When it comes to clinics, processing payroll is one of the most important — yet administratively burdensome — business tasks. Payroll compliance requirements continue to evolve and ensuring that you are on top of the rules can be a challenge.
Below we take a look at some of the common payroll challenges that clinic owners face, as well as tips that will help improve your payroll process and ensure you use your time efficiently so that you can stay focused on growing your clinic.
Common Payroll Challenges for Clinics
1. Payroll Errors Due to Manual Processes
For many clinics, payroll can be one of the most intimidating tasks. There are numerous rules and regulations to be aware of, forms to file, and deductions to withhold. Missed deadlines or mistakes can result in financial penalties, and disgruntled employees. Despite the error-prone nature of manually processing payroll, it’s surprising how many clinics still rely on physical timesheets and excel spreadsheets!
Common payroll processing errors include:
Miscalculating Payroll: If your clinic is using physical timesheets to calculate payroll, you’re leaving it open to human error. With all the payroll data to track time and attendance, vacation pay, overtime, commissions, etc., it’s inevitable that the occasional mistake will be made.
Misclassifying Employees: There’s a lot to remember when processing payroll, even more so when it’s done manually. Employee classification, for example, can have a big impact. In the case of contractors, they are usually responsible for their own payroll deductions and require T4As instead of T4s.
Missing Payroll Deadlines: Payroll must be processed several days in advance to ensure employees are paid on time and deductions are processed without remittance penalties and late fees. If you leave it too late, banks won’t have time to process the deposits, negatively impacting your team members.