Payroll Tax filing Reminder and Tips - What are Quarterly Payroll Taxes?

[00:00:00] Williams, welcome to our podcast, it's about payroll. We're your host, Brian Escobar and

[00:00:17] Walter William Duncan, the third whether you're new to the payroll game or season veteran,

[00:00:22] we have something for you. Welcome back folks, this is episode 107 as we keep gliding along

[00:00:31] on this year, Q1 is done officially today before we get into everything as always. What

[00:00:39] is going on sir? How you doing, Walt? I'm good. Happy Easter to you sir. Happy Easter

[00:00:45] to you. If you celebrate. Happy all that, that also observe. Man, I'm good. I'm good.

[00:00:52] I'm gearing up. Hold out there. Got your hoodie. A little bit man. It's been cold. It was cold

[00:00:59] in the house when I woke up because I didn't have the heat on but it's like 52 degrees.

[00:01:03] It's like 52 right now outside so it's not too bad. Oh that's not that bad. That's

[00:01:06] nice. Yeah, it should be nice. The high is going to be 52 today so sorry. It's not right

[00:01:13] now. Oh, now it's going to be better. Yeah. So it's good man. I've been watching the

[00:01:20] tournament. How was it? It's going good man. Some teams that you were expecting to be

[00:01:27] there or there and then some teams got knocked out like first round right? Duke is still

[00:01:33] there. Who was the UNC or wasn't it a big team that got knocked out early? It was like Kentucky.

[00:01:41] Kentucky. I know it's one of those ones that always go final four or elite eight. They got

[00:01:48] beat about like a 12 seed or something like that. That's the one. Yeah, so that's good

[00:01:56] man. That's about to go into their playoff season here pretty soon. Oh that's right.

[00:02:02] Brunson man. He had 61 points. It's still lost but bro 13. It's a team sport right? Every

[00:02:09] time these sports come up and people are like oh they try to focus on one person and it's

[00:02:14] a team sport. If the other guys scored some points too then you know I think Kobe had

[00:02:21] nights where he was like breaking records and still lost. You know what I mean? Like

[00:02:27] the other guys have to score. It was talking about New York sports they got and I think we

[00:02:33] talked about Saquon Barclay going to Philly. He was on New Heights with our Kelsey brothers.

[00:02:39] Yeah and it was great. It was just like a great when he said it best he's look the

[00:02:43] fans are mad that means I did a good job there. I had impact that means I did my job.

[00:02:49] They should be mad. You know what I mean? If they didn't even blink then guess what

[00:02:53] I was not in do nothing. That's a nice spin on it but yeah fans are mad because of the loyalty.

[00:03:00] Why okay you could have left but why'd you go to Philly? They're in our division. Look he's

[00:03:07] well look not everybody's writing a check not everybody's going after him so he's got to take

[00:03:12] the best offer he can. I ain't mad at him. I ain't mad at him. Best situation right because

[00:03:18] situation for his family. He's a family man too. Yeah and so let's think about it Philly needed a

[00:03:23] running back could use a running back like him they have some decent ones but Saquon is skill wise

[00:03:28] and on paper he's an upgrade to what they had. Yep and so like you put him with Jalen Hurts so

[00:03:34] that might take some of the pressure off of Jalen Hurts having to run so much and he

[00:03:38] could just yeah now it's a double threat triple threat if they get another back then

[00:03:43] they don't know who's gonna run you know what I mean. Yeah and I guess that part stings it's in

[00:03:48] the division and whatnot but you know look I'm a fan of Saquon and I think that maybe there's

[00:03:54] a comfort zone in it you know what I mean? I know my division already he's gonna know how to go

[00:03:59] at the Giants now. At least he didn't go to Dallas though right. I might have to disown him

[00:04:07] at that boy but you know who he did say that he was that was a contender Houston.

[00:04:13] But I like Houston. I really like Houston. He too. Young guns. Yes young guns bro. I love it.

[00:04:20] I love and Straub plays with some maturity. He reminds me of Casey. Who's like okay I remember

[00:04:27] I'm blanking on my home yeah he's blank. He reminds me of my homes. Remember how Ben

[00:04:31] Rothesberger came into the league and like he was like really good just a rookie year and like I'm just

[00:04:38] that's how I felt about Straub man like he came in killing it from his first year in

[00:04:44] man okay all right and if he would have if he didn't miss those couple of games

[00:04:50] he probably would have been the number one passer in the league last year. And the

[00:04:54] playoffs they talked about that a lot and I didn't I didn't watch him I saw him in the playoffs

[00:04:59] and I was like oh man what I gotta watch this kid this guy isn't good. Yeah so anywho we going off on

[00:05:05] Tangents about sports. Yeah sorry folks we are football fans and sport fans hope there's enough

[00:05:13] that hope we talk about it enough different crap for all the fans out there. Yeah let us know we

[00:05:19] we're glad to comment on anything. Some of you are in the sports party but skip passes

[00:05:23] part whatever. Yeah exactly you can skip passes exactly. Excuse me bro man I'm sorry man. You okay?

[00:05:32] Nah I'm feeling a little sick which reminds me crap man I need to put in my my sick time.

[00:05:39] Oh what system do you use? Oh time track go the simply better employee time clock software

[00:05:47] that is going to make your life easier. I don't know if you know man but it already has a unique

[00:05:53] graphical employee time card and it's awesome because it helps you quickly identify and fix the

[00:05:59] mistakes. That's right now did you say that they just announced the addition of automatic

[00:06:04] PTO accrual earnings so you can say goodbye to those manual calculations. Time track goes

[00:06:09] new automatic PTO accrual feature takes the hassle out of tracking those earned in accrued times

[00:06:16] assuring accuracy and consistency for both employees and HR teams. Oh that's golden

[00:06:23] that's awesome you know what that's right I remember that I read that you can choose

[00:06:28] from various rules like yearly monthly pay period hourly and hourly percentage to seamlessly

[00:06:38] align with your company's policies it includes new state sick leave awesome because I'm not

[00:06:44] feeling good that's gonna help and you can do vacation hours that automatically increase

[00:06:50] with length of service. Man like how could someone find out what a simply better solution could

[00:06:56] do for their business? Oh to learn more they're always doing a 14-day free trial someone should

[00:07:04] go to their website at www.timetrackgo.com that's t-i-m-e-t-r-a-k-go.com or if they want to call

[00:07:20] the number is 888-321-9922 let's go let's go and I love it on the podcast on my like on Spotify

[00:07:31] you could just 15 seconds yeah yeah anywho so let's get into these pay news wait a second now

[00:07:37] this is episode 107 we are gonna talk I did say quarter and shoot I missed my whole thing back at

[00:07:43] the intro we are gonna talk about quarter end reminders best practices taxes are due folks

[00:07:48] right payroll taxes are due so we're gonna get into that commentary but before that like always

[00:07:53] we're gonna talk about some pay news and wall is gonna start us off. Yep I have a few things

[00:08:00] to talk about it's really talking about the global economy so the article is from uro monitor.com

[00:08:09] and it's a global economic outlook for after Q1 2020 so number one the global economic growth

[00:08:17] projection the global economy is expected to experience slowing growth for the second consecutive

[00:08:24] year in 2024 due to high interest rates we're all feeling here even some of you as listeners are

[00:08:30] feeling on those high interest rates and a lot of major economies and the economy in China is

[00:08:37] weakening so but despite a global slowdown there's an expectation of a gradual normalization of

[00:08:45] economic growth um and conditions with inflation easing even though we might not be

[00:08:51] filling it inflation is supposedly easing and monetary policy loosening supporting

[00:08:59] re-accelerating global growth momentum particularly in the second half of 2024 and into 2025 so

[00:09:07] this is saying that as we get to the middle of this year that it should we start we should

[00:09:12] start to see even more relief global for the global economy so hopefully that rings true.

[00:09:19] The GDP growth trends in events economy so events economies are forecasted to face a slowdown in real

[00:09:28] GDP growth primarily due to high interest rates with the U.S. economy showing resilience and an

[00:09:35] upward revision in growth projections for 2024 the eurozone economy is expected to continue

[00:09:41] showing weakness in 2024 with only a minimal recovery projected it's saying that the U.S.

[00:09:48] economy is being resilient and holding truth even though we are filling it and stuff like that

[00:09:53] it's saying that American economy is holding tight when the rest of the world is filling it

[00:09:58] so number three growth dynamics in Asia Pacific emerging and developing economies in

[00:10:04] Asia Pacific countries are expected to drive global growth and with stable growth trends

[00:10:10] projected particularly in economies like India Indonesia the Philippines and Vietnam

[00:10:16] and even despite the slowdown in China the region remains the fastest growing

[00:10:22] fueled by high levels of consumption and investment so this is interesting right because

[00:10:27] you see more companies going over to countries like India Indonesia finding workers and finding

[00:10:34] replacements and stuff like that to help their businesses grow and so that's helping those

[00:10:38] economies grow because they're getting more jobs and getting more money and stuff like that so

[00:10:44] that's why I said that those countries are the fastest growing economies right now

[00:10:50] inflation trends number four global inflation is forecasted to continue declining as I spoke

[00:10:56] about earlier albeit at a slower pace a lagging effect of high interest so despite the overall

[00:11:03] decline developing economies may experience persisting inflation due to vulnerability to

[00:11:09] price shocks and less effective monetary policy number five the impact of global fragmentation

[00:11:15] scenario the global economy faces increased uncertainty and risk due to geo political tensions

[00:11:23] so those wars and stuff that are going on and that stuff is like really impacting

[00:11:28] the global economy and stuff like that and it's leading to growing fragmentation so when you

[00:11:34] have countries like Russia and us beefing and stuff and putting you know setting tariffs and

[00:11:39] setting the policies and punishments against each other and stuff like that then that can impact

[00:11:45] the global economy growth so that's what that means and then the last thing is global

[00:11:50] economic forecasts so the euro monitor international provides detailed insights into various

[00:11:57] macroeconomic scenarios in their q124 report highlighting the importance of scenario planning

[00:12:04] and navigating the current economic landscape honestly it sounds if you're into one of these

[00:12:11] things if you're into economics and this is your thing read read go read more there's more details

[00:12:17] in here I just took the six main things that's there but there's a lot more information in

[00:12:21] this article so check it out it'll be in the show notes at the end of the show when the show's

[00:12:26] posted that's it for me what do you got Brian thank you sir I always kept this new products

[00:12:31] catch my eye new businesses things catch my eye my research so I found this company called

[00:12:38] Remo first is that what was it? Today announced yeah so anyway and as quoted by their company

[00:12:46] their team of HR professionals and legal experts stay current with local updates in every

[00:12:51] country to expedite the visa process and help HR folks stay compliant this frees up companies time

[00:12:58] to concentrate on their core business objectives so what they're doing is if employee needs a visa

[00:13:04] or work permit to legally work in the country they're living in or relocating to they can handle the

[00:13:10] entire process and extension of as the employer of record of service says their CEO then his

[00:13:19] I'm not going to try to pronounce the name and yeah I'm gonna just mess it up let's see what

[00:13:24] else so I thought that was again just basically they're offering HR the whole I don't know if you've

[00:13:29] ever been a part of that conversation as a payroll person when you're trying to help expats of other

[00:13:35] countries get their visa and then go to no okay when I was at when I was at Columbia Teachers College

[00:13:42] in Columbia New York that was one of the things I had to do as a payroll manager I had to help

[00:13:46] all the student workers with visas stay compliant because there's compliance that they

[00:13:52] have to they can make over a certain amount of money they can work over a certain amount of hours

[00:13:58] all these things so I was very involved and that was a new experience because I was like what

[00:14:01] am I gonna help these people for these folks and then the Raghatari just excuse me because

[00:14:07] they were from all over the world so it was no there was no discrimination

[00:14:10] any who yeah so any who it's tough right the process is tough you have to get lawyers

[00:14:16] involved you have to HR stays involved payroll it's like a little try triangular task force to

[00:14:22] help these folks and it costs a lot of money to sponsor and to maintain sponsor stuff it's worth

[00:14:29] throwing out there that's why I caught my eye I was like oh cool so the company is Remo first

[00:14:34] announced a new HR service to assist with issuing visas and work form work permits

[00:14:40] in more than 85 countries so shout out yeah shout out to Remo first and just to close it out let's

[00:14:46] see Remo first EOR employer of record solution enables businesses to affordably and flexibly

[00:14:53] hire employees and contractors and more than 100 not 180 countries where they don't have an entity

[00:15:00] it takes full employment responsibility for all aspects of international hiring including

[00:15:05] compliance payroll taxes and benefits so yeah shout out to Remo first nice man yes sir

[00:15:13] let's see what else we got in that was it for me and then Waltz gonna start us off as we talk about

[00:15:20] again best practices tips whatever comes to mind as we talk through quarter-end filings for payroll

[00:15:27] taxes let's start us off sir all right I'm gonna start off and I'll go through the first eight

[00:15:32] and then Brian will finish this out for us so number one you want to know though your wage

[00:15:39] and tax reporting deadlines this will help ensure all employee wages and tax information

[00:15:46] for the first quarter is accurately recorded and reported to the appropriate authorities

[00:15:52] by the respective deadlines your payroll processor and you have a payroll provider who

[00:15:58] actually is a third-party administrator for your taxes just don't sit back and think oh they

[00:16:04] should be handling that if you have a system depending on what system you have if you're able

[00:16:09] to and you have access to go in and verify that those filings have been done like ADP for instance

[00:16:15] has statements of deposit so you can see what and so you'd be able to say okay hey boomed everything

[00:16:20] is filed applicable with the state that this company or location is in so those are things

[00:16:26] you can look at in order to go do those things I know I'll talk about that a little bit later but

[00:16:31] you just want to be mindful of that stuff right trust but verify yeah trust but verify and then

[00:16:36] quarterly tax filings so you want to submit your quarterly tax filing such as the 941 which is

[00:16:41] your employer's quarterly federal tax return to the IRS reporting those income taxes social

[00:16:48] social security taxes and Medicare taxes um that are withheld that are withheld from

[00:16:53] the employee's paycheck along with the employer's portion of these taxes so quarterly tax filings

[00:17:00] are important those state and local tax filings number three you want to review and file any

[00:17:06] state and local quarterly tax returns ensuring compliance with specific regulations

[00:17:11] and deadlines applicable to your jurisdiction so again I mentioned the tpas right just don't

[00:17:18] trust that it's done because you can sit back and think that they're handling for you the out of

[00:17:24] compliance and then next thing you know you have a lien or your account is about to be closed or

[00:17:31] whatever because they you're a third-party administrator or your payroll provider may not

[00:17:36] have filed those timely for you are you you're getting those interest and fees because you thought

[00:17:41] hey they were supposed to file it at this time but hey they were delayed for whatever reason

[00:17:45] you want to stay on top of those things which leads to number four

[00:17:48] reconciliations so you want to payroll records against the financial statements to ensure

[00:17:54] accuracy and identify any discrepancies that need correction before the end of the quarter

[00:18:01] so you want to do is check some balances so you as payroll team may have a partner or you

[00:18:07] may have to work with your finance or accounting team to work on those are reconciliations

[00:18:12] to make sure that everything balances you may no matter what your role is you may that may be

[00:18:18] you just running a report and providing it to somebody or you actually going in and actually

[00:18:24] doing the detailed research and looking for the discrepancies that your accounting or finance

[00:18:29] team may bring up to you number five benefit plan contributions and you want to ensure

[00:18:38] accurate recording and timely payments of employee benefit contributions such as retirement plans

[00:18:44] or insurance health insurance premiums number six employee updates so you want to definitely

[00:18:52] do your part to to help make sure that updated employee records that have any changes that

[00:19:00] occurred during the quarter such as new hires termination salary adjustments or changes in

[00:19:05] tax for holding statuses or applied to the appropriate quarter right you know if something is missed so

[00:19:13] take this for instance say an employee submitted an employee change through self-service or if your

[00:19:19] company is one of those companies that you actually still take the paper w4 and you enter

[00:19:25] the change for the employee and say it's missed that that may impact the employee right and you

[00:19:32] may have to and the employee depending on what the employee wants the employee might

[00:19:37] want you to do an adjustment for q1 is not necessarily likely in some cases some most

[00:19:44] some companies will be like hey we sorry we missed it forgive us it's gonna go in for the next

[00:19:49] quarter or the change this time we sorry we missed it but the employee may push back and

[00:19:54] want an adjustment on their taxes because no it's not my fault it's your fault

[00:19:59] you know something to consider with these employee updates number seven you today reports

[00:20:05] do you want to generate you today reports this again will help you with our

[00:20:08] reconciliation for both those external and internal um audits or purposes providing

[00:20:13] comprehensive summaries of employee earnings taxes withheld and your employer contributions

[00:20:19] right and then number eight before i pass the baton is a compliance review review your payroll

[00:20:28] processes and procedures and to ensure compliance with relevant laws regulations and company policies

[00:20:35] addressing any areas of concern or potential risk so this is saying that we as payroll

[00:20:43] pros we need to make sure that we're doing our due diligence in our part to make sure that

[00:20:48] everything seems on the up and up for these things and hey if this if we know that the

[00:20:53] suey rate in this state is this amount but it wasn't updated in our payroll system which i've

[00:21:00] experienced before in my career where a notice was sent out but it was never sent to the payroll

[00:21:07] provider so they were operating off of an old rate yep and then the company ended up owing

[00:21:13] all this back taxes and had to pay all these penalties and fees and this is something that

[00:21:17] could have been caught if whoever was in payroll or whoever was in charge of that

[00:21:22] would have compliance review i'm gonna pass it to brane well before you pass it you just threw in

[00:21:28] a little nugget there from real life but anything else you could think of quarterly quarterly wise

[00:21:34] near premium that was a good review because it's like the reconciliations the day-to-day

[00:21:38] reporting the compliance review of it what the compliance review makes me think of also be

[00:21:45] as a payroll pro beware not wary but like i'm gonna say be mindful thank you be mindful of

[00:21:54] your hr partners reaching out for help as well because there are there could possibly be some

[00:21:59] hr compliance reports that are due that have quarter and due dates and if there's payroll

[00:22:04] numbers involved they're gonna reach out to payroll and for help so that's your time to stretch

[00:22:08] that's your opportunity to stretch out help your partners in the hr department

[00:22:12] so my first item is number nine budget reviews collaborate with see what the perfect segue

[00:22:19] collaborate with finance and h that three headed monster the holy trinity of payroll payroll

[00:22:24] finance hr collaborate with finance and hr departments to review payroll budgets forecast

[00:22:31] identifying any variance or discrepancies that require attention what that's what that is referring

[00:22:36] to is did they did we are we over or under the expected amount of payroll being spent hours worked

[00:22:43] over time pay regular bonuses all these things are important to hr and finance they want to

[00:22:50] track that if you have a referral program how is that doing that's something that hr is going

[00:22:55] to want to be tracking to see if it's actually working right if there is your referral plan

[00:23:00] working you just paying out all this money in referrals but then all the people leave anyway

[00:23:05] call out a bit yeah it's a big this is what i'm saying so that's what they're talking about when

[00:23:10] they refer to budget reviews and then finance finance they just want to know where the dollars

[00:23:15] and are being spent are we high or they're over budget over forecast under forecast things like

[00:23:21] that number 10 employee communications communicate with employees regarding any changes or updates

[00:23:28] related to payroll taxes benefits relevant matters ensuring transparency and clarity

[00:23:33] we talk this is so key because communications just doesn't get this doesn't always get the

[00:23:40] attention it needs and even when it does it has to happen on so many different fronts right there's

[00:23:45] no one right way to communicate with your employees what was that stat you found with the employee

[00:23:51] handbook it was like 65 percent of employees actively don't worry the employee handbook they

[00:23:56] actively avoid the handbook come on this is part of it your handbook is only

[00:24:02] one tiny piece of communication and as we do things quarterly anyway this is something if you're

[00:24:08] having problems with communications you want to be reviewing that monthly quarterly however

[00:24:13] often you need to what's up yeah it says 60 to 66 percent of employees oh my god

[00:24:18] don't read that you gotta change that's gonna be my goal now how to figure out and I have some ideas

[00:24:26] on it and I have some eyes we really need to change the way we communicate the handbook to folks we

[00:24:31] have to maybe gamify it everything is gamification right now like that's right and shout out to

[00:24:38] Brooke Blomker she had a visual of the handbook and the way she laid it out for review

[00:24:45] was amazing it was like dang this is how she made it digestible for the our task force that was

[00:24:50] like reviewing the handbook and updating it but yes I was like dang man this is the way it should be

[00:24:56] yes delivered to employees for employees to digest because the book can look it's gonna be 3020 30

[00:25:05] pages there's no way around it if not more right there's just no way around it and that's what's

[00:25:09] that's what's hard for folks because now we everybody got a day 80 d 80 adult adhd whatever

[00:25:15] like everybody has the phone and it's scrolling we're what is it they don't catch our attention in the

[00:25:20] first millisecond we wish it was like the first eight ten seconds or something like that they say

[00:25:26] okay that's a lot I think even the average attention span for everybody I think they

[00:25:33] said it's eight seconds now lower anyhoo that's employee communications big topic and something

[00:25:39] that's gonna we're gonna constantly talk about because payroll I think wall had leads a great

[00:25:45] example of how to do it right because he sends out surveys for his process and his service delivery

[00:25:51] system you know what I mean for his your domain and he's getting feedback from his customers

[00:25:57] to get better like that is he lives be better right you hear him say it all we got to be

[00:26:03] yes he lives that so that's a great way to serve the feedback loop right so number 11 and it goes

[00:26:09] right hand in hand with this training and development it's so intertwined the trend I'm

[00:26:15] locking my hands folks if for those are just listening it's such an intertwined task and

[00:26:21] function that communications training and development we can't we have to be better at this we can't

[00:26:28] just put out job aids and put out a website or like an intro intranet and post links and say hey

[00:26:35] you got to go there that's where it is go learn that's just one part of it right

[00:26:43] but that can't be the end all of training and development right we I think folks leaders try to

[00:26:51] skate off on well we put out a training oh when's the last time you trained them

[00:26:55] a year ago yes are you kidding me yes because something may have changed within that year

[00:27:01] absolutely did yeah you guarantee it and this will help your team right this will help your team

[00:27:10] be successful because yes you don't want to be one of those managers are people that hoard

[00:27:17] like information hoard processes or whatever it is no you don't want to be one of those things

[00:27:22] and then somebody say you're out of pocket or you're on vacation or pto when it comes to you

[00:27:27] with somebody on your team and your team's unable to answer it because you're operating in a silo

[00:27:32] with certain processes that you haven't shown or trained them on that's right this is going to help

[00:27:37] them and go back to that communication this will help your employees know how to communicate

[00:27:43] yes clearly and concisely right exactly and and again it's like it's an ecosystem of things

[00:27:50] that you want to build to work off of each other to feed to be contingent and dependent

[00:27:56] and interdependent on things because what it makes me think of also is recognition programs

[00:28:02] right yes because again you can now and now they have lms system the learning management

[00:28:07] systems you can't just say oh it's on the learning management you have to assign these

[00:28:13] things accountability you have to assign it you have to get employee feedback you have to do

[00:28:18] the surveys you have to continue the communication and then rinse and repeat and keep doing it and hold

[00:28:24] people accountable but also recognize the folks that are winning well and hold the people accountable

[00:28:29] that aren't doing it well and find out why don't just punish them figure out why maybe your employees

[00:28:34] having a tough time at home you know what I mean you got to meet them where they are you have to

[00:28:39] support that they have a life outside of this job payroll is life so you got to think about the

[00:28:46] life that you're supporting helping them support and how that's in impacting their job because I don't

[00:28:51] care what people say it's a cop out for leaders to say oh leave leave your problems at the door

[00:28:57] no they cannot we are human we are not leaving our problems at the door we're bringing them

[00:29:01] right to the desk where they're front of mind as we're trying to work what's another

[00:29:08] the acronym IAP is another thing for it's about people that's right that's right and that's

[00:29:15] something that we learned along the way folks it was it's about payroll we're so adamant it's

[00:29:18] about payroll and it is but what we learn is oh my gosh this is about people right payroll is about

[00:29:25] people we service we support people HR human resources people operations it's evolving as such a

[00:29:31] evolution of things and training and development is just it has to stay evolving you can't this

[00:29:37] the gone other times whereas look at the owner's manual no that's not how it works with refer

[00:29:42] to the employee handbook no the employee handbook doesn't cover SOP doesn't cover practice that might

[00:29:47] not be policy but it's the practice right so these things are all important right is like

[00:29:55] we have to get better at that part if we want the business to be better right one of those

[00:30:02] key things is take care of your people and they will take care of your business I remember

[00:30:08] there was I worked at a place and the manager that was there told the people

[00:30:16] you need to read your job description oh my god okay yeah I read it now what yeah it didn't say

[00:30:24] anything about all these it said extra duty so any extra duties you got to train yourself on

[00:30:28] like how they're supposed to no oh hell the oh my gosh see we saw oh we yes and we show our

[00:30:36] age in that because we came up in a time for some really bad practices where shoot I came up

[00:30:43] in a time where people were still smoking in the offices and we doing you can't do that anymore

[00:30:47] you know what I mean like they're just toxic environments that that mad men phase was just

[00:30:51] ending when I was coming up in corporate any who number 12 is audits and internal controls

[00:30:57] conduct periodic audits of payroll processes and internal controls to detect and prevent

[00:31:03] errors fraud non-compliant issues and implement corrective actions as needed look that

[00:31:11] that could that could be our war cry right this is kind of this is top three things to do

[00:31:19] forever if you need to come out right if you often we get pulled into the weeds and we're

[00:31:25] going down rabbit holes of things and we got to solve and blah blah blah and then you I don't

[00:31:31] know if you ever get to the point where you're like damn well gosh am I doing all the other

[00:31:35] like said job description am I doing all the other stuff I'm supposed to be doing and

[00:31:40] right audits and this item is a way to really pull out and be like okay conduct periodic

[00:31:46] audits of processes internal controls detect prevent and prevent errors fraud non-compliant issues

[00:31:53] implementing corrective actions as needed that is a great sentence to just read out to yourself

[00:31:59] when you're lost yes and I also think it helps to identify what your responsibility is as the

[00:32:08] payroll pro or the HR pro whatever you're in because you may say hey I'm gonna take the initiative

[00:32:14] and do this audit when somebody else is actually already doing an audit so that's what the

[00:32:18] importance of communication internally yeah oh yes okay hey yes is anybody doing this audit

[00:32:25] and it's good to ask your counterparts in HR payroll say hey yeah is anybody doing this I'm

[00:32:30] thinking about doing this and yeah that will help everybody communicate more so that's why it's

[00:32:35] important to have those cross departmental meetings and stuff like that and say hey let's connect even

[00:32:41] if it's on a monthly basis hey this is what I'm doing this is what I audit let's let's work make

[00:32:46] sure we're working together to cover all our basis because if payroll is just does payroll

[00:32:51] could you have some departments and some teams that are structured hey payroll just processes payroll

[00:32:55] they don't do anything with employee changes HR does all that stuff let's figure out who audits what then

[00:33:01] yes yes it's a great yeah great call out number 13 technology updates stay informed about

[00:33:10] advancements in payroll software and technology out evaluating potential upgrades and enhancements

[00:33:16] to improve efficiency accuracy and compliance that could not be more important than ever today

[00:33:25] I think I guess we can say that many years from now but but still I feel like we are at a crossword

[00:33:32] crossword puzzle no crossroads of technology and the AI and all this stuff that's just happening

[00:33:39] all at in the automation of things the consolidation of companies nothing but companies

[00:33:44] buying other companies out there the consolidation of the all these tech giants and gobbling up little

[00:33:50] ones you have to stay on top of this you have to stay as much as you can and now there's so many

[00:33:57] newsletters you don't have to do much like you sign up for one or two newsletters that are dedicated

[00:34:02] to reporting on technology even more so payroll and HR technology and that's what you got to

[00:34:07] do is just read through those gone linked in right what's up yeah so like you want to make sure that

[00:34:15] you check for those upgrades because sometimes depending on your system some payroll systems

[00:34:20] upgrade automatically and they say hey we're going to change it we're going to be doing some

[00:34:23] maintenance over the weekend it's going to be down but then there may be some systems out

[00:34:28] that are out there that you have to manually go in and check for an update yep yep let me update

[00:34:34] this and call out make sure that you're doing that if you have one of the systems that require you to

[00:34:39] do that because there might be some out there the big boys they probably do the updates automatically

[00:34:45] without doing anything but if you're in a situation where you have to go check for an update

[00:34:50] you might want to do that yep yeah great call out great call out we're giving you free game

[00:34:56] here folks like always this is good stuff taking notes look at the show notes I need to

[00:35:02] there's a blog coming soon folks I don't know if I want to spoil it everybody it's coming soon

[00:35:06] you know what that holds us accountable because we need to do it we're going to start putting our

[00:35:10] transcript out there on blog and so people can go and look at the and pull what they need from it

[00:35:15] and number 14 documentation and record keeping maintain thorough documentation and records of

[00:35:23] all payroll related activities transactions communications ensuring compliance with retention

[00:35:28] requirements and facilitating audits or inquiries and it goes hand in hand you may say oh but you're

[00:35:34] already said audit and controls yeah but you know what audit and controls is useless if you're not

[00:35:40] keeping that output if you delete the the audit after you're done okay we did we had to do

[00:35:50] the audit I did submit the results oh I deleted it I didn't save it I just yeah it was good what no

[00:35:58] exactly you have to keep it forever forever may be an exaggeration but you need to keep it that

[00:36:04] you talk on ordered output that might be a small megabyte of data you're going to keep it

[00:36:09] put in the archive save it forever it was out yes when you think about these things you

[00:36:14] want to be like jota see and be like forever my lady there you go no oh man that's it oh that's

[00:36:21] it that's what they're going wrong with him forever my lady wall says yes oh gosh you can throw me off

[00:36:27] the documentation record oh this is the one I wanted because it's a consistent with retention

[00:36:32] requirements so if you ask oh but brian that there's different retention requirements for everything

[00:36:37] there are strict and you apply it to everything so that you don't have to juggle different ones

[00:36:44] because different states have it the federal hat puts out a different retention requirements for

[00:36:49] different documents just find the most strict ones and you apply it across the board and today

[00:36:55] in today's world where everything should be digital should be if you're not digital you need to

[00:37:00] digitize make that a project and so that your record keeping is online somewhere it's digitized

[00:37:08] on the cloud what's that on a cloud zone yeah on the cloud yes well hold on good thing you

[00:37:14] pointed you said that on the cloud but you must have redundancy so make sure that your it department

[00:37:20] has some redundancy so that you're saving it here but are they backing up that file somewhere else

[00:37:26] right if not you can create the redundancy by saving it on your machine but also the cloud

[00:37:32] right so that your it's well if the i if your i.c. department has any weight in gold like there

[00:37:38] they have redundancy they have a way to back up your machine go ahead what you want to

[00:37:44] no because what you said is so vital for this for the document retention and stuff like that

[00:37:50] because I remember a scenario where somebody I worked for it was the same manager matter of fact

[00:37:57] that was hoarding the process of course didn't have a team shared drive oh my goodness

[00:38:03] even it locally on his laptop oh and he got the blue screen of death on his computer and so they

[00:38:11] had to reset his hard drive so everything that he had done every audit everything that he

[00:38:17] would had on his computer had to be wiped clean they couldn't save it for whatever reason

[00:38:22] so they had to wipe his hard drive and he lost all that data all that data oh that's hard yep

[00:38:31] that's hard and it also makes me think of you need a good file folder situation a good system

[00:38:39] don't let it get too crazy because then you're gonna forget where you where things are unless

[00:38:44] you're documenting and mapping that out like you want things to be intuitive right like quarterly

[00:38:49] 941s break it down pretty simple you don't over complicate don't get too cute about things make it

[00:38:57] intuitive yeah last one or well almost the last one continuous improvement which yep continuously

[00:39:05] evaluate improve all the processes policies systems streamline operations reduce cost enhance

[00:39:13] overall effectiveness that's a good one I like what I want folks to the zero in on here is reduced

[00:39:19] costs not that the other things aren't important but you can really shine as a deliverer as a function

[00:39:28] as a domain or payroll situation when you say hey I could save us some money

[00:39:34] you know what you could save a what you're gonna you're gonna really stand out as a department

[00:39:40] if you can go to your boss hey we can save the company some money right and again it goes back

[00:39:46] we talked about employee engagement on the other show and how that needs to be a two-way street

[00:39:51] right go check go peep that episode that was good so yeah continuous improvement everything that we

[00:39:56] just talked about is rinse and repeat you have to look at it and value eight see what's are things

[00:40:02] working are things not working quarterly is a great time to make those have that meeting of

[00:40:06] the minds and say hey team what's working what's not working yep right let's get better think about

[00:40:12] it my gosh her name escapes me right now sarah sarah chastin yeah I knew you would know because

[00:40:21] that was a big that was a big one yeah I know think about the level that she processes payroll

[00:40:28] it was 20 30 40 000 employees or some craziness because you yeah and like that level you have to

[00:40:37] constantly be improving things because the slippage the spillage of things can be so easy at that level

[00:40:45] the waste of money could be so easy at any level so you but how at that level is whoa

[00:40:51] you really got eyes on you as a deliverable that sums up to kind of the best practices

[00:40:56] my last two points are really just some reminders but stay organized stay proactive payroll professionals

[00:41:02] can effectively manage and the quarter task and ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements

[00:41:07] while providing an accurate and timely support to employees and stakeholders stay proactive

[00:41:14] stay organized is key and the other things were just the due date right hello today's

[00:41:21] 3 31 q1 is done but the the due date is not until April 30th me and wall argued about this earlier

[00:41:29] because we were like oh we're putting out this show too late well I did I was like this too late

[00:41:34] well waited patiently waited for me to get to the point that it was like

[00:41:38] due date until April Brian April 30th I'm like oh well then we got time guys oh so any who

[00:41:46] April 30th but I'm sorry that's the due date federally for 941s which is the biggest kind of

[00:41:53] what's up but just because that's a due date I it's my suggestion this is just my personal

[00:42:00] belief that's probably wait don't wait till hell no week of due date yeah we have the 29

[00:42:07] time we have to know because that's not saying to submit it by that date submit it and post it

[00:42:15] yes yes yes yes I'm gonna submit it on the 30th 30th oh okay it's gonna take time for that

[00:42:25] state agency to process yes yes don't do it on a 31st because April don't have 31 days so he'll be

[00:42:32] madly but no what point Walt's point is so accurate don't wait don't just because you have that time

[00:42:41] if you have complications great you have a little bit of leeway but if you're ready do it now because

[00:42:47] you don't know right and especially if you're doing it internally if you have to do this yourself I had

[00:42:53] to do these myself and one one of my payroll jobs we filed on 941s we it was nuts it was nuts not

[00:43:00] having an ADP or a big guy to do it for us paychecks iridian day fours all these names

[00:43:07] whatever all your ukg all the big guys whatever um

[00:43:13] talk to her colleague recently she's like all the peas she's all the peas I was like the peas what are

[00:43:18] you talking about paychecks paylocity paycore paycom I was like oh my gosh how fun but okay and the

[00:43:25] other one this is the real let me wait let me double back so the 941 is due April 30th but if you

[00:43:31] have 940 944 945 you need to go look that up I didn't get those ready sorry I know one of them is annual

[00:43:39] whatever but you guys got to do some work here folks we can't do it all so it depends on the

[00:43:46] industry the company that you're in different filings I know there's a filing for agricultural

[00:43:52] stuff here into that so you have to do that there's different things that you need to know about

[00:43:57] as a payroll pro depending on what type of payrolls and stuff that you process yeah payroll for

[00:44:03] see well it's hitting his stride right now folks the other one is this the other one is states

[00:44:10] like so that was the federal for 941 but what about the states that you're in they also require

[00:44:16] tax filings to be due but every state is different and just to give you an example

[00:44:23] New York has a three-day deposit if withheld 700 or more in a quarter or 15,000 or more in a

[00:44:31] calendar year proceeding the previous calendar year they have a five-day deposit rule if it's

[00:44:37] without less than 15,000 in a calendar year proceeding the previous calendar year and then

[00:44:42] quarterly is all employers and all employers and employers that withheld less than 700

[00:44:48] in a quarter or have less than 700 remaining after the quarter if withheld you see what I'm

[00:44:53] going with it folks it's it is in New York it has the New York the NS1 they also have an NS45

[00:45:01] NS45 ATT electronic files web upload compatible problem tech but all these things the deposit

[00:45:10] due date for a three day or five day in a quarterly they have so again my point is that

[00:45:15] I rattled off all that nonsense is that each state has its particular due dates

[00:45:23] based on the dollar amount thresholds or because they just said that's all some states it's monthly

[00:45:30] that you have to file some right and they and then they'll reckon they'll have a reconciliation

[00:45:35] quarterly maybe but you got to file monthly so be aware it's not just the 941 and it's not

[00:45:42] just quarterly that does that by every state has its own due dates depending on the dollar

[00:45:49] amounts that you're processing or because they say so there's there's so many things there's

[00:45:55] so many different things that you have to consider and worry about so many different type of taxes

[00:46:00] that may have their own individual due dates or submission dates that you have to submit those

[00:46:07] things by for instance one of the one of the things that we have currently we have some payrolls

[00:46:12] that are in the state of Washington and so the state of Washington rolled out a new

[00:46:17] WA LNI tax oh my gosh you may have to do manually and it's due every quarter almost similar to the

[00:46:24] 941 and you have to do it by that but you have to do it manually and we didn't know about some

[00:46:29] stuff and we got some fees and late interest penalties and stuff like that because we weren't

[00:46:34] in the know so now that we know we have to make sure that we stay abreast of those things and stay

[00:46:40] in front of those things as Brian spoke to it's the importance of the stuff is not only made impact

[00:46:47] your job as a payroll professional but it's definitely going to have impact with the company

[00:46:53] yep yep absolutely yeah that's and that's a great segue into our safe talk segment of

[00:47:01] the show folks and who is more so the safe talk question is who is more responsible for making

[00:47:07] sure taxes are filed the payroll team or the payroll provider who is the tpa which is the third party

[00:47:15] administrator tpa so who is more responsible i'll let you go first well honestly it it if you

[00:47:27] have your payroll provider as the tpa they should be the ones to make sure that they're filing for you

[00:47:33] in your stature so i feel like there is their responsibility for them to make sure that it's

[00:47:38] done for you but that doesn't alleviate the the responsibility that the payroll team has

[00:47:45] i think it might be an equal opportunity here for everybody pretty much like at the end of the

[00:47:51] the company is going to be responsible yeah so at the end of the day you your payroll team should

[00:47:57] verify and as simple as making sure that your team goes in and again if they have if your payroll

[00:48:03] provider has statement of deposits that shows all the different taxes that were filed just having

[00:48:07] your team go and save those and make sure that there's one for each company or one for each feim

[00:48:12] because you may have multiple companies under one fein and it should list all the different

[00:48:17] companies on that statement of deposits so you can see all the different ones and you can make sure

[00:48:22] that it's filed right so yeah but yeah no you're right that ultimately is the company's responsibility

[00:48:29] regardless if even if your tpa takes responsibility that just means they'll take the financial

[00:48:38] hit and penalty and all that and offset their bill to you but you trust but verify you still

[00:48:44] have to your boss is still going to be mad that it was missed if you have a payroll team that doesn't

[00:48:50] know right i want to say this and i don't know if you agree with this or not but even though

[00:48:54] they're the third party administrator all that means is that they're legally cleared to file

[00:49:02] in your behalf correct brian said you are you the company is responsible at the end of the

[00:49:09] day that the company gets those late fees that's why the company pays those interests and stuff like

[00:49:15] that because if something wasn't filed the payroll department is going to be like hey we

[00:49:19] file what we could you got to pay that yep and yeah and just to follow up on the documentation piece

[00:49:24] that you mentioned make sure that you're also pulling down the copies of the filings

[00:49:32] right so the summary reports are great but you also want to pull down the copies of the

[00:49:38] filings and i've as i've said many times in this across many different topics just because it's in

[00:49:44] your system as oh it's saved in the cloud in our app in our system and in whatever your system you use

[00:49:51] you should be pulling that down so creating a redundancy because what happens when you leave

[00:49:57] if you ever leave that software yep you know how tough it's going to be and how much they're

[00:50:04] going to charge you if you haven't been saving your things down or and the longer you're in that

[00:50:09] system the more crap you're going to have to go back and save so you got to make it a real time process

[00:50:15] to save these things down in real time yep and creating a backup so that when your company needs

[00:50:23] it and your team needs it you could just go to the share folder you don't have to log in

[00:50:28] pull the report run this run that save it down quarterly i should be able to go in and go look

[00:50:35] at our 941s and go look at our state whatever's and see okay yep everything's been filed here's the

[00:50:41] copies just again create that again because especially in this day and age where the chances of

[00:50:48] companies moving from one payroll software to another kind of are increased because of all

[00:50:53] the technological advancement your company may want to be like oh yeah we've been on this one for 10

[00:50:58] years but this one is doing this now and that's where we want to go so whoa 10 years and if you

[00:51:05] haven't been pulling down those all the documents you need 10 years that includes w2s paycheck runs

[00:51:13] by paycheck quarterlies monthly whatever it is that your system is creating should also be in

[00:51:21] saved in your files right everything is digital now there's no excuse cloud space is super cheap

[00:51:27] gone are the days that we're filling a file room up with paper and you're just paying real estate for

[00:51:33] file room i've been part of it those boxes no because i was having those those freaking boxes

[00:51:39] the label ones and then put it in the name put it in the name make sure that in alphabetical

[00:51:45] order and then label reckley label properly yes you know how many times i've had to go to

[00:51:51] the store in ira mountain iron mountain yes i am i'm i had to go on site to purge oh this is older

[00:52:00] than 10 years i gotta purge this box make stacks yep this is all purgeable are you kidding me

[00:52:05] companies just to have like you said that the storage units full of just iron mountain boxes

[00:52:11] and stuff like that yep yes gotta go to iron mountain because we're having an audit from

[00:52:15] seven years ago you gotta go this box oh night me as bro night me all right so the safe the

[00:52:23] safe tool question is that who's responsible and it's always gonna come back to the company

[00:52:30] you can evaluate that dynamic with your vendors and understand who's who takes legal

[00:52:35] responsibility and all that good stuff but the end of the day it's always gonna be the

[00:52:40] company is responsible that's really it regardless of how much your vendor because i know there are

[00:52:45] some vendors out there that take responsibility but that just means they're gonna take the financial

[00:52:51] hit your reputation is still hurt you know what i mean if it impacts folks in your payroll like

[00:52:58] unless you're running lean without a payroll department and you just off you outsourced

[00:53:03] everything then okay great your outsourced vendors are the ones responsible but if you have

[00:53:08] somebody in your in-house that's being the liaison being the coordinator manager

[00:53:14] they're gonna have some responsibility so yeah so what are we doing what's in the next show ip 108

[00:53:20] what are we doing the next show next week we're gonna have uh that payroll guy on right yes well

[00:53:28] we got a couple we got two different posts we are double record oh we are recording i got my book

[00:53:34] folks the payroll mind how to build influence and make an impact as a global payroll professional

[00:53:41] by bart vander storm if i'm not mistaken i know his first name is bart bart why isn't

[00:53:47] the hair it is bart vander storm so go check that go pee that it looks like nice good reading for

[00:53:53] a payroll professional i'm so excited that there's more payroll books being published out there

[00:53:57] that are not just how to do payroll you know you're right yours man i know i'm thinking about it's

[00:54:06] yes you're right that and that's yep yep yep thank you for that wall i appreciate you no i appreciate

[00:54:14] it you hold hold got a hold us accountable so yeah to the next time folks that's it for today

[00:54:20] that's so we get to 108 peace we love you

[00:54:28] before we sign off here are a couple quick things don't forget to follow it's about payroll on

[00:54:33] LinkedIn and it's about your paycheck on Facebook and TikTok thank you for being a part of our

[00:54:39] payroll community and thank you for being a part of this journey with us until next time

[00:54:43] keep learning keep growing and most importantly keep going