Many of you already know how easy and profitable it is to offer Intuit’s Assisted Payroll service to clients, especially if you are part of the ProAdvisor program or are an Intuit Solution Provider.
Once you get a client set up on Assisted, there are even more ways you can help your clients with payroll compliance, while adding more income to your bottom line. Here are seven ideas to increase your payroll revenue and differentiate your offerings from other accountants and bookkeepers:
Posters
Did you know that Intuit is a great source of payroll posters? I didn’t until a few weeks ago, when I bumped into Colleen King, an Intuit Service and Support Specialist. Here’s the link to their compliance service: http://intuitmarket.intuit.com/fsg/laborlawsubscription.aspx
Onboarding new employees
W-4s, I-9s, and an employee’s emergency contact information are the minimum that an employer should collect from a new hire. Help smooth the process by developing a forms packet with procedures for your clients. Better yet, show them the new cloud-based document portals like SmartVault, and set up their online human resource records, tied to QuickBooks.
Time tracking
Helping your client with their time tracking needs can range from simply designing some time-tracking forms and instructing clients about document retention to gathering requirements and selecting and installing time tracking add-on software. Let your clients know you’re available to help them integrate their time reporting needs into QuickBooks.
Worker’s compensation audits
Make sure your client knows to acquire worker’s compensation insurance, and let them know you’re available to do the annual audit.
Job costing help
Job costing is not just for contractors. If your client wonders where all that labor is going, offer to set up job costing for them. Especially important for small businesses where one person wears many hats, we encourage clients to job-cost by department – marketing, accounting, sales, production, shipping, etc – so they can see where their labor dollars are going. Help your clients by getting QuickBooks set up right and training clients how to classify their time.
Contractors and W-9s
Although not literally a payroll topic, most employers have employees and contractors lumped together in their minds and can forget that there is a whole separate set of forms and compliance for contractors.
Offer to do a W-9 audit and to get QuickBooks set up properly so that it’s easy to segregate these 1099 vendors. Also, most of us cannot provide legal advice, but we can point clients to the IRS guidance: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99921,00.html
1099-K reconciliation
Finally, the government has gifted us with extra money this year by creating the 1099-K. (There may be fewer 1099s to generate, but the reconciliation and the error-prone process is labor-intensive.) Make sure clients know to track the payment methods of the 1099 vendors so it’s easier sailing next January.
Add these new services to your payroll offerings, and you’ll not only make your clients happy, you’ll boost your income at the same time. Let us know what you’re doing to broaden your payroll offerings.