Payroll Tax Team Overload? 3 Time Hacks to Give Them Time Back
Managing payroll tax compliance can be time-consuming, given all the complexities involved, leaving your payroll tax team sitting at their desks longer than they'd like to be. Discover three time hacks that can give your team time back in their day to do what they enjoy — at work and at home.
Payroll tax management is complex and complicated, and staying compliant often leaves payroll tax teams feeling overwhelmed and overworked. Manual processes, staff shortages, and remote and hybrid employees with new tax liabilities and jurisdictions open the door to a lot of risk. This kind of pressure doesn't allow your team much time to do the things they like to do, either at work or in their personal lives.
What if you could streamline and automate your processes to give your team more hours back in their day? What if they had time to:
- Think strategically about a new process that could make their job easier or your organization stronger?
- Take a 15-minute walk to clear their heads so they can be more productive when they return?
- Enjoy lunch out of the office instead of eating at their desk so they can come back refreshed and ready to tackle the afternoon?
- Leave work on time to attend an event and be fully present?
This article provides three time hacks that can help relieve some of your team's workload and get them back to the things they enjoy doing at work and at home.
Everyday challenges with payroll tax compliance
Your team deals with plenty of uncertainty and challenges when it comes to accurate payroll tax withholding, reporting and filing. Some of these time-intensive challenges include:
- Increased compliance complexity due to the impact of hybrid/remote workers and new jurisdictions that take time to research.
- Heavy workloads due to reliance on manual processes or disconnected systems that slow the team down, especially when the data from one system doesn't align with data from another one.
- Constant worry about potential penalties from federal, state and local taxing agencies that keep your team second-guessing whether they are using accurate information to process payroll taxes and submitting filings and deposits on time.
These challenges likely keep your team heads down at their desks for longer than they'd like to be there each day, never feeling like they're "caught up."
3 time hacks to give your team time back in their day
Here are three time hacks that you can incorporate into your payroll tax processes that can help reduce some of the burdens on your team and reduce the risks associated with payroll tax processing and remittance.
Time hack #1
Use smart technology that easily integrates with your payroll/ERP system, which can help to relieve the administrative burden of payroll tax compliance on staff while reducing costs. You can boost team productivity and efficiency with automated rules to detect and flag errors in your tax information.
Automated systems can validate your payroll tax data prior to filing and flag incomplete or inaccurate data so that your team can correct it, helping you to be proactive about avoiding penalties. Manual tasks once performed by your team become a thing of the past, leaving time for other work- and play-related activities.
Time hack #2
When you automate quarterly and/or annual federal, state and local jurisdiction tax deposits and filings, you can help eliminate manual data entry and payroll tax calculations. This can reduce errors and help ensure that payroll taxes are calculated correctly and submitted on a timely basis. More time for your staff, less risk of penalties for your business — a winning combination.
Time hack #3
Enlist a third-party partner that can help you handle the tasks associated with payroll tax filing, reports, deposits, amendments and agency notices. Your staff benefits from a reduction in their workload, which gives them more time in their day. Your company benefits from better productivity and a reduced risk of penalties and interest. A dedicated and trusted payroll tax partner can:
- Monitor and implement the latest tax legislation through a dedicated tax compliance team, saving your team time.
- Receive, prioritize and sort agency notices; research reasons for the notice and leverage expertise to respond to the appropriate agency.
- Conduct continual balancing to help ensure that tax filing data matches payroll data, and identify and correct reconciliation mistakes throughout the year, eliminating a lot of year-end work and worry for your team.
Having a dedicated payroll tax provider allows your company to rest easy, knowing that you're handling payroll tax compliantly and reducing risks associated with handling all the tasks involved with payroll tax remittance.
These three time hacks allow your team to have more time in their day to stress less, and they open the door for them to spend more time being strategic at work or doing what they really enjoy in their personal lives.
To learn more, get our guide: "Make More Time For What You Love With ADP SmartCompliance® Employment Tax."
