Author: Check Stub Maker

Pay periods. They’re a crucial part of your payroll, and sometimes the thing that keeps your employees going from one day to the next. A lot depends on accurate and consistent payroll — the obvious accounting duties, taxes for both employer and workers, and even employee morale. 2020 is a leap year, and while leap years are great for keeping our calendar on track, they can cause headaches for employers by increasing the number of pay periods in a year. It may not be commonly thought to ask how many pay periods are in this year, but it’s an important question with real consequences.

What Is a Pay Period? 

A pay period is a length of time in which employees’ work accrues before receiving a paycheck for their services. Pay periods are often different for different people. Hourly employees get paid for all the hours they worked during their pay period — these paychecks can vary widely in size depending on how many shifts the employee worked and whether there was overtime or modified pay. For salaried employees, paychecks tend to be more stable, as they are simply the employee’s yearly salary divided by the number of pay periods in a year. All this information is easily accessible through check stubs you should be creating as a part of payroll. (If you aren’t sending out paystubs, check out our paystub generator.)

How Many Pay Periods Are in a Year?

Pay periods vary in length. There are annual pay periods (with one period per year) monthly pay periods (one period per month) and then two that appear similar but are noticeably different: semi-monthly and bi-weekly. 

A semi-monthly pay period has 24 pay periods in a year — two each month. But because months don’t run on a perfect 4-week schedule, this can take longer or shorter lengths of time between paychecks for a business’ employees. To improve convenience and dependability of payroll for employees, many business owners choose to use a bi-weekly pay period, paying employees every two weeks on the same day of the week. 

The Bi-Weekly Pay Period

There are typically 26 pay periods in a bi-weekly pay schedule. Occasionally, 27 pay periods can be created if a business’ payday lines up with the edges of the calendar year. This problem is compounded by leap years, which add 1/7 probability that your business will end up with 27 pay periods.

Are There 27 Pay Periods in 2020?

Because 2020 is a leap year, chances of your business having a 27 pay period year is increased. If you have a pay period ending on a Wednesday or a Thursday, it’s likely you’ll have 27 periods. Check into your business’ specific schedule to be sure.

Why Are 27 Pay Periods a Problem? 

One more pay period in a year isn’t an issue for hourly workers. However, it does present an issue for salaried employees: they are used to a specific amount coming in each paycheck, but if the company was to pay them the same amount 27 times instead of 26, it would result in over-paying the employee.

The Key Is Communication

As long as you are aware of how many pay periods are in a given year, you have nothing to worry about. As a business owner, you have a few options, but you need to be proactive and get out in front of the issue. Explain clearly to your employees what is happening and you’ll avoid issues in payroll and HR. With an extra pay period, you can either add the paycheck to your employees’ typical salary and consider it a bonus, or you can re-divide your workforce’s salaries by 27 instead of 26. Both of these courses should be taken with extreme transparency. 

If you decide to add to their wages? Make sure they know it’s happening. They’ll appreciate your generosity and it will boost morale. 

Probably more importantly, if you choose to subdivide the checks further be extremely upfront with your salaried employees. Workers on salary know the exact number they expect to see in their bank account on payday, and if it looks like you shorted them nearly four percent of their pay they’ll be filing complaints to HR within the hour. Be direct and clear: They’ll be getting another paycheck this year and their salary stays the same. Nobody is getting shortchanged.

Consequences of Mishandling Payroll

Many of your employees rely on consistent payroll to keep their lives underway. If you pull even four percent of the rug out from under them, not only could it hurt morale in the company — it could hurt people. Being upfront at the onset of a 27 √ year will make a huge difference.

From a business management perspective, you need to prepare for the small but crucial changes an extra pay period can create. It can affect the amount of taxes paid (by both employee and employer) as well as employee benefits. Make sure you don’t over-contribute to employee 401k accounts if you offer a match — overpaying past the legal limit can cause headaches in accounting and payroll.

Conclusion

Just make sure that you know when your company’s “27 paycheck year” will be, and prepare accordingly. However you choose to distribute pay, be clear, transparent, and kind.  

YTD means “Year To Date.” It simply means “everything from the beginning of this year until now”, and can be found on all kinds of financial documents — whether it’s an official pay stub or a company revenue report.

YTD also has some important counterparts: MTD and QTD, Month to Date and Quarter to Date respectively. They mean exactly what they sound like, everything from the beginning of the month or quarter up to that point in time. All of these “to-date” terms seem self-explanatory — and they are — but they have a lot of importance both in personal finances and in setting and achieving company goals.

Before we jump into the uses of month, quarter, and year to date, it’s important to have a clear understanding of how they are calculated. Public companies are required to prepare financial statements each quarter and yearly reports ending December 31st. At midnight, when the clock and calendar switch to January, new totals start adding up. Even if a company operates 24/7, if a purchase is made December 31st at 11:59 it goes on the previous year’s statements. January 1st at 12:00 AM? The new year gets the purchase. It’s a simple line but a fine one.

For Individuals: What Does YTD Mean on a Paystub?

The most frequent place a regular Joe or Jill sees “YTD” is on their paystubs. YTD net pay, taxes, deductions, employer contributions; the list is typically as long as the paystub itself. What is YTD in salary? It shows not just what you earned or paid that period, but what you’ve earned, paid, or contributed from the start of the year up until now.

This is useful from a goal-setting perspective. If you work in sales and you have a goal of earning $25,000 of commission in a given year, your paystub’s year to date column will allow you to see how much you have earned up to that point. Are you six months in but are less than halfway to your earnings goal? Better pick up the pace. Three months in and you’re way ahead of schedule? Consider readjusting your goal to something more challenging.

Knowing where you are in the progress of a year is a fantastic way of making that new year’s resolution last longer than the first few weeks of January. Each time payroll runs you’ll be reminded to stay current on your calendar. 

In Business: MTD, QTD, and YTD Meaning as a Small Business Owner

Understanding the YTD definition is clearly helpful in terms of business financial reporting. But there’s another important acronym that makes these progress tracking terms even more useful: YoY. YoY stands for “year over year”, and just compares a period of a fiscal year to the same period in a different year. Especially in investment portfolios, increasing value and return is measured relative to past years. If your company didn’t bring the same financial return it saw in the same quarter of the previous year? Stocks can plummet and investors can lose faith.

For small business managers, this same principle can apply to setting and meeting goals. You always want a business to outperform its past self. By seeing your year to date revenue, investment income, or net returns on spending, you can compare those to the previous year’s year to date numbers and see whether your business has expanded in the periods that have elapsed. This type of analysis will allow you to really see if your managerial guidance is making your company goals possible, and does it in real-time so you can make changes as needed.

A Short Guide to Payslip Year to Date Meanings

• YTD Hours.The number of hours worked, not in that pay period, but from January 1st up until the last day of the pay period.
• YTD Wages.All wages paid from either salary or hourly pay. Typically does not include bonuses and commissions.
• YTD Earnings.This number refers to all earnings, usually gross, that includes bonuses, commissions, tips, and other forms of income.
• YTD Gross.Another way to refer to total earnings, before taxes have been taken out. 
• YTD Net Pay.This is your pay after taxes and other deductions are removed from your gross earnings. This is your “take-home pay”.
• YTD Taxes.Federal, State, Social Security, and Medicare. All taxes paid up to the end of that paystub’s period. 
• YTD Deductions.You can choose to have a portion of your pay automatically withheld for say, a 401(k), which amounts go under this section. 
• YTD Contributions.If your employer contributes to a health savings account (HSA) or your 401(k), their to-date contributions of that fiscal year will be recorded in this column.

It’s tax season. April 15th, the deadline for submitting individual tax returns, is around the corner. And while you can submit right up until the deadline, there are a few documents you should be collecting. School documents, business receipts, charitable donation records, and of course, (unless you’re a contractor or business owner) the all-important W2. 

What is a W2 Form?

Form W2 is the basis of your taxes. It records your income received from your employer throughout the year, as well as the taxes that your employer has kept from each of your paychecks and sent to the IRS already. This information determines whether you’ll receive a refund or a bill. It’s a pretty important document, to say the least, and any tax return filed with a missing W2 is incomplete — which can result in some hefty penalty fees. 

You can still file your taxes on time with the Form 4852, which is a substitute for a lost W2. You’ll have to estimate your yearly earnings from your final pay stub (if you’re missing that too, use Check Stub Maker’s paystub generator tool) Be careful! Filling out Form 4852 instead of a lost W2 can be tricky and, if you do it incorrectly, it may result in headaches or penalty fees.

I Lost My W2! Now What? 

You’ve got a missing W2. You’re wondering, “how can I get a copy of my W2 if I lost it?” Breathe a sigh of relief; you didn’t have the only copy. How you go about rectifying the slip up depends on what went wrong. There are a few ways this can happen: You could have simply lost your mailed paper copy (your fault), maybe you never received it in the first place (maybe your employers fault) or you’re filing for a past year and didn’t keep records (understandable, but also your fault – you should hang on to your tax documents!).

How Can I Get a Copy of My W2 If I Lost It? 

First things first, contact your employer. They can often immediately send you another copy, which you can then use to file your taxes. If your employer refuses, or for some reason can’t resend your W2, you should contact the IRS directly and request a copy of the form. Your employer is required to send all their employees’ tax information directly to the IRS. This means that while yes, the IRS already has your form W2, you still must file your own taxes. Luckily you can request that the IRS send you their copy, which you can use for filing. 

How Can I Get a Copy of My W2 If I Never Received It? 

Your lost W2 isn’t due to forgetfulness, you just never received it! If you didn’t receive a W2, it’s best to first cover your bases before throwing blame at your employer or the government. The IRS doesn’t care why your form W2 went missing, it is your responsibility to find it and submit your return on time. 

First, check to see if it was mailed or delivered online. If you were expecting it in the mail, check your email inbox. If you were expecting a digital copy, check the post. 

Ask your employer what method it was sent by. While you’re talking with them, double-check that it was sent to the correct address. This is really important, as having an incorrect address on a lost W2 form can put you at risk of identity theft and fraudulent returns. 

If you go through these steps and find that your employer simply never sent you your return, confront them about it and request that they send it quickly. If they refuse to comply after the IRS-mandated deadline, you can submit a complaint with the IRS and your employer will have to deal with them. 

Sometimes, businesses have gone bankrupt and simply never send you your tax documents even though you worked with them that year. If your lost W2 is not likely to find its way into your mailbox, you can always request your missing W2 directly from the IRS. 

What If I’m Filing for a Past Tax Year and Didn’t Keep My W2? 

Not keeping tax records was your first mistake, but we don’t need to dwell on the past. Again, your first option should be contacting your employer about your lost W2, but if you no longer have a way of contacting your old employer, or if they are out of business, don’t worry. Even for filing back taxes, the IRS can provide you with your tax documents for any year you worked, provided your employer was doing things right and submitted your tax information that year. 

When you contact the IRS, you will need to use form 4506-T (Request For Transcript of Tax Return) in order to get your information from that year. That’s right, a form for requesting forms. It is the IRS after all. Once you’ve received your previously missing w2 for that year, you’ll be able to backfile that tax return and square up with the IRS.

When you contact the IRS, they are going to request several things to verify your identity— including your name, address, social security number, dates of employment, and an estimate of wages that you’ve earned from a final pay stub. If you’ve lost your pay stubs from the year in question feel free to use Check Stub Maker’s pay stub generator to estimate your yearly income and tax withholdings. 

File on Time – or File for an Extension

The IRS is a very rigorous institution, but it can be a helpful one, too. If it is really looking like you won’t have your documents on time, you can file for an extension. It’s called Form 4868, and it will automatically give you an extra six months to fill out your tax return. Don’t put your credit in trouble over a lost W2. The best option is to find and use your official W2. Then it’s using the replacement 4852 form to estimate what your W2 would have said. But at the very least, don’t file late. Simply file for an extension to get more time. 

Remember: When you’re requesting a W2 form (or any other form for that matter) the IRS will request estimates of both how much you earned in pay for the year as well as how much was withheld in taxes. You can use Checkstubmaker to create a final paystub and get a highly accurate estimate of both how much you earned and how much your employer would have deducted in taxes. Good luck! 

Running a small business today holds plenty of excitement for those who prefer a fast-paced environment, but there can be a few downsides for those owners who have not thought through the processes they need to keep their business functioning efficiently. One of the worst hazards is the idea that the world of business has become paperless. While it may be true in many different ways that the amount of paperwork has been cut down, there is still plenty to go around for each business currently trying to make a profit. Figuring out how to organize paperwork for efficient order fulfillment, billing, record keeping, and even payroll can make the difference between profit and loss.

Taking in Orders

While there are a few small businesses today that have completely automated ordering and billing, many more have unique products that require lengthy descriptions or information for processing. Taking in orders manually is not necessarily bad when it means profits, but losing paperwork at any point can become a disaster. Each order should be recorded in at least two copies, and one should be routed to the department that will process it while the other should remain where it can be monitored by the person who took the original order.

Production Runs

While some businesses handcraft each item they sell, there are those that do production runs for larger customers. Filling an order might take several days, but the person responsible for ensuring it is complete should have a ready copy of the order for the purpose of checking for all components to be in place. Once everything has been fulfilled, it is time to move on to shipping the order to the client.

Shipping Inventory

While offices have done their best to go paperless, the shipping industry still has its own requirements for paper. They will need a shipping bill that they will most likely supply, but the shipment must have an inventory. It is expected that the shipper will affix it to the box or crate, and many companies will refuse to take anything without paperwork. While there are some businesses where the customer will pick up their order, even they should receive a copy of what is in their package. A copy of the order might be acceptable, or the small business could generate a shipping inventory from their records. Keeping a copy of that with the order paperwork is generally part of the completed order when it goes to the billing department.

Customer Billing

Once order fulfillment is complete, there are a few other steps the paperwork will need to go through. Some companies collect the payment for their services or products before an order is processed, but there are those that reverse the process. Clients expect to be sent a bill in a timely fashion, so keeping tabs on finished orders is important. Knowing how to organize your paperwork to ensure billing is done correctly can make the difference between showing a profit or being faced with a loss. Even though there are plenty of honest clients out there willing to remind a company to send a bill, they may eventually find another company that is more efficient.

General Office Procedures

All of the above steps deal with only one facet of a small business, and general office procedures should include organizing paperwork to make the process as efficient as possible. Many small companies have found business walking out the door when their lack of organization makes them look sloppy to customers who wonder what other corners are being cut.

Supplies and Deductions

In addition to order fulfillment, supplies are often necessary to keep a business running. Even the most paperless offices of today generally require at least a few pens and post-it notes for messages and doodling while thinking up an incredible sales campaign. Everything that goes into running a business is considered a supply. Not only should they be paid for, but the receipts should be kept on hand because they can be deducted for tax purposes. For these reasons alone, organizing paperwork can be profitable.

A Good Flow

There are plenty of ways a small business can be thrown into chaos when the paperwork is not where it should be, and it can even strain efficiency, customer relationships, and profit. It is important to ensure a good flow of paperwork to get where it needs to be, but figuring out how to organize paperwork has often been one of the more difficult tasks for small business owners. It might take an entire day or weekend, but setting up a cohesive system is the best way to manage the business and keep the profits rolling in.

Tackling Orders

Any company where an order has been lost will know the chaos it can cause, so figuring out how to organize paperwork to facilitate orders without issues is a prime concern. Take a look at where the orders come in and where they go once they are ready for processing. Place labeled boxes at each station where an order should be, and point them out to every employee handling paperwork. It is a good way to ensure everyone knows exactly where the orders should be during their trip through the company, and it could also point out better pathways that could make the entire operation more efficient.

The Filing Dilemma

Every piece of paperwork will eventually have to be filed and kept for a number of years. The filing dilemma has often been a stopping point for small businesses. Some of them have handshake agreements with other small companies, and their file might just have a first name. While everyone who started with the company can find it, the new people just hired are ripping their hair out because they believe the paperwork has been lost. Filing everything under the correct name and business name is just one more way of keeping the paperwork under control and organized.

Electronic Filing Systems

Modern computers do just about everything a human can do in an office, and keeping the paperwork from becoming an issue is one of them. For those who do not want to give up precious office space for banks of filing cabinets, electronic filing systems are the modern way to store receipts for taxes and other purposes. They fit quite well into the company’s accounting computer, and even the backup does not take much more than a drawer in the desk. They can save hours of work when trying to find important files, and they can be indexed under many different topics or headings.

Keeping Track of Everything

A small business owner has many duties, and one of them is keeping track of everything. Looking at the electric bill to make sure it is correct, ordering the same paper everyone agreed was useful for taking notes, and even being responsible for making sure the company’s internet connection remains active are all part of the job. No task is too big or small, and each one might come with paperwork attached to it. Learning how to organize your paperwork as a small business owner might seem to be a hassle, but teaching employees how to work with it correctly can save time and money.

Finding systems that work in more than just providing directly for customers makes a business more efficient, and it can boost the bottom line. Many small businesses have found they are drowning in countless pieces of paper because there is no effective way to keep it where it needs to be, and losing it through mismanagement can cause endless issues. Overhead has never been a fun part of any business, but the running of a good business does have minimum requirements. For those who want to see their small business thriving with plenty of work to keep their employees busy, getting organized for efficiency can make their business boom.

Recommended Further Reading

• A Guide to Small Business Accounting
• A Quick Guide to Small Business Tools
• Do’s and Don’ts of Small Business Payroll

Remaining on top of your payroll is often stressful and requires a lot of time. If you handle your payroll in-house, the process is even more difficult. No matter how large or small your business, having an organized payroll system is important. This will protect you from penalties from the IRS while ensuring your employees receive their pay on time.

1. Choosing the Right Software for Your Business

One of the most important payroll tips involves your software. Your best option is software being hosted in the cloud. All your payroll information will be located in the same place. You can access whatever you need, whenever you need it. You can also make an investment in a management program. Even something as simple as switching to an electronic paystub system could transform the way in which you do things. This will make your payroll process easier and less stressful.

2. Knowing the Tax Deadlines for Your Payroll

If you have not completed your payroll by the end of the year, you will not be ready to file your business income tax. Your best option is ensuring the deadline for your W-2s is met first. If you have an accountant, their advice is invaluable. An extension can be filed for your business income tax. No extensions are available for your W-2 deadline.

If you file your W-2s late, you will immediately receive fines for all of your delinquent W-2s. For every W-2 up to thirty days late, you will be fined $50. The fine after thirty days is $100 each. If you do not file your W-2s or you do so six months late, you will receive a fine of $260 each. If there is proof your filing requirements were disregarded intentionally, the fine is $530 each.

You can receive a few extra months to straighten out your business finances by filing for an extension. You will still be required to pay your business taxes. The difference is you will have enough time to prevent making any expensive mistakes. You do not want to rush anything regarding your taxes.

3. Ensuring the Exemption Statuses for Your Employees are Updated and Correct

Non-exempt and exempt employees are paid differently. If you classify an exempt worker as non-exempt or vice versa, you will have serious issues with your payroll. Non-exempt workers must be compensated and tracked for any hours exceeding forty each week. The rules of the FLSA demand compliance from all employers. The same rules exclude exempt workers from standard overtime pay.

If a misclassification is discovered during a payroll audit, your best option is contacting an employment attorney. When the status of a worker changes, they must be reclassified for your payroll.

4. Understand What Records Must Be Kept and for How Long

According to the statistics of the IRS, three times more payroll taxes are collected as opposed to business taxes. The type of taxes is irrelevant to the IRS. If a small business owner makes an error, they will be subjected to an IRS audit. Making certain you are prepared is the best way to prevent any errors. You need to ensure you have good records for your tax filings and your payroll every single year.

You should keep all of your records for at least four years. Many experts recommend keeping your records for seven years. The IRS has rules pertaining to employment records. This is three years for all of your taxes and four for your employment records. If you are claiming tax deductions based on your employment records, you need to keep all of your documents for at least four years.

You should consider keeping both paper copies and electronic documents. You can use cloud-based payroll and accounting software. This will record all of your financial information. If there are questions or you are audited, it is easy to check your records.

5. Automating Your Federal and State Taxes

You should seriously consider automating all of your state and federal taxes. This will make certain you do not forget your payroll tax deposits. This will also ensure your taxes are paid on time.

6. Verifying Compliance with the IRS

Prior to filling out any required documents, you need to make certain all of your payroll documents are compliant with the IRS. You need to be able to guarantee all of your employees have an (EIN) employee identification number when you are doing payroll. You also need to be familiar with your payroll laws. Another good piece of payroll advice is making certain your payroll system is organized. This will effectively protect your business from IRS penalties. If you do not understand your compliance laws, you will not be able to ensure your payroll is compliant. You can find additional information on the online website for the IRS or through an accountant.

7. The Importance of Diligence When Collecting Taxes

As a small business, you are required to withhold a portion of all your employee’s paychecks. This is how you pay your taxes to the government. The most important are the local, state and federal income taxes. You are additionally responsible for your employee’s share of FICA taxes and state and federal unemployment taxes. The other taxes include your employee’s share of Medicare and Social Security taxes for FICA.

If you are uncomfortable calculating your employee’s taxes, you want to consider retaining an accountant. This will ensure the correct amount is always being withheld from your worker’s paychecks.

8. Ensuring Your Employee Tax Forms are Current

When you are doing payroll, make sure you are using the current W-4 form for your employees. This ensures the form specifies the current allowances for tax withholdings. There will be instances when you may need to re-verify the information for your employees on Form I-9. If the authorization of your employee to work has expired, this will be necessary.

9. Payroll Tips for Creating a Budget

Make sure you budget for taxes and wages while planning your payroll. You are required to pay Medicare and Social Security taxes. You most likely need to pay unemployment taxes as well. Planning for these expenses ahead of time is important.

10. Your Payroll System Audit

Another good piece of payroll advice is not relying on your automated payroll system to show you any issues. Your attention is probably required to find any employees no longer with your company or misclassifications. The same is true for any errors accidentally made by your employees in their timekeeping entries. Your best option is making one of your employees a payroll administrator. They can find any issues your payroll system will not.

11. Keep Track of the Employment Laws

You must be in compliance with the employment and labor laws at the local, state and federal levels. The (FSLA) Fair Labor Standards Act is one of the best possible examples regarding federal law. This act defines the rules for the minimum age of your employees, overtime and minimum wage. You need to monitor your payroll to ensure all of your workers on the payroll are in compliance with these laws.

12. Be Aware if Employee ID Numbers are Required

Certain states require employer ID numbers to be obtained for processing your taxes. The majority of businesses already have the required ID numbers. If you need one, you can apply by contacting the IRS.

13. Filing and Paying Your Taxes on Time

The most important action you can take is making certain your tax payments are made on time. The type of tax determines when your payments are due. Your FICA tax and income tax are paid either semi-weekly or monthly. You need to pay your federal unemployment tax every quarter. There are different deadlines for your other tax forms. Tax Form 940 is used for your federal unemployment tax. You need to file every year. Income tax Form 941 is filed for your federal income tax every quarter.

Recommended Further Reading:

• How to Make Pay Stubs for Employees
• How to Do Payroll in 3 Easy Steps

Are you wondering how to cut expenses for your business? Learning about cost savings can have a profound impact on the finances of your business. Knowing where to start, how to do it and the difference between cost-saving measures and cost avoidance are also as equally as important to ensure the success of your company. 

What is Cost Savings? 

Cost savings can be defined as a set of actions or policies that you take in order to reduce the historical or expected costs of any transaction. The objective of cost savings is to shrink the amount of money paid for a certain product or service. It’s identifying the costs of your budget that are not necessary, and using your money in places that are most effective. It is any action that helps lower investment, current spending, and debt levels. 

What Does Cost Savings Mean? 

Cost savings is a method in which you take action or implement a systematic strategy. Large companies have financial policies that ensure any purchase or investment they make is first run through a cost savings method. From an organizational perspective, this is typically done in a purchasing department, but if you are a small business owner, this means that you are the one to initiate the purchases and you need a strategy that effectively implements cost savings. 

The Difference Between Cost Savings and Cost Avoidance

Cost saving measures are actions that lower current spending, investment or debt levels, while cost avoidance measures are any actions that you avoid having now that will eventually cost in the future. Cost saving methods result in a tangible financial benefit for your organization. Some examples of cost saving measures include reduction of overtime hours, elimination of temporary labor employees, and negotiation of lower rental fees for either equipment or services. Cost avoidance measures, on the other hand, mean dodging necessary costs that will be then come back in the future. An example of this would be avoiding an oil change because you don’t want to pay, but in the end, it would result in the need to replace the engine. You avoid a cost but if you do, it can hurt you in the long run. 

How Can You Maximize Cost Savings?

There are many types of methods to use as a small business owner that can maximize your cost savings and find ways to cut expenses. The two that are the most valuable are technology and outsourcing.

• Technology. Technology in the business arena has revolutionized how companies can decrease operational costs and cutting for business effectiveness. One way technology can help is through evaluating the administrative process, and locate what areas can be automated using technology. This can help save time and money that eliminates the threat of human errors. 
• Outsourcing. When a business decides to outsource, it can cut operational costs significantly. Examples of this are when you assign professional companies to do the work for you instead of hiring new employees, or assign freelancers a momentous task you allow your current employees to devote their valuable time to areas that help revenue growth. 

How Check Stub Maker Can Help

The tools at Check Stub Maker combine technology and outsourcing, to help you with cost savings. With our Check Stub Maker, we take all the difficulty out of making payroll, deductions, and taxes. We provide a check stub template that keeps everything organized and we send you a PDF file that sends to once it has been completed. The beauty of Check Stub Maker is that we provide a low-cost option to generate your pay stubs instead of expensive software, and third-party payroll services that help cut your expenses.

Check Stub Maker is here for you to take control of your business, and save you time and money.

Payroll can be one of the most tedious and time-consuming tasks for small business owners, business managers, and other entrepreneurs. With so much to do running a business, it may seem logical to outsource to a third-party provider to help with payroll. There are tons of cheap payroll services out there online, but how do you know which one is the best one for you, or if you even need a payroll service?

Here at Checkstubmaker, we want your business to succeed, and so we have provided a series of characteristics that make a great cheap payroll service and help with your decision in using a payroll service.

The first thing to look for when you might be considering payroll services is making sure that the provider meets the needs of your company. Create a list of what specifics you are looking for. Do you want to give your employees self-service access? Can the payroll run as often as you like? Can the service handle all your payroll tax needs? 

Time is of the essence

One of the biggest aspects to look into is the amount of time it takes to use a third party cheap payroll service. It’s important to evaluate services user experience and how long the setup process takes. This can be the most time-consuming element of paying your staff. How much information do you need to fill out and how user-friendly is the process? The bottom line is, the primary benefit of a cheap payroll service is so you can spend less time on your payroll and spend more time on your business. 

How much does it cost?

An important aspect of a third-party provider is how much their payroll service costs. As a small business owner, your finances are exceptionally important to know where you are putting your funds. If you only have a few employees, then it may make no sense to pay a large fee for a software or service if you only need to pay a few people. Some payroll services have you play a flat fee just to use their service, but why not just pay for each employee? 

How complex and detailed do you need your paystubs to go?

Paystubs can be frustrating to calculate on your own because you have to account for details like federal and state taxes. If you use a cheap payroll service you have to make sure that they correctly account for the wages earned, taxes taken out of the paycheck, employee contributions, net take-home pay, and that everything is up to date.

When can you create a paystub?

An important element of creating a paystub is when you can generate a paystub and if there is any customer support. Luckily, here at Check Stub Maker, we offer round the clock customer support if you have any questions, mistakes that need to be fixed or miscommunication. On Check Stub Maker’s site, you can create your paystubs 24/7. 

Can you create a payroll for one employee?

Because Check Stub Maker has no base fees, you can create paystubs for one employee. When you have the ability to create paystubs for just single individuals, it makes it the cheapest payroll for one employee. If you are somewhere in between not wanting to create paystubs on your own, but don’t want to pay for a payroll service, then Check Stub Maker is the perfect medium for you!  

Why Check Stub Maker is a great cheap payroll service 

There are many payroll options available online for making digital pay stubs, and expensive payroll services that are used for medium to large companies. When you don’t have enough employees to really make a payroll service worth it, then you can use a paystub service like Check Stub Maker. Check Stub Maker stands out from the crowd because our team offers top-quality professional pay stubs at a great price. No need to spend lots of money on a payroll service. With Check Stub Maker, you will have professional templates, a user-friendly interface, 24/7 customer support and instant delivery in a format that can be printed or saved digitally. 

Save time, resources and money using Check Stub Maker today!

If you have owned a business, or are just about to dive into launching a business, you have probably realized rather quickly that there is no shortage of details to consider — along with a growing to-do list. 

One of the most important details to understand is the small business accounting practices that you will implement into your business. This includes tracking revenues, expenses, and profits. It will help you measure things that work and things that don’t and measure how you can further grow your business. It may be easy to record on your own your bookkeeping, but can be hard to continue or keep up as your company grows.

With our customers in mind, we have created a basic guide to small business accounting to help ensure your success and help you make better business decisions.

A basic guide to Small Business Accounting 

In order to dive deeper into the basics, you have to know what accounting is.

Accounting is the language of business. It is the method of measuring, processing and communicating financial data. When a business owner uses accounting, it helps them know data about the company’s resources, finances and the results the business provides for its customers. The purpose of accounting is to record the company’s financial affairs, including the cash you have and the cash you received. This information is important because it helps with providing financial statements and other indicators of the health of your company and preparation of taxes. 

Now that we know the significance of small business accounting, here are some steps you can take to keep your business financials in order. 

Set Up a Separate Bank Account 

After you’ve legally registered your business (and if you haven’t this should be the first step that you do), you will need a place to stash your business income – and no, buried in your backyard is not an effective way to do this! This can be completed by creating a separate bank account because LLCs and corporations are legally required to have a separate account for business. 

You should start by opening a business checking account and then a savings account that will help organize your funds and plan for taxes. A business credit card should be considered so that you can start building business credit. 

Before you complete any of this, you should do your homework. Shop around for first what type of business you want to register as and then what business checking accounts are out there. In order to set up a business bank account, you are required to have a business name, be registered in the state you are in and have the documents to prove it. 

Track your Business Expenses

Tracking your business expenses effectively is critical to the health and growth of your company. It helps monitor the growth of your business and keep track of deductible expenses and support what you report on your tax return. 

Right when you start a business, you should establish a method or system for how you will organize receipts and records. There are companies that provide tracking and divide your receipts automatically from your bank account, or you could do it the old school way via filing. 

You can divide your receipts in a variety of ways, but it helps to pay particular attention to out of town business traveling, vehicle-related expenses, gifts, and home office receipts. That way your expenses can be accurately reflected when you fill out a tax form and you’re not hunting down receipts from the previous year.  

Create a Bookkeeping System

Having a bookkeeping system helps with tracking your business expenses, however, it is different from accounting. Bookkeeping is the day to day activity of recording transactions and categorizing them, whereas small business accounting is the high-level process in which you look at the business progress and make sense of the data that has been completed by bookkeeping. 

There are a variety of methods and solutions to bookkeeping such as using bookkeeping software, calculating it on your own via an excel spreadsheet, outsource a bookkeeper locally or online. You can determine your bookkeeping solution based on what will best suit your company’s needs. 

Determine How You, the Small Business Owner Gets Paid

After all of your hard work as a small business owner starts becoming evident, and the sales come rolling in, you will have to find a way to accept payment to yourself. You can use a third-party payment processor, but there are typically fees based on each transaction you do. Or you can set up a merchant account which is a type of bank account that allows businesses to accept payments by credit or debit cards. What you think is best or more convenient for you and your business will help determine your decision on the method of how you get paid. 

Set up a Payroll System

Once you have determined how you will see the profits of your business on your end, you have to ensure that the people you hire or employ get paid correctly. Trying to calculate a payroll can be laborious twice a month or however frequently you pay your employees while withholding the correct taxes. Here at Check Stub Maker, we have provided an easy to use software that calculates all the math for you that meets your federal and state tax regulations at a reasonable and great price. 

We have made it super easy for you, so that all you do is put in information like salary or hourly pay and we calculate it into a pay stub and email a PDF copy, directly to your email! 

Understand Your Tax Obligations

Your tax obligations are dependent on the legal structure of your business. Are you an LLC? Or a partnership? If you are self-employed, you have to claim business income on your personal tax return. Corporations file taxes independently from the owners. This can determine how and when income tax has to be paid or withheld. 

Hire a Financial Advisor

It may seem counterproductive to hire a financial consultant because of the expense to do so, but their input may help you in the long run. Small business financial experts can help with risk assessment and help in planning risk management strategies to make sure you business stay afloat in a harsh business environment. 

Accounting for small businesses can be complex, but with our guide to small business accounting and Checks Stub Maker’s payroll tools, it doesn’t have to be.

Starting your own business can be overwhelming. With so many resources and tools out there, you may not even know where to start, let alone how to grow your business. Here at Check Stub Maker, we want this transition for you to be manageable, uncomplicated and mapped out for you. This is why we have created a guide to small business tools in an easy and simplified resource that you can refer back to you as you construct your business structure and create the right strategy to grow your business. 

How to Calculate which Tools you should use first

Before we begin with the list of small business tools, it’s important to figure out exactly where your business is right now — primarily so that you can measure from where you began, and then track your success going forward. Here are some ways to assess this:

• Establish your current challenges and which steps you think would resolve those challenges. 
• Set a time that you wish those current challenges are resolved. For example, immediately, 5 years, when we have x amount of profit, etc. 
• Acknowledge your stakeholders who should weigh in on that.
• Prioritize each challenge based off of which needs to be completed first
• Research services for small businesses and tools that could potentially resolve your challenges.

Going forward, here are some business management tools that could resolve your key challenges with growing your company. 

Advertising 

An important aspect of growing your company is advertising. When people think of advertising, they usually think about ads on TV, billboards, and ads in magazines. And I’m sure as a small business owner, you’re probably thinking, advertising is expensive! However, with the revolution of the internet, you can get the word out about your business with programs and software that are free that can increase your company and brand’s visibility. 

Analytics

If you have a website for your company, then it’s important to recognize and measure which of your marketing efforts convert in generating your Return on Investment (ROI) or other results or KPIs you are looking to track. There are free and paid options that can measure how many people are looking at your website, and all data about your web traffic. 

Social Media

If you’re not on social media, does your company even exist? The reality is that every business owner should be on social media. Social Media helps highlight your mission and the services that you provide, but in a personal and captivating way. Just having a Facebook Business Page for your company is not enough. You should be on the most popular social media sites where your target audience can be found and have engaging content that makes users want to follow your page. Tracking social media allows you to directly listen to your customers and see their behaviors, opinions, and attitudes.  To create engaging and compelling content, you need a variety of tools that can save you time and resources. 

There are free online tools where you can create a visually appealing presence and use storytelling to relate to your customers. You can create pre-formatted templates for social media posts, banners, online flyers, and graphics. If you don’t have a professional photographer, you can get free stock images online for your social media efforts, marketing campaigns, and website design as well! 

Accounting

Keeping track of revenue and business expenses is imperative so that you can effectively run your business in a way that minimizes mistakes, understanding the right course of action regarding additional employees, investing and budget. 

Tracking finances can actually be a challenge. Logging inventory, managing invoices and record tracking can be mundane and tedious. Luckily there are tons of tools that do it for you and give real numbers in real-time. 

Scheduling 

If you have employees and/or business hours it’s important to keep track, manage and create schedules so that everyone is on the same page and employees can coordinate availability, meetings, and conference calls on one easy site or app. Research options for you and your company that fit best within your budget and needs so that you can spend less time tracking and managing people’s schedules and more time on things that take higher priority like growing your business. 

Communication

Just like scheduling, communication is important to be a successful team or company. Phone calls and text messages can get lost or intertwined with your individual and not work-related communication. Finding a small business tool that allows communication on either an app or online service is a great way to stay organized. 

Productivity

With a huge to-do list of things to do for your employees or for yourself, it can get complex to be productive on a day to day basis. There are services for small businesses that track productivity and help coordinate day to day objectives and tasks so you can enhance your employee’s experience and stay on route for the results that you need. 

Calendar Management

Planning can propel your business forward. With a Calender tool, you can have a big picture in mind for you and your team and creates a visual synopsis of what tasks are being completed in order to measure and complete your goals and objectives. A calendar tool helps you feature and build a plan that has a deadline. 

Pay Stub Software

 A huge aspect of having a productive and successful company is through your business management tools, and creating a payroll is a vital aspect of your success. You want to ensure that your employees are getting paid on time while being compliant with your employment agreement and federal and state tax regulations. Trying to calculate this twice a month or however frequent you pay your employees can be strenuous. With Checkstubs easy software, our templates calculate all the math for you at a reasonable and great price. 

We have the best online pay stub software so you can preview your pay stubs before you actually purchase them. The details are important to you, so we’ve made sure that you can add your company logo at the top of each pay stub and give you the flexibility to put in information based on salary or hourly and many other options! Once you’ve purchased the pay stub, we sent you a PDF copy emailed right to you.

There are tons of resources and business management tools online that you can use that will help your business succeed and grow. The most important thing is to address your goals, prioritize them and then find the small business tools that will achieve your goals. You can rest easy knowing where to start. Here at Checkstubmaker, we want to help you in that process.

As a business owner, do you have employees who need to prove their income, apply for a mortgage, or just lost a paystub? If they do, then they need their Paystub Records to prove that they have an earned income, are currently earning income, or earn a specified amount. Here is a list of places where employees can look to gain excess to their income records, and what the best solutions are as a business owner for providing paystub records that fit your budget. 

Paystubs Regulations Vary from State to State

Getting access to a printed copy of a paycheck, even when it is being delivered electronically via direct deposit can be difficult and time-consuming. In order to understand how to retrieve paystub records and how to get pay stubs from direct deposit, you have to understand the fundamentals. State laws can fluctuate between different protections of your information by receiving their wages via direct deposit. Nine states give employers the power to require that their employees receive their wages via direct deposit.

However, it does not apply if a worker does not have a bank account; 21 states permit employers to have secure written permission from the employee to pay via direct deposit. In most of those 21 states, employers have to give employees the opportunity to select where they want the payment sent, either paper checks or direct deposit. So even before you start creating or looking for services that provide paystubs, you have to recognize that the state where you are located can dictate how you can pay your employees. 

Check Third-Party Payroll Services 

There are options to sign up for a third-party payroll service online that is separate from an HR department, if you have one or staffing that coordinates payroll. The employees can sign up for an account that allows them to have their pay stubs and other documents 24 hours a day, 7 hours a week. Instead of going through the process of going through HR or staff to obtain the needed paystub records. Despite the useful aspect of having access online at any time, third-party payroll services can be expensive and unreasonable if you have a small staff. It can also be time-consuming to set up. 

Contact the Human Resource Department

Depending on the company or staffing, some employers require that employees submit a formal request to get copies of pay stubs. Employers may charge a fee for copies of paystubs, provide the service for free, or require an employee to set up an appointment to pick up copies. Depending on the employer, some may require to submit a request form that includes the date of employment, social security number, and employee ID. The time that one can receive the paystub records can vary from a few days to a few weeks and could be printed off or sent to a work or home address. If there is an immediate need to obtain records quickly, the employee could visit the office directly. 

Sometimes instead of a third-party payroll service, companies allow employers to access their information on the company website. You can then log in, go to the appropriate page and download or print a copy of the records. This does require software that is built into your website that has to calculate specific deductions and taxes. 

Paystub Records Don’t Have to Be a Problem

As a business owner, you may have questioned what route you should take in regard to your employee’s payment methods. With our Check Stub Maker, we take all the difficulty out of making payroll, deductions, and taxes. We provide a check stub template that keeps everything organized and we send you a PDF file that sends to once it has been completed.  This gives you the capability to give your employees their paystub records whenever they need it. The beauty of Check Stub Maker is that we provide a low-cost option to generate your pay stubs instead of expensive software and third-party payroll services.  Check Stub Maker is here for you to take control of your employee’s paystub records, and save you time and money.