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GROWERS and other small business owners are increasingly using the Internet to help run their businesses.

After starting Miami-based Direct Floral Fulfillment Inc., it didn't take Carolina Quijano long to figure out that she needed to outsource payroll to a service provider.

While she and her partners were getting their business up and running, they realized they needed to outsource as many administrative tasks as possible so they could focus on more important aspects of their business.

"We outsourced right from the beginning," Quijano says. "Payroll is an area where I'd need to spend a lot of time to become an expert and the benefit to my business would be minimal. The penalties for making a mistake in payroll are substantial - it's just not worth the risk."

Looking to the Internet, Quijano found some relief for her payroll headaches. "We use the Internet for everything - for transferring funds, for reconciling our accounts, for interacting with our suppliers, and, soon, for selling to our customers," she says. "When I need a service, the Internet is the first place I look."

Payroll Pain

The pain of payroll is well-known. Keeping up with all the changes in payroll regulations and withholding tables can be a full-time job. Getting it right is somewhere between a challenge and a nightmare.

Worse yet, if you make a mistake, your employees and the IRS will read you the riot act. Indeed, the Internal Revenue Service indicates 40% of all small businesses are fined for payroll errors - and the average fine is $845.

When you factor in the value of your time and the prospect of penalties if you make a mistake, processing payroll internally can be very expensive.

Still, for some companies, the notion of outsourcing payroll raises the fear of incurring substantial expense and losing control. But the payroll industry has changed for the better recently and growers and suppliers are finding outsourcing payroll makes sense.

The Internet Changes Everything

What's new in payroll? Why and how have things changed?

Just as your business continues to evolve, so too have the nation's payroll services.

"The Internet has played a significant role in enhancing payroll services," says Michael Alter, senior vice president of national payroll provider SurePayroll. "By leveraging the Web to do payroll, companies can do payroll anytime, anywhere."

Historically, outsourcing payroll meant you needed to call in payroll on a predetermined day and time. Business owners inconveniently had to jump out of important meetings to call in payroll.

Some payroll providers offered software solutions, allowing data to be entered locally and sent in via modem.

While this represented a step forward in terms of convenience and control, the software was too complex, designed to handle the payroll needs of large corporations like IBM rather than the simple needs of small businesses.

The new breed of outsourced payroll services overcomes these deficiencies by offering simple Web-based interfaces. With SurePayroll's offering, for example, all you need is a Web browser and an Internet connection. Once you enter your payroll data, SurePayroll automatically calculates, deducts, pays, and files all taxes. You decide when and where you want to process payroll.

And there's an added bonus. Because you enter the data yourself and view the results in real time, you don't have to worry about data entry clerks making errors when you give them the information on the phone. The odds of an incorrect check or direct deposit amount are substantially reduced.

If you are considering outsourcing payroll, now is a good time. "There's a level of competition in the payroll industry that didn't exist previously," Alter says. "If I remember my economics correctly, competition almost always creates value for customers."

Quijano uses SurePayroll's Web-based payroll service and is pleased with the results, indicating it takes less than five minutes for her to complete payroll.

Pricing aside, Quijano recommends that businesses pick a payroll provider that is responsive to their needs. "The service needs to be simple and convenient while allowing you to control the process from start to finish."

New outsourced online payroll solutions on the market can save time and money. More importantly, they let you stay in control throughout the process.

Copyright © 2002. Greenhouse Grower.