According to the Business Development Bank of Canada, 98% of all businesses in this country are defined as “small sized enterprises” and have fewer than 100 employees. When combined with medium sized businesses, they represent over 99% of all businesses operating in Canada. It’s not a stretch to say that they are the engine of our economy and vital to our prosperity and that payroll automation may be key to keep them afloat.
The reality of both the marketplace and the service sectors in Canada is that changes to the way that we do business are happening at lightning speed. This is primarily due to the internet and the technology that exists to do business virtually anywhere. A farmer selling tomatoes from a roadside stand has the ability to accept credit cards through his phone just as a personal trainer can work on his cloud based bookkeeping from his mobile device in a coffee shop. We are no longer confined to the four walls of an office to be productive. Integration means that our office follows us around courtesy of the tools, the software and the apps available to us. To small business owners, this represents a levelling of the playing field.
Along with this levelling of the playing field and the ability to compete with much larger businesses comes prosperity, followed by growth. Typically, for a small business, this means contracting help and eventually adding employees to the company. For some “mom and pop” operations this day never comes, but, for many others it represents a huge accomplishment when that first employee receives their first paycheque. Along with greater profits and growth opportunities, however, come additional administrative tasks for the business owner which requires planning and execution.
In the not too distant past, hiring employees meant that a company needed to also hire an administrative person to track these employees, take care of payroll and stay on top of all deductions in lieu of taxes, pensions and benefits. Aside from the cost of an admin assistant, this represented many hours spent calculating payroll and physically writing cheques for each employee. In it’s 2017 Small Business Taxation Survey, the National Small Business Association (NSBA) found that 1 in 3 small businesses spent as much as the equivalent of two full week’s worth of time on these very tasks every year.
With the technology that is now available the question for small businesses to consider is: Should we spend up to 80 hours each year on calculating payroll and writing cheques or should we use that time for growing our business? The answer is self-evident.
The solution to spending hours and hours of time doing payroll and related tasks is to begin using software for payroll processing while in the growth stage of business as a way to build a solid foundation for the future. Wagepoint is online payroll software designed specifically to help Canadian businesses remain compliant with CRA payroll regulations from the very first employee. Staying on top of payroll requirements, in a consistent manner, means that tax season is easy and worry-free. From providing T-4’s to producing Records of Employment (ROE), business owners can rest assured that all of their payroll needs are looked after in the easiest, most efficient way possible. Employees are even provided access to their own personal and financial information via an employee portal where they have access to their pay stubs, year end statements and T-4’s. All of these features amount to more valuable time and energy for enterprises to get to the next level.