Payroll software eases the pain
When Mike Kaerne had just a few employees in his company that provides the Canadian film and television industry with supplies and equipment, he did payroll by hand with a computer program he got from the government.
But as his company -- Burnaby-based HollyNorth Production Supplies -- grew in size, payroll became a nightmare.
"Payroll not only for me, but for a number of other business owners I know, is painful," says Kaerne, whose company supplies rental equipment like wind and fog machines and expendables like batteries and adhesive tape to TV and film productions.
"You're always concerned you are doing it right, that you've got the deductions right, filled out the right form."
Like many small companies -- HollyNorth has just eight employees -- each worker wears numerous hats. Kaerne shares the payroll duties with one of his employees who also handles office administration, accounting and advertising.
"Doing the payroll just became a pain," he says. "I went for a software program that would be out of the box and easy. I didn't want to have to hire an accountant."
After looking at the software available, Kaerne went with QuickBooks Payroll -- one of numerous options on the market.
One of the biggest challenges to entrepreneurs and owners of small companies is payroll administration. According to a recent survey of 1,700 small Canadian businesses by Ipsos-Reid, more than a third (36 per cent) are still manually using spreadsheets or putting pen to paper on ledgers, 20 per cent use government software, and 14 per cent turn to accountants.
It is estimated that one in three small businesses pay on average $800 in penalties each year for filing late or inaccurate payroll numbers at tax time.
Moe Somani of Vancouver-based SOHO (www.soho.ca), a national marketing company that provides resources to the SME sector, agrees payroll is intimidating.
"We find some of our members are still using the shoebox approach," says Somani, whose group recommends Simply Accounting (Sage Software). "It can be tedious for the owner if they don't have a proper process in place."
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