Nobody wants to be paid late — and employers, perhaps even more than employees, don’t want to pay late either. It can be illegal to make even the smallest mistakes when it comes to payroll, and you’d rather be the great friend people trust and can rely on instead of the stingy boss of the workplace. That’s why it’s so important to choose your payroll processing company carefully. Nobody wants to be paid late — and employers, perhaps even more than employees, don’t want to pay late either. It can be illegal to make even the smallest mistakes when it comes to payroll, and you’d rather be the great friend people trust and can rely on instead of the stingy boss of the workplace. That’s why it’s so important to choose your payroll processing company carefully.

Admittedly, the competition is thick. That makes it hard for many business owners to know what exactly to look for. Here are a few tips to get you started.

First, look into their customer service offerings and track record. As an extension of your own company, a payroll service must communicate easily and effectively with you. Get answers to these questions:

• Will you have your own service representative?
• Will you be able to talk to someone as soon as you need them, or will you have to submit a ticket and wait for a response?
• What is the company’s customer retention rate?
• How long will it take to get your account set up?

These can all give you important insights to how your experience will be as their customer and as a busy employer trying to pay your staff as efficiently as possible.

Second, are their systems secure? Research their history of breaches and whether or not they use multifactor authentication and data encryption.

Third, how easy are their systems to access and use? If the user experience is poor, your staff will be frustrated while trying to access information on their pay. Also, your payroll system should have a mobile option because, at this point, why sign up for a payroll system that isn’t portable?

Luckily, as an AFEUSA member, you’ll have access to amazing benefits including not one, but TWO payroll processing companies with available discounts for both! Check out Gusto and make this administrative work easier and more streamlined in 2021.