Payroll is something that—especially today—people are more concerned with than ever.
After all, during this global pandemic, there have been countless people that lost their main sources of income, lost their jobs, and struggled to earn money.
Vancouver is no exception to that rule.
So, as a Vancouver business or business owner; it is immensely important that you focus on making sure that your payroll is consistent and accurate.
Doing so will ensure that your employees don’t have to worry about whether or not they’re going to get their next paycheck, when there’s already so much else to have to worry about.
We wanted to touch on this and give you a simple and straightforward solution as to how you can more effectively ensure your company’s payroll is taken care of.
This solution is your very own, local, Vancouver bookkeeper.
A Vancouver bookkeeper has the knowledge of regulations, accounting best practices and other requirements of Vancouver businesses. Altogether, that means that: when you work with a Vancouver bookkeeper, you are getting the best possible service, from the most knowledgeable professionals.
But, at the end of the day… Why work with a bookkeeper? This is something that we’ve covered in other blogs, and we may also be biased.
That said, however, in this blog we wanted to touch on the various ways that a Vancouver bookkeeper can help you manage your payroll, and the benefits that a bookkeeper can bring your Vancouver business.
So, without further hesitation, let’s dive in.
Bookkeepers can oversee the setup of payroll processes
The first way that a Vancouver bookkeeper can help you better manage your payroll—especially if you’re a new business—is by setting up these processes in the first place.
If you’ve ever tried to set up payroll processes, you’ve likely seen that it’s a fair bit of work. If you haven’t tried yet… Well, understand that it’s a fair bit of work to set up a payroll system for your business.
What’s more is that Vancouver, compared to other Canadian or North American cities, has its own accounting rules that you have to follow for income reporting as a business.
Generally, you just have to follow Canadian laws and regulations, but there are some province-specific rules you also have to follow.
That’s where a professional Vancouver bookkeeper comes into play.
They will have the knowledge, training, and expertise to entirely set up a payroll process that follows all the rules and is easy for you and your staff to follow.
The best part? They don’t have to stop there. Most Vancouver bookkeepers, like Valley Business Center, can help you both set up and manage your payroll.
Reduce labor costs and remove work from internal staff
Building on our last point, when you have a Vancouver bookkeeper set up and manage your payroll systems, software and processes; you’re unintentionally (or, perhaps intentionally) removing time-consuming work from your employees.
As a business owner, or as an employee of a Vancouver business; you’re probably more interested in getting out and earning money or doing your job.
You’re less interested in trying to setup a payroll system.
A Vancouver bookkeeper has the potential to be the person in your business that manages payroll, so you and your employees can get back to running the business and getting paid at the end of the day.
Greater accuracy with lower risk
Not every single person in Vancouver is a CPA, CFA, or experienced bookkeeper.
It also turns out that a lot of these people also happen to people who own and work in businesses in Vancouver and B.C.
This isn’t a bad thing – because if everyone was a CPA, we’d have a whole lot of people to count the money, and fewer people to go out and make it.
But luckily, Vancouver bookkeepers will always bring years of experience, expertise and knowledge to the table to help your payroll get done properly, the first time.
That’s why the next way that a Vancouver bookkeeper can help you manage your payroll is because these individuals will have greater accuracy with a lower risk of mistake while doing it.
Help to register with provincial and federal agencies
As we have said in various other blogs on our site, most federal and provincial agencies are not the easiest to work with.
In fact, if you don’t have experience working with them before, it can be downright confusing and frustrating.
However, when you’re setting up payroll for your Vancouver business, or you’re trying to pay your employees… You’re going to have to deal with federal and provincial agencies—depending on what sort of payments you need to make.
You need to set up EI deductions, CPP deductions, and salary payments, on top of income tax dedications for your business, potential Worker’s compensation board (WCB) payments, benefits payments, and much more.
Most of these different components of payroll all have to be coordinated with some local, provincial, or federal agency.
Without training and knowledge, this can be a time-consuming task that may seem impossible.
However, Vancouver bookkeepers are specifically trained and have countless hours of training dealing with these groups and setting up payroll services for your business.
Oversee interactions with the CRA
Of these various agencies that businesses have to deal with to make payroll happen is the CRA. They also happen to be one of the most complex agencies to deal with.
There are countless forms, documents, dedications, remittances, and other services that have to go through the CRA to make payroll possible.
The easiest way to manage all of these different services with the CRA is to have an online business account with them.
A Vancouver bookkeeper can be an invaluable resource that will take the time to properly set up your CRA account, and make sure that any sort of deductions, payments, remittances, or forms are properly submitted to the CRA on time.
This will keep you out of heaps of trouble come tax time, and make sure your business runs smoothly year after year.
Gather and organize employee info
Another part of payroll that is often time-consuming (and, has the potential to be quite troublesome) is collecting employee information.
This includes collecting Social Insurance Numbers, Address information, Contact information, benefits information (and, when there are dependents or other family members, you need their information), and much more.
Although at the surface level this may seem like a quick and simple task, that’s really only the case for smaller companies.
If you have a company of, let’s say, 100 people, that means that you need to collect information for all of those people.
For most businesses and business owners, collecting all of that information is just time that could be better spent elsewhere in the business.
So, a bookkeeper is a person (or, group) that can help you streamline this process, and that can collect and record all of this information on your behalf—allowing you to get back to running the business.
Calculate wages, deductions, contributions
In the last few sections, we mentioned that a bookkeeper can help you figure out how to make deductions and payments to federal and provincial agencies; and also help you figure out what sort of dedications and payments you need to make in the first place.
Beyond this, however, they also can help you calculate exactly how much these payments, dedications, and wages will cost your business.
Hiring a bookkeeper to collect employee information and set up payroll processes allows them to have a finger on the pulse of payroll in your business.
This way, they know exactly how many people are getting paid, how much they’re getting paid, how much dedications are for each person, and how much employees are making for contributions.
Knowing each of these amounts exactly allows bookkeepers to make precise payments and deductions, and make sure that your business never ends up in trouble with the taxman.
Generate and share T4
Speaking of tax time, a bookkeeper will not only make doing business taxes a less painful process, but they can also make sure that employees have an easier time doing their own income taxes.
What we’re talking about is T4s. Without the proper accounting and tax knowledge and software; accurately creating T4 statements.
A bookkeeper can make sure that these T4 statements are properly completed and provided to all employees on time, well before they have to do their income taxes for the year.
Reconcile, oversee, and pay salaries
This is one of the more obvious benefits of hiring a Vancouver bookkeeper, but it’s arguably the most important way that Vancouver bookkeepers help you manage your payroll.
Beyond doing reconciliations, calculating dedications, and providing you with insights into your payroll processes, a bookkeeper can make sure that your employees get paid correctly, and on time.
Once again, the actual paying of employees is something that—if done incorrectly—can cause headaches and is easy to do wrong.
A bookkeeper will make sure there are no issues with this process from start to finish.
Need help from an expert?
We understand that payroll isn’t always the simplest process. So, let one of our experts at Valley Business Centre help. For over 30 years, Valley Business Centre has been providing comprehensive bookkeeping, tax, and payroll services to our clients in Whistler, Squamish, the Sea to Sky Corridor, and metro Vancouver B.C. areas. Valley Business Centre provides reliable and effective services to all clients.
Disclaimer
This article is written for informational purposes only. It is current at the date of posting and changes to laws and regulations may result in the information becoming outdated. It is not intended to provide legal, tax, or financial advice. It is recommended that readers get advice from a tax professional before making any final decisions.