Accountants can enhance client service by offering web-based payroll

Chicago-based SurePayroll today announced that it has launched its new Custom Payroll Service for Accountants™, a turnkey solution that lets accountants offer sophisticated Web-based payroll services, branded with the accountant's brand name, to their small businesses clients.
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"This new private label, plug-and-play solution is perfect for accountants who do not currently offer clients payroll support but who would like to." said Michael Alter, Senior Vice President of Business Development at SurePayroll. "It's also perfect for accountants who do offer payroll support but who are frustrated with the headaches and inefficiencies inherent in their current payroll processes."

According to Alter, accountants typically shy away from payroll for the following reasons, each of which has been addressed by SurePayroll's solution:

- Getting payroll data from clients on a timely basis can be challenging and time-consuming. Custom Payroll Service addresses this issue by allowing the accountant's small business clients to directly enter their payroll data via the Web. No faxes or phone calls are necessary. If a client is not Web-enabled, they can still fax or call in their payroll and the accountant can do the online data entry for them.

- Once payroll data is received, there is the complexity of doing the payroll calculations. Tax tables for Federal, State and local government agencies and other withholding amounts change frequently and must be factored into the calculations. Custom Payroll Service addresses this by doing all of the calculations automatically.

- Making the tax deposits is an error-prone process. Accountants will typically remind clients to make tax deposits, but if clients forget to make the deposit or make a late deposit, penalties will result. The IRS estimates that 40% of small businesses incur an average payroll penalty of $845 every year. Custom Payroll Service addresses this issue by automatically making all the necessary tax deposits.

- Accessing payroll data is problematic. When accountants or their clients use desktop software solutions to do payroll, it's difficult to access the data. If the data is at the accountant's office, the client has to ask for information from the accountant, which can be a time consuming task. The Web-based nature of Custom Payroll Service ensures that the data can be access by either party at any time from any location. Client employees can even access their payroll stubs online; this eliminates requests to the accountant for employee payroll information that typically occur when an employee is obtaining a loan, renting an apartment, or is preparing his or her taxes.

- Generating and delivering checks is problematic. Custom Payroll Service addresses this challenge by letting clients print checks directly. Custom Payroll Service also offers Direct Deposit. Historically, accountants could only offer direct deposit if they purchased expensive software or negotiated a relationship with a large bank.

- Preparing quarterly and year-end filings is a tedious undertaking for accountants. Custom Payroll Service automatically prepares and submits all filings on behalf of the accountant firm and its clients.

SurePayroll has signed up many accountants for its new offering and believes that many more accountants will be interested. Financial advisors want new technology-driven services to stay competitive, provide enhanced client service, and create incremental revenue streams. Less than 25% of small businesses currently outsource payroll, making payroll outsourcing a large services opportunity for accountants.
"For us, it's a question of providing good service to our clients," says Sherri Rosenthal of California-based Allan Rosenthal and Associates, who uses the Custom Payroll Service for Accountants. "We help our clients with consulting work and tax work. We don't want to turn them away when they ask for help with payroll. This service has helped with client retention and it's helped us attract new clients as well."
"We were looking for a good Web-based solution for some time," commented Rosenthal. "We have used and evaluated many software packages, but there were always shortcomings in terms of workflow and access to the data. SurePayroll's Custom Payroll Service is the first service we've found that seems to fully understand and have addressed all of the problems that have been associated with an accounting firm's offering payroll. What used to be a very time-consuming service offering for us is now very simple and profitable."

SurePayroll is in the process of creating a new division that will focus exclusively on developing and maintaining business relationships with accountants. In addition to accountants, SurePayroll has also targeted the banking profession. Separately, the company has today announced Custom Payroll Service for Banks™, a service offering that allows banks to offer payroll services directly to their clients. Both offerings leverage the same core technology that drives SurePayroll's direct service. Both offerings are second-generation offerings, building on the company's successful Wells Fargo private label offering and the e-Payroll offering to accountants with the addition of numerous new features.

In addition to partnering with banks and accounting firms, SurePayroll will continue to offer its service direct to small businesses.

About SurePayroll:
Founded in 1999, SurePayroll provides a simple, reliable and economical way for small businesses to process and distribute payroll and taxes in minutes via the Internet. The Company's Internet-based payroll service automates the entire payroll process, completely eliminating the traditional processing steps that conventional payroll services providers use. Using Surepayroll, small businesses and their employees can initiate and access their payroll from anywhere, at any time. By leveraging the Internet, payroll is completed in a fraction of the time, at a fraction of the cost.

SurePayroll is a privately held company based in Skokie, IL. SurePayroll's customer base number in the thousands and includes payroll customers in all 50 states. SurePayroll's business partners include Wells Fargo and ABN AMRO. For more information, visit www.surepayroll.com.

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