Streamlining Payroll for Contractors
Payroll is the heart of a home repair company, but it can also be a time-consuming nightmare for small business owners. When paying contractors, it’s especially important to streamline your process.
Look for a contractor payroll solution like Roll by ADP that offers automatic processing, tax solutions, and direct deposit. This will help you stay compliant with local labor laws for contract workers.
Automate Time Tracking
Whether working from home or in the office, contractors juggle multiple projects and tasks daily. With so many moving parts, it can be easy for time to slip through the cracks. Automating time tracking can make it easier for them to capture all their work and stay on top of their deadlines.
Unlike a stopwatch, digital time trackers provide an accurate and reliable account of project work. They eliminate the margin for error and automatically fill in your timesheets while you work based on app usage, visited websites, and scheduled calendar events. They can even analyze your activity and recommend improvements to productivity.
For freelancers, automatic time tracking can help them recover hidden billable hours and better price their work for clients. It also allows them to prioritize work and meet their client’s expectations confidently by providing clear data on time spent on various projects. In addition, it gives them a bird ‘ s-eye view of their workload so they can take more breaks or adjust their schedules to avoid burnout.
Automate Payments
Once you’ve got your time tracking and job costing nailed down, automating contractors’ payments is important. This can save time, streamline paperwork, and prevent costly mistakes.
Many payroll service providers offer ACH payment systems that allow businesses to pay contractors electronically and in their local currency. This option is typically less expensive than sending a wire transfer and can be much faster.
Other contractor payment solutions include an online invoicing and payment system that collects and stores all the invoice and billing information needed to process payments. This centralized location makes it easy for teams to locate the necessary documents when questions arise. This can reduce the time spent tracking down information and eliminate hours of emails back and forth.
Other solutions allow users to import time-tracking data into a payment platform and sync it in real time with their ERP for reconciliation, monitoring, and analytics. This can greatly improve the speed at which invoices are approved and paid, reducing the overall AP process by 10x. This can help companies attract and retain contractors and focus on the projects that matter to them.
Automate Taxes
A payroll automation tool can help you calculate and file taxes on time if you pay contractors or hourly employees. This is important because miscalculating employee pay or filings can cost you money. Plus, you may be penalized and fined if you are late with your tax payments.
You’ll also need a way to handle sales tax. This requires accurate data entry and calculations, which can be challenging for small teams with limited resources or a lack of accounting and tax expertise. A solution with automated sales tax integration can save back-office teams time and effort.
A comprehensive software suite can help you streamline your entire payroll process. It can help you hire candidates, digitize onboarding, manage employee data and time tracking, and automate paycheck processing and taxes. In addition, it can provide a secure online portal for your employees to view their personal and financial information, including payment history, deductions, and annual tax forms. It can even help you manage expense receipts and reimbursements.
Automate Time Off
Taking time off is an important part of managing employee wellness, but it can be difficult when the process is manual. Whether you’re an independent contractor or work for a large corporation, having the ability to take time off is critical. But it’s hard to do if you’re constantly running into roadblocks.
One such roadblock is finding a way to track and approve time off requests. When using a manual system, you typically see boxes or lines that need to be checked for manager approval, HR receipt, or other steps in the process. With an automated software program, these steps can be automatically integrated into the workflow to reduce friction in the process.
Some programs can even allow employees to upload documents, like doctor’s notes or jury duty summonses, that may be required before a request is approved. This can be a huge time saver for both employees and managers. You can also create custom reporting and analytics dashboards to monitor the success of your new process, such as how many requests are being submitted and how often employees are using their vacation days.
Automate Payments
Whether you’re paying with a check or electronic transfer, many steps must be completed before the contractor can access their funds. Payroll processing takes time, and any missteps can cost you money. An online payment solution will help you avoid these mistakes by automating the payment process.
Rather than sending contractors a paper check that can be lost in the mail, you can send them one-time or recurring ACH transfers to their bank accounts. While this requires them to share their bank account information, it’s a similar process to what they experience when receiving direct deposits as employees.
This is also a faster and more secure method for paying contractors. Additionally, an ePayment solution will help you track and reconcile payments to see when invoices are paid and when they’re due. This streamlines your AR and AP processes, improves incoming cash flow, and reduces days of sales outstanding. It can also give you heightened credibility as a general contractor by showing subcontractors you’re committed to speedy payments.
