How Payroll Can Be The Gateway For Your High-Value Compliance Firm

On January 27, 2021, Ian Vacin, Chief Customer Officer for Karbon, and Rachel Fisch, Strategic Advisor to Wagepoint held a webinar (online discussion) on the topic of “How compliance leads to advisory.”

The truth is, you can’t have one without the other. Especially when it comes to small business payroll. As an accountant or bookkeeper, even if you’re using payroll software, like Wagepoint, you still need to have a fundamental understanding of the compliance issues that affect your clients and their payroll.

Whether you lead with your left foot or your right, you need both for this dance.

How payroll compliance can strengthen advisory.

In Rachel’s career, she’s had her own bookkeeping firm and has also worked for software providers. This, along with her new role at High Rock Accounting, has given her a unique perspective on payroll. For instance, if you put a strong payroll compliance structure in place, this will further enable your role as an advisor.

Is payroll software a gateway to being replaced by a robot?

The simple answer is “No.” Payroll regulations and standards are changing all the time. Software helps replace some of the manual data entry and calculations but this is a purely transactional process. You still need compliance experts and advisory experts — and those people should talk to each other all the time.

👉Read more: The role of payroll in the future. 

What’s the right kind of advisory?

According to Ian, “The key is, you’re there to help advise your clients on what to do and what to do next, so that they’re in a better place than they were yesterday.”

How do I set up efficient payroll processes?

There’s the chase, the procedures and the schedules:

• The chase is gathering all the payroll-related information needed to get the client set up in the payroll software.
• The procedures are like checklists or guideposts for establishing a seamless routine.
• The schedule includes pay dates, approval dates and other key time-sensitive aspects of payroll.

Are there templates for payroll setup and processing?

For firms that use both Karbon and Wagepoint, the following templates can help you check all of the above boxes:

• Payroll setup with Wagepoint
• Payroll processing with Wagepoint

👉Read more: Beat payroll scope creep to the gate. 

What kinds of software are Karbon and Wagepoint?

Karbon is a work management software that provides a truly collaborative platform for accounting firms to manage workflows and communicate with teams. Wagepoint is simple payroll software created just for small businesses and backed by the world’s friendliest team.

In fact, both companies are backed by wonderful humans. Many thanks to Ian and Rachel for taking the time to share this thought leadership.

Additional resources:

• When advisory services are not enough (article)
• Karbon website
• Wagepoint website
• Karbon templates for Wagepoint
  • Payroll setup with Wagepoint 
  • Payroll processing with Wagepoint

Written by Michelle Mire

Formerly Wagepoint's Content Manager, Michelle enjoys simplifying complex payroll topics and creating engaging small business and partner content. When not at the keyboard, she enjoys chocolate, running and quality television (not always in that order).

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