Heeding The Ethics Of Payroll In Your Business

Payroll operations are complex whether a business employs five or 500 people. Despite its complexity, the payroll process is highly regulated since it has the power to affect employee’s attitude towards the company and the business’s reputation in the industry.

This doesn’t mean payroll errors don’t occur, whether accidentally or deliberately. Such errors may have legal ramifications for the company, including costly fines and even possible lawsuits.

Maintaining payroll ethics when conducting this sensitive and complex operation is important. Does your company pay attention to ethics of conducting payroll?

Payroll Ethics – What Does It Mean

Payroll ethics is a structure that governs correct function of payroll operations – which ensure all employees are paid their monthly or daily remuneration in the correct amount and on time. Additional payroll processes must be in compliance with federal and state laws.

Deconstructing Payroll Ethics

There are several components of payroll ethics. Understanding them can lead to easy and better implementation of payroll ethics into your business operations.

First things first… everything related to the payroll processing system is confidential information between the management/HR and the employee. This includes all communication between:

ØEmployer and employees

ØEmployer and outside agencies (Internal Revenue Service)

Additionally, all processes conducted must comply with federal and state laws. All payroll errors should be addressed and fixed immediately.

Information security is also an incredibly important part of ethics. Finally, HR personnel who handle payroll processing of the company must be properly trained when it comes to maintaining payroll ethics.

Maintaining Payroll Ethics in Your Business is Not So Difficult

The payroll department in your company is the only one that will have access to confidential information of your employees. It’s important that employees working on payroll processing must keep a personal sense of ethics and integrity.

Having the right work conduct is important especially since payroll employees have access to information such as work history, family status, and work performance besides the salary and bonuses given.

This is where a strict code of payroll ethics comes in, which according to the American Payroll Association, any company can adopt and implement.

General Code of Payroll Ethics

This is shared by the APA, in the hopes of making payroll ethics easy to implement in any business’s structure:

ØBeing mindful of personal aspects between employer and employee (concerning payroll)

ØStriving for perfect compliance, accuracy, and timeliness of all payroll activities

ØStaying updated with legislative developments, actions conducted by regulatory bodies etc

ØMaintaining absolute confidentiality of payroll within employer conducted procedures

Another important component of payroll ethics is to stay abreast with latest technology changes that affect payroll processing operations in your company. What does this mean? You may have to retrain employees who handle this important operation according to new regulations, costing time and money.

An easy-way-out of this obligation is outsourcing your payroll processing to a company that offers professional online bookkeeping and accounting services. Learn how Florida based company, A&B Accounting & Business Solutions can help.  

Improve Your Business Productivity With These Tips

Scrutinizing different aspects of the business and devising new ways of improving productivity is a continuous process. Every entrepreneur understands that there is nothing such as a perfect business module and improving different aspects of the business is a core component in today’s business culture.

This is exactly why every business constantly strives to target different areas of the business and revamp them in order to improve the overall efficiency of the business.

To alleviate the complexity involved in improving a business’s overall efficiency, here are some tips that have specifically been designed for every industry. 

Automate different tasks

In order for a business to survive in today’s digital age, they should consider automating different aspects of the business, as automation has become a core feature in every successful business. Previously, business automation was considered a luxury; but now, it is definitely a necessity.

So every entrepreneur should scrutinize their current business module and ascertain whether there are any tasks which can be automated. This automation will not only save the business a substantial amount of money, but will also improve the overall efficiency of the business!

Encourage department integration

The underlining reason why so many businesses fail in the market today is because they segregate every department of the business.

This segregation inadvertently creates a competitive environment which will hamper the productivity of the business. Every department should have easy access to different departments to ensure seamless integration; this will help break any barriers of communication and will improve the productivity of the business in an exponential manner.

Utilize different business productivity tools

Another way to boost a business’s overall efficiency is by utilizing different productivity tools such as QuickBooks.

These software and tools are designed to make business management much more interactive and effective. Not only will these tools make management more effective, but will help the business determine which areas of the business that can be modified to improve productivity.

Limit interruptions

Finally, the last tip that will help any business improve their productivity is by limiting the amount of distractions present around employees. This not only encompasses the work environment, but other interruptions such as meetings. A business should conduct periodic meetings at a designated time instead of pulling out employees every now and then.

To learn more about the different ways a business can improve their productivity, consider contacting a renowned business consulting service in Boca Raton such as A&B Accounting & business solutions.

Some Bookkeeping Basics that Every Business Owner Should Know

When an entrepreneur starts a business, they are likely not interested in the paperwork. However, it comes with the responsibility of owning a business.

It’s a necessary evil; being organized and taking care of the paperwork is the only solution. Efficient bookkeeping will help maintain a healthy cash flow, allowing you to identify trends and potential financial problems.

If you’re new to bookkeeping, here are some tips to get started:

1. Maintain financial records

While the exact documents will vary business to business, there are three categories of documents that are essential for bookkeeping.

Cash book: All the payment in and out of your bank account.

Sales invoice file: Keep a record of all invoices. Better yet, use software to issue invoice that will also record the details.

Purchase invoice file: Make note on invoices, indicating how and when you paid them. File them accordingly.

2. Get a receipt

Any business can be investigated for tax filing. It’s a good idea to log everything so you’d have nothing to worry about.

Keep a paper document for every transaction. If you’re making the purchase online, print the digital invoice for records. It will be easier to file them together rather than trying to locate individual invoices in years down the line.

3. Keep the accounts clean 

Your business, no matter how small or family-owned, must keep finances separate. Your personal account should not mix with the one for your business.

As the owner of the business, you can’t make personal purchases from the company’s money. Of course, being self-employed you take drawings, but you must still have a separate personal account.

This will help keep the account clean, and business and personal finances separate.

4. Check bank statements

Bank statements useful—you can identify transaction issues, and clarify problems with your bank. Check monthly statements to ensure everything is on track.

This can help combat fraud risk, bank errors, and offer insights as to how your finances are being spent.

Successful businesses spend smartly, have better credit control, and keep check of every transaction.

5. Practice regular bookkeeping

It’s tempting to leave bookkeeping for the weekends. You want to focus on your business; the core services/products and how to expand it further. But leaving bookkeeping for another time won’t do.

For one, you risk forgetting details or logging receipts, etc. If you want to tackle this outside of working hours, do it in the mornings. Make it a habit of waking up an hour earlier and getting down to bookkeeping right away.

Outsourcing bookkeeping can help take relieve your troubles. Moreover, bookkeeping software such as QuickBooks can help. In fact, you can find professional bookkeeping services in Boca Raton, FL to assist your employees in learning the software and maintaining it as well.

For instance, A&B Accounting and Business Solutions offers QuickBooks, payroll and bookkeeping services in Boca Raton to help businesses stay at the top of their finances. 

Importance of Business Consultation in Today’s Competitive Environment

One can’t undermine the importance of business consultants today. They play an integral role in steering companies towards growth. 

All types of organizations, especially small and medium, need access to business consulting to achieve growth. Growth is crucial for any organization to survive in the cutthroat marketplace. 

Why YOU Need Business Consultation Services

It’s a well-known fact that no organization can grow without proper planning and execution. And that’s what consultants help business owners with. Running an enterprise is not just about selling products or services to customers. It’s about managing all operations, from production to marketing, efficiently. 

Business consultants perform comprehensive market analysis so that their clients can get the most out of their businesses. They identify a company’s strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. They also provide clients vital information on different aspects of business, including target audience and competitors, prevailing industry trends, and much more. 

All this information helps business owners develop effective business models, make better decisions and generate profits in the long run. 

As a small business owner, you will face a multitude of challenges. There’s no doubt about that. In order to tackle them successfully, you need the services of a professional business consultant.

Business consultants offer unique, result-oriented, solutions to challenges their clients face. They have extensive knowhow and expertise in different industries and can provide solutions that cater to their clients’ specific needs.

In addition, business consultants bring fresh ideas, insight and perspective to the table. Since they are not a company’s in-house employees, business owners can expect transparent solutions from them.

One of the biggest advantages of hiring a consultant is that they can cut down your business costs. You won’t need to spend money (salary and other perks) and time in employing full-time employees.

If you have a limited budget, you should work with a consultant. But, make sure you select a consultant who understands your business needs, interests and goals. 

With over 15 years of experience, A&B Accounting & Business Solutions is one of Florida’s leading business consulting firms. The licensed, insured, family-owned company offers customized business consulting to various clients. Some of their services include in-depth analysis of business models, accounting records assessment, inventory control analysis, and much more. 

In addition, A&B Accounting & Business Solutions provides accounting and bookkeeping services, condo and HOA accounting, medical billing solutions, payroll services, QuickBooks services, tax services, part time controller solutions and much more.

Why Accounting Is Both a Science and an Art

While accountants do not win Nobel prizes or become as famous as scientists and artists, their job is of no less importance. Whether you are a student of accounting or are a CEO of a large accounting firm, the question of whether accounting is a science, an art or both must have popped up. While carrying out any of your accounting operations, such as managing business entities or dealing with economic entity concept, you might have wondered if your work tilts more towards the scientific rigor or towards artistic brilliance.

Comparing Science and Art

Have you ever wondered what counts as a science and what counts as an art? Have you ever thought if the work that Einstein and Mozart did have any similarities? Don’t worry – we are not going to delve into the philosophical debate about what’s science and what’s art. We’ll keep it simple.

Let’s take an example of physics and painting. Physics involves completely abstract concepts, such as force and momentum, and also deals with skills such as calculus. There is always a systematic procedure in physics, that is, gravity will make sure that the ball ‘always’ comes down when thrown in the air.

Painting, on the other hand, requires concrete perception. It’s subjective and just a little bit of variation in brush strokes will produce a different result each time. What’s good in painting will largely be determined by value judgments.

Accounting as a Science

Science is a discipline that has certain rules and regulations. A scientist observes phenomenon, forms hypothesis, collects data, tests them and finally forms theories. Well, accounting is no different. It follows a systematic and organized path – debits must always be equal to credits. Its concepts, such as balance depreciation, are also computed in a very scientific manner.

Moreover, it also involves observation of data and its experimentation. Just like a scientist, an accountant also analyzes, classifies and presents information.

Accounting as an Art

Simply put, art is the application of knowledge that has been established by certain theories and rules. Since accounting deals with the implementation of accepted methods and procedures, it can be classified as an art too.

Moreover, accountants, like artists, also make value judgments. From the time period it would require to depreciate an asset to whether to record contingency liabilities or not, there are a lot of decisions that accountants make based on circumstances. No one solution is right or wrong.

With a thorough understanding of each and every accounting concept, we at A&B Accounting and Business Solutions provide professional accounting services in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Palm Beach County and other states in the United States. Our solutions include bookkeeping, accounting, payroll services, and medical billing solutions among others.