Where Do You Need Payroll Services?
Go Girl Finance has done the legwork to make sure you can get the best payroll services in California for small and medium sized businesses. Outsourcing to a payroll company in California is a great way to reduce time spent running payroll and simplify your business. When you combine modern payroll software with great customer service, you get a seamless process that allows you to pay employees quickly while automating much of the paperwork and tax reporting that can take so long. Get started now to see which payroll service in California makes the most sense for your needs.
Gone are the days when employees simply received a paystub every pay period and were left to calculate taxes owed and tax forms on their own. Now your employees can log in whenever they want to see all of their tax forms in one place, see what taxes they have paid, view past electronic paystubs, see their PTO and benefits status and more. When you have California payroll services that combine great technology with great customer service you get happy business owners and employees. Business owners don't just save time and money when running payroll, they save on all aspects of Human Resources, tax reporting and filings, and perhaps most importantly of all, reducing the cost of hiring and training employees in house to manage it in house.
We recommend outsourcing payroll services in California to nearly any company because it not only reduces time spent on payroll related activities, but it reduces potentially costly tax reporting and legal errors. This is why payroll services for small business in California is so important, you likely don’t have a legal team or dedicated HR staff to stay on top of regulatory changes, compliance issues, track employees hours or manage PTO. Another benefit of using a small business payroll service in California is that your employees will appreciate the simplicity and access their paystubs, tax information and more with online reporting at their fingertips 24/7.
Even with hours of research and talking to sales people, differentiating between payroll companies in California can present many challenges. After awhile they can seem to blur together and you can become distracted by features that are not relevant for your business. The best payroll company in California for your business is ultimately the one that takes the time to understand your business, properly onboard all of your employees and past records and is there for you when you have questions. Go Girl Finance experts have worked with dozens of payroll service companies in California that claim to be the best, but quite often they lack follow through or they focus too heavily on technology and not enough on customer service.
Based on your current payroll processing needs the team at Go Girl Finance will narrow your list to four or five of the top California payroll companies that you can trust. From there you will want to set up a walk through of the software so you can visualize working with it. Finally, you need to ask a few questions: Can you import and integrate data from your existing payroll service? Do they have a free trial or discounts for moving to their service? What is the rate schedule or $ per employee if you add features in the future? What is the average wait time to get ahold of a customer service rep? By asking these questions you can start to see beyond the glossy sales tactics and find a payroll partner you can work with a long time.
Your cost of payroll services in California will vary primarily based on the type of service you need and the number of employees on your payroll. For example, if you need your accounting system or HR functionality fully integrated it will cost more than simple payroll processing for a few employees. Most California payroll companies forego sign up fees and use a monthly base rate + monthly rate per employee. Ranges for base fees go from $25/month to $200/month while each additional employee on payroll costs between $2 to $15/month. Many people initially want cheap payroll service software in California with no frills and no advanced functionality, but we like to stress that additional features can save you a ton of time and money, not to mention headaches.
The experts at Go Girl Finance have hands on experience with dozens of payroll companies in California and can make sure you don't end up spending too much or working with a product that doesn't fit your needs. We recommend California payroll service providers based on three criteria:
The quality of their online payroll software - There is no room for downtime or bugs when you are running your business and employees need to get paid. Your online payroll software needs to be extremely reliable first and foremost. You also want interfaces for both management and employees that are easy to use with very little training.
Robust Product Offering - While it is a highly critical business function, payroll processing is not that difficult or complicated on its own. The best payroll providers in California go way beyond simply making sure your employees direct deposit gets there on time. They go the extra mile to help you administer retirement and health benefits, track PTO, pay state and federal taxes, complete all tax forms and more. In short, a great online payroll software will handle most of your employee related back office work.
Customer Service - No matter how well designed a payroll system is, you will have questions ever now and again. When you do, it is critical to have a customer service rep who is there to answer your phone call and quickly guide you through the problem. We also value multiple ways to find help, these include phone calls, email and online chat support.
When you work with the team at Go Girl Finance, we start by learning about your current employee management and payroll processes. We work with you to determine the exact features you absolutely need and those which may be of some value to you. We can then narrow down your choices to a few payroll service companies in California that make sense for your situation. A few of the companies we work with include: Gusto, Intuit Payroll, OnPay, ADP Quickbooks Payroll, Big Fish Payroll Services, Paychex, PayLumina, Namely, Checkmate Payroll, Paylocity, Kelly, Sage, BenefitMall, PayUSA, IOIPay, SurePayroll, Premier Payroll Services, Square Payroll, Fuse Workforce Management, JetPay, Heartland Payroll, PaySmart, Wagepoint, APS, PrimePay, MyPayrollHR, MMC HR.
Modern payroll providers in California offer dozens or even hundreds of features to complement the payroll processing offering. Before you get lost in the weeds, determine which features are absolutely critical to run your business, and then you can decide which non-critical features to include. Remember that some payroll services in California offer 'add-on' features that don't require new contracts or special set up, and can be added with the click of a button. This is convenient and means you don't need to stress over every little feature when you are initially outsourcing payroll. We find that the most important features a payroll company in California needs to include are:
Payroll Taxes and Reporting - State, local and federal taxes are automatically deducted and paid. All necessary tax forms are prepared and stored in your account for access anytime by both management and employees. When it is tax season this can save many hours for most businesses.
HR Functionality - Seamlessly integrate HR tasks into your payroll including onboarding of new employees, dismissal of employees, add employee handbooks and office guidelines to the employee portal.
Benefits Management - Easily manage all employee health and dental benefits in one place.
Retirement Management - Integrate external retirement management software so that employee 401k, profit sharing, Roth IRA's and more are automatically updated each pay period.
Full Reporting - Instant reporting options so employers can quickly see taxes or salaries paid for any given period. Some payroll providers in California allow employees to login to their account to view reports for their own information which can reduce the time management spends running reports.
Accounting Integration - Integration with Quickbooks or other accounting systems means no double data entry and no room for errors.
Employee Portal - Anytime access for employees to look at their paystubs, download their W2’s, 1099’s and other tax forms.
Manage Paid Time Off (PTO) - Complete management of vacation hours, sick days tracking,
Alternative Employee Types - Easily manage 1099 contractors, part time employees and even volunteers.
You may notice a convergence of Human Resources functionality with payroll companies in California, and that is no accident. For most small businesses, payroll services in California overlap significantly with HR. This is an opportunity for most businesses owners to keep their headcount low by outsourcing what used to take two separate departments.
