The Best Time to Update Your Payroll Software Is Now
Accountants are busy year-round, so when are you supposed to complete essential maintenance on your software? It can be tricky to find the best time to focus on your software, but here’s your guide to when you need to take time to improve your internal processes.
Tax Deadlines and Responsibilities
Before you try to find the perfect time to focus on your software, you have to have a clear picture of when the busiest times are for accountants.
The biggest, and most stressful time for accountants is tax season. From the start of February going until April your calendar is full of nothing but taxes.
Then come the consistent and repetitive deadlines. On the 10th of every month, tax statements for employees who work for tips are due, while the 15th of every month is the date for employers who are required to pay monthly payroll taxes including deposits for Social Security, Medicare, and withheld income tax.
From there we can focus on major tax deadlines each month. Starting in January, there is the W-2 filing deadline, the Form 1099-NEC Copy A and B filing deadlines, and Form 1099-MISC Copy B filing deadline. Even the short month of February brings the Form 1099-MISC paper filing deadline, and marks the start of the busy tax season.
March has the S corporation and partnership tax returns deadline in the middle of March, and the Form 1099-MISC Copy A deadline at the end.
For business that pay taxes on a quarterly basis April brings the deadline for the first quarterly payment as well as the deadline for individual tax returns, and C corporation tax returns.
June 15th is the deadline for the second quarterly tax payment for corporations that pay taxes quarterly
September 15th is the deadline for the third estimated quarterly tax payments.
October 16th is the due date for sole proprietorships and C corporations that filed for an extension.
Those are only the large federal tax deadlines. There are smaller niche deadlines for specific industries like deadlines for non-profits; deadlines for household employers; S corporations; partnerships; farmers and fishermen; trusts and estates; as well as citizens living, working, or on military duty outside the United States and Puerto Rico.
With all those dates out of the way, we can now consider the deadlines for each state as well as applying for and meeting deadline extensions.
More Than Taxes
So far, we’ve only focused on taxes, but that’s not all accountants have on their calendars. Many accountants are also responsible for payroll processing, sometimes for multiple clients simultaneously. This means they’re responsible for tracking and processing bi-weekly or monthly pay periods throughout the year.
Finally, some accountants are also responsible for general accounting services through services like Client Accounting Services (CAS), leaving them responsible for reconciliation, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and generating financial reports taking up most of their time.
When Is the Best Time to Update Your Software?
With all of that in mind, when do you have the time to make decisions about your software?
The truth is there’s no perfect time throughout the year. There is always going to be a project, deadline, or task looming on the horizon. But even though there’s no perfect time, you should never surrender and accept a bad solution.
Procrastinating Can Cost You
It can be costly to procrastinate getting the software you need. By using dated, unreliable software, you put yourself at a higher chance for payroll errors, which costs time and money to fix along with potential IRS penalties.
Additionally, payroll errors are a major motivator for talented and valuable employees to find a new job.
The potential risk of using an unreliable payroll software isn’t worth it. Rather than waiting to find the perfect time to find your payroll solution, you need a payroll solution you can trust today.
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Payroll Relief®Payroll Relief was specifically designed for professional accountants, providing you with the tools you need to make payroll dependable and profitable. It brings you unprecedented automation and processing speeds paired which minimize and in even completely reduce data entry, saving you time and money. If you’re waiting for the perfect time, it’s never going to happen. By making the time today to switch to Payroll Relief, you’ll finally be able to see how much your current payroll solution is holding you back. Stop waiting and see the difference now. |