Say Goodbye to Payroll Management Issues with a Payroll Virtual Assistant
Studies find that almost 25% of employees have suffered from paycheck errors due to mismanagement of payroll tasks. The first step in addressing payroll issues is understanding what they are, followed by figuring out a solution. And this blog helps with both of them.
When you’re building a business, you need to address capital needs, drive marketing efforts and acquire talent to increase productivity first. After all, these are the activities that keep your business running, sometimes at the expense of non-essential activities like payroll management.
Studies find that almost 25% of employees have suffered from paycheck errors due to mismanagement of payroll tasks. Furthermore, businesses with 20 employees or fewer are at a higher risk of receiving late payments.
Such lapses could get your company a bad rep today and, in the worst case, cost you responsible employees and potential customers too.
The first step in addressing payroll issues is understanding what they are, followed by figuring out a solution. And this blog helps with both of them.
Problems in Payroll Management
Payroll mistakes that could cost your business | Source
#1. Classifying workers
When you run a small business, not all your employees work full-time. You may also have contract workers working for a fixed term or project-based workers. So, you must spend additional time classifying workers by employment type to ensure they get paid fairly.
But small businesses very often skip this crucial step. The reason being they need more time to do these tasks.
#2. Record keeping issues
Have your employees working extra hours? Then you need to ensure they get compensated in full and on time. This means you need to have a sound record-keeping system.
Most startups with a limited budget most likely have a manual system. One that makes it harder to find, cross-check and update data quickly. This is one of the prime causes of delays in disbursements, along with other payroll maintenance issues.
#3. Tax calculation issues
Have permanent employees on your roster? Then you need to withhold medicare and Social Security taxes from your employees' wages. Unfortunately, calculating the figures and deductions can take a lot of work. And when done improperly right before payday, it can lead to tax and labor violations, meaning you'd need to pay penalties.
Long story short, you could use some help attending to these tasks. And while promising, hiring a new employee isn’t a viable option when you’re already strapped for funds.
The alternative?
Hire a virtual assistant to manage your payroll needs. Not only do they take a load off of your shoulders, but they also prove to be a cost-effective alternative.
Who is a payroll virtual assistant?
A payroll virtual assistant is a trained individual that manages your business payroll needs remotely. Since these are professionals, often with years of payroll management expertise under their belt, you can rest assured that your payroll management is in good hands. Some of the common tasks a payroll virtual assistant can take care of include:
- Payroll reporting for taxes
- Calculation of paychecks
- Custom solutions for payroll
- Payroll policy assistance
Let’s take a look at some of the payroll management issues that these virtual assistants can address deftly.
How can a payroll virtual assistant help?
1. Manual payrolling of paychecks
Most small businesses with limited funds use manual systems to manage tasks. While cost-effective, such systems are error-prone and difficult to track and update.
A payroll virtual assistant can come in here and offer their services by relieving you of that process. By using their expertise and their software, they can streamline payroll management and ensure that employee salaries get disbursed timely.
Speaking of software, it helps to implement an efficient payroll solution so that you can work with a virtual assistant more easily. Experienced professionals will have advice about which platform to adopt.
2. Being updated with regulation changes
With virtual payroll services, you can take control of any regulatory changes without needing to stay updated. As these virtual assistants come trained on all payrolling aspects, which means you don’t need to spend too much time showing them the ropes.
Simply put, you can focus on your business operations while everything else gets taken care of by them.
3. Record keeping and storage
If you’re a traditional business, the paperwork needed to do this may take a lot of time and expertise. Even digitally, certain compliance standards need to be followed to ensure that records are protected.
A payroll virtual assistant relieves you of all these tasks. Besides, they make sure your records are safe, categorized, and updated per the law. Leaving all this to a VA sounds convincing, doesn’t it?
4. Prevent Misclassification
A payroll virtual assistant ensures accurate and efficient management of employee payroll details. By cross-checking the data, verifying salaries depending on classes, and accounting for other miscellaneous costs, bonuses, and benefits, they make sure all employees are sorted into the correct salary bracket.
5. Integration with Automation
For payroll, getting to automate the processes and integrating them with your systems can be challenging. Fortunately, with a payroll personal assistant, you can be sure that your systems get integrated perfectly with your payroll.
Once automation is underway, you will see the amount of time and effort saved by interlinking all your different systems.
6. Facilitate Flexibility
Workplaces today need to consider several factors before processing payroll. As there’s a new shift in work, with more people working from different locations, remotely, in-office, and so forth, greater flexibility is needed to ensure the smooth functioning of payroll.
Virtual payroll services can help bridge this change by facilitating greater flexibility for businesses. By carefully assessing the aspects involved in today’s workplaces, they help your business’ payroll easier to process.
7. Develop payroll policies
As payroll policies keep changing depending on the present situation, businesses must be efficient to keep up with them. However, crafting such policies may require the expertise that your in-house team may not possess. Luckily, with payroll virtual assistants, you can bank on getting your policies developed precisely to the mandates needed to be followed.
Furthermore, staying updated with payroll policies lets you avoid any unforeseen expenses that may arise due to overpaying, for instance. By keeping ahead of the times, these VAs can help your business stay strong with strong payroll policies.
How Wishup helps your virtual payroll process
Tasks a virtual assistant can do for you | Source
Now that you firsthand know how virtual payroll services are beneficial, your next step would be to find a reliable service. But, once again you may be left with a barrage of questions trying to seek the best virtual assistants for your business. Through Wishup, you can stop worrying about payroll as we cover how we help you out.
1. Pre-vetted assistants
All of our payroll virtual assistants are pre-vetted, meaning they have to go through a specific set of procedures before they form Wishup’s team, including rounds of interviews and an aptitude test. This ensures that you get the best people working for your business.
2. Increase productivity
While you focus on your everyday tasks, our payroll personal assistants take care of your expenses. Since they come with all the resources packed, you don’t have to supervise them or educate them about any of the processes involved. By increasing productivity, you can channel your focus on more pressing matters.
3. Flexible choices
Your company might work with a specific list of tools or software. Naturally, you need a VA proficient with those tools to maintain your current systems. Well, Wishup can help with it.
You can filter our payroll virtual assistants by seeing their skills. Depending on what you may need, you can sort out various tools and technical skills and choose accordingly. Furthermore, if you are recruiting remote assistants, we have a 10-step screening process that’s designed to ensure the highest quality for your needs.
4. A risk-free trial
As with hiring an employee, you must ensure your virtual assistant is the right fit for your company. And Wishup is one of the few platforms in the market that truly helps you with it.
We offer a 7-day trial period wherein you can book a virtual assistant to see if they are the right choice for your company. The best part? If you’re unsatisfied with the match, we provide you with an instant replacement ready to take up the role, no questions asked.
With all of this covered, you never have to worry about incomplete work in your quest to find the perfect virtual assistance provider for your payrolls.
5. Data security
Data security is the last thing you should be concerned about when outsourcing your payroll to a virtual assistant from Wishup. That's because we go the extra mile to ensure that all your sensitive data is protected.
We conduct background checks on our virtual assistants before displaying their profiles and require them to sign NDAs before they get to work.
Better payroll with Virtual Assistants
As an entrepreneur, you would know how time is of the essence. Taking the time to engage in every single activity of your business, however, is challenging. There may be ongoing issues that need your attention that may get affected because of other aspects.
While payroll is certainly a huge part of any business, letting it take so much time off your hands could cost you. You can avoid such a consequence by hiring a VA.
The next time you think of your business, you should never have to think about payroll again. Subscribe to virtual assistant services from Wishup and focus on getting your business to the next level. Get a free consultation by sending a mail to [email protected]. Don’t want to send an email? Apply for a free consultation here.