Experts Weigh In: Why do you outsource your payroll?

There are lots of benefits when it comes to outsourcing payroll. The biggest two, we’ve found, are saving time and money. We wanted to see why other small business owners decided to make the jump and outsource their payroll.

Here are our favorite answers…

“Handling payroll internally is a massive waste of brainpower. It’s a tedious task, and in a small company like ours, it’s going to be handled by either the owner or someone else who will be totally distracted by adding this recurring job to their to-do list. It’s totally worth the couple bucks to pay a service to do it for us, it keeps us all focused on the tasks that actually pay the bills!” –Eric Shannon, Big Barker

“We have found outsourcing payroll to be a positive thing to do. The primary benefit is not having to keep up with the changing rules and regulations. Plus, there is less chance for making an error. It is also a time saver for us.” –Bob Bentz, Advanced Telecom Services

“There are many payroll companies that exist to ease the burden (particularly on small business owners) as it relates to payroll taxes, paperwork, etc. Most of these services will help ensure that the proper paperwork is collected, and the organization is registered with the proper local, state, and federal agencies to be correctly handling and paying taxes. The peace of mind these systems provide are well worth their relatively low costs.” –Michael Krasman, UrbanBound 

“My business is service based and the volume is low enough that it can’t support a non-income generating employee (bookkeeper/payroll clerk). I do most of the administrative work but I decided that there are too many payroll related laws to keep track of and the potential penalties are far greater than the cost of outsourcing the payroll services. The literal decision point for me came when I realized that purchasing packages of W-2 and 1099 forms at tax time would cost me almost the same amount that I would spend for a payroll service to complete the whole process. So I spend a little more money but it costs me significantly less time and stress.” –Angela Sarafin, Sarafin Family Therapy, PLLC dba DC Family Therapy

“I only have one employee, but it was taking me so much time to do the paperwork. I also would get busy and forget about quarterly filing dates, leading to tax penalties. One day I sat down and realized that if I spent my time working and billing for that work I could easily cover the payroll expenses. And, I enjoyed working A LOT more! 

Also, I was working with a PEO and found that when I hired employees getting workers comp through the PEO was really the only affordable way to get workers comp as a new employer.” –Kirsten Smolensky, Minerva Appraisal LLC

“Outsourcing payroll and taxes is the best option for our company because we’re small enough that if we hired a payroll employee, they would have to contribute in other areas. However, we weren’t able to find people with payroll knowledge that also had online marketing experience – which is where we needed additional assistance on project work. Therefore, we decided to outsource payroll and instead utilize the labor resources for marketing staff.” –Will Schneider, WarehousingAndFulfillment.com

“I started my business 21 years ago. At first we didn’t have employees, just subcontractors, but when I started hiring people in house none of the positions I was hiring for fit with payroll processing so I used Paychex. That was fine – easy, low cost – but about five years ago we switched to a local bookkeeper and that made it easier and cheaper.” –Graham Bergh, Resource Revival

“I tried to do my payroll using QuickBooks a couple of years ago. After 2 hours trying to figure out all of the rates I was extremely frustrated. What happens if I make a mistake and I get a letter from the IRS? I don’t want to worry about that, so I have been using Gusto as my payroll provider. It’s affordable, easy to use, and I can go to bed at night knowing that I won’t have any payroll issues.” –Blake Denman, RicketyRoo Inc

“Outsourcing gives entrepreneurs time. Time from having to learn a new skill set, time from having to do something and perhaps time from having to correct mistakes that possibly could be made if the work isn’t done accurately in the first place. It relieves some of the pressures of making sure one aspect of their business is completed in a timely fashion and done correctly, by experts in their field. Payroll can be a time consuming and tricky beast. As a business consultant I have always recommended that payroll be outsourced when possible. The money saved from a possible mistake is worth the little bit of money spent each month to have an expert process payroll.” –Hope Van Leeuwen, MBA, Hope.Business

“We outsource payroll for two main reasons: 1) it is relatively inexpensive to do so (around $200 a month for our 10 person firm), and 2) we don’t have to worry about late or incorrect filings for our various state and federal payroll tax forms. Additionally, our payroll service provides regular reporting of our payroll expenses, and takes care of issuing W2s to our employees after the end of the year. We could handle payroll in house with just the staff we have (i.e., we wouldn’t have to hire someone to do it), but considering the low cost of outsourcing we would rather they work on tasks supportive of the revenue producing functions of the business.” –Andrew Vines, Johnson & Vines, PLLC

“As a small business time and productivity are the most valuable things to my business. The main reason I outsource my payroll is because it frees up my time and gives me the resources to focus on my core business. My business was not large enough to hire someone to perform all the payroll processing functions and I did not have the time to do it myself. Outsourcing was the best option because it helped me reduce the cost of finding someone and I can rest assured knowing a professional will take care of all the complexities of payroll taxes.” –Lisa Chu, Black N Bianco Kids Clothing

“I use Paychex because it is easy, convenient, low cost and they have the tax paperwork ready right away. They make it really simple for me so I just do not have to worry about it at all. It really does not make sense for me to hire someone to do this. They understand small business and know that some months the checks may not all come in on schedule so they are flexible if I need to move the payroll date a bit. I signed up with them when I got my first client, they have been with me from the start.” –Paige Arnof-Fenn, Mavens & Moguls

“There are three reasons we don’t handle our payroll in-house. Price is the first reason, because it would cost considerably more to hire someone in-house to handle it. The second reason is that having it all online is much easier and faster. The third reason is that I prefer not to deal with all of the necessary paperwork that would have to be filed, both on a state and federal level.” –Mark Tuchscherer, Geeks Chicago 

“Outsourcing payroll was one of the best moves we ever made, it allows you to really free up that space in your day to worry about bigger picture items concerning the company. The costs are negligible for the amount of relief it gives you knowing that everything is taken care of when it comes to your payroll. With one quick email to our representative I’m able to process our entire payroll in a matter of seconds – it used to take me hours! Beyond that most companies also help with benefits such as 401k and healthcare, which are tedious and time consuming to deal with as well.” –David Batchelor, DialMyCalls.com 

“I choose to outsource my payroll so that my staff at SurgiSpa can focus on more important medical issues and customer service excellence. We hire and trust professionals. It also decreases the chance for any potential errors with our taxes.” –Raquel Sanchez, The Ferraro Group 

“I outsource our payroll primarily because I view it as a cost center. As a business owner, my focus should be on growing the business and not necessarily how I can save money. If I’m able to outsource anything, and can afford it, where I don’t add value (accounting, bookkeeping, tax preparation, payroll, etc.) then I try.” –Jim Wang, Wallet Hacks

“We have outsourced payroll for over fifteen years and it is our best bang for the buck in terms of business efficiency and ensuring compliance with applicable federal and state tax authorities. For less than $1,500.00 per year we have complete payroll services, electronic remittance to all tax authorities, employee direct deposit, detailed record keeping and reporting, online access, a dedicated support specialist and automatic filing of all state and federal reports. My CPA offered to do payroll for us to save money and I refused to forego using a specialized payroll provider (Paychex) nor did I want the burden of having to provide more oversight, all to save a few hundred dollars a year. Outsourcing all payroll related tasks to Paychex is cost efficient and allows me to sleep at night knowing I will not have unknown payroll issues/liabilities sneak up on me.” –John Kinskey, Access Direct, Inc.   

“Ever since outsourcing payroll I saved so much time and stress. Previously I had employees working in different states, then I had to figure out all of the state specific rules and forms. There were plenty of times I didn’t get it right! I’m glad that pain is over and I can focus on running my business instead.” –Joshua Ho, Referral Rock 

“Almost once a week I get a notice of a change in unemployment withholding rates, a 12 page court order to garnish wages, or some other report or form I need to fill out. Outsourcing payroll gets all that off my desk so when one of those envelopes shows up in the mail I just scan it and email it to my payroll company and forget about it. My attention can be focused on my clients and my employees and not the government.” –Derek Christian, My Maid Service

“We outsource our payroll to Paychex. Using an outside company reduces the risk of mistakes, and in the unlikely event of a problem, the liability is on the other company, rather than on Company Folders. We chose Paychex specifically because they offer a convenient, cost-effective solution that includes our health insurance and workers’ compensation.” –Vladimir Gendelman, Company Folders, Inc 

Have questions about outsourcing payroll, or want to sign up with Paychex today? Give us a call at 1 877 692 6772 or visit us at www.MyCorporation.com.