figure it out, but she could spend her time on billable work; for what it cost to outsource, she came out ahead.

Many people assume that the least expensive way to do payroll is in-house. While that may be the lowest direct dollars paid, what is often overlooked is how much time it takes and the cost of those processing the payroll. When salaried or steady hourly, the dollars spent on payroll are often lost in the bigger dollars of having staff. So take the hourly rate of the person(s) doing payroll and multiply the hours spent on timesheets, paycheck creation, paying payroll taxes, and anything else payroll related like adding/removing employees, changing employee benefits or withholdings and so on. Companies who offer payroll services have it down to a system, so most times it goes faster for them and for the dollar, it's often a good deal. So, here are your options:

You can completely outsource payroll. There are times when it's best just to let someone else handle it - they know it better and you have more productive work you could be doing. There are payroll companies and then you'll find some bookkeepers and accountants also provide this service. Intuit just brought back their Complete Payroll. If you're interested, I have a contact at Intuit and I can put you in touch with him.
Outsource the payroll taxes and filing tax forms - If you find payroll taxes confusing or simply don't want to handle them, this is a nice compromise. Again, bookkeepers and accountants sometimes offer this service and Intuit has Assisted Payroll, so with a click, your payroll information is uploaded to them and they take it from there. Again, I have a contact at Intuit if you're interested in learning more.
Completely in-house. If you go this route, you want the Enhanced Payroll. In addition to the tax tables, you have the ability to print out all the payroll tax forms prefilled with your data (so much easier than having to manually calculate and fill them out). You can also e-file taxes and forms right from inside of QuickBooks - you don't need to go to the respective websites. If you are interested in this, let me know so I can get you my ProAdvisor rate.

When outsourcing payroll, ask who will make the entries in your QuickBooks, what type of entries they'll be (journal entries or checks), when the monies for the payroll taxes are withdrawn (some do it on payday and others on the dates taxes are due), and who files the forms (sometimes you're given forms to sign and mail with a check). You'll also notice that with payroll services come a variety of fees. Factors that usually affect fees include (there may be more):

Frequency of payroll
Number of employees
New employees
Changes in benefits or withholdings
Number of different states you need to pay
Direct Deposit
Paycheck delivery
Reports requested
Integration with QuickBooks (Intuit does not charge for this, but other companies do)

So, take some time to calculate what it costs to process payroll in-house, the benefits of having it in-house and compare those costs to outsourcing (all or part) - in terms of dollars, liability, and what else could be done if staff spent less time on payroll.

Paypros Inc. is the best choice for small business payroll processing.