Rely on the Expertise and Leadership of Payroll Professionals to Prevent Costly Mistakes

When Grace and her brother John took over the family small business, John insisted that his expertise was in the office. He would be in charge of any human resources needs, all employee needs regarding benefits and health care, payroll, and anything they might decide to do later, as they considered a partnership with another company.

Grace initially agreed that John’s suggestion was workable. After all, her strength was in sales and marketing. John was the one who insisted that he knew about the core of keeping the business financially on track. It would be a challenge, Grace thought.

What Grace cared most about was that her father, a die-hard entrepreneur, started the small business 40 years ago in the family garage. Now that her father had passed away, she felt responsible not only for the family legacy but also for the 12 employees who depended on their jobs to feed their families. When Grace and John’s father unexpectedly died, his office manager immediately retired. Until then, she had been in charge of every single responsibility John was now taking as his own.

Change can be a challenge

A few months into the new role, John flew out the door one day like his hair was on fire. He only said that he had to find answers to some questions about payroll taxes and some other small business taxes. Something had changed. The rules were not what they were three months earlier when John stepped into the new position. While he asked those questions, John promised his sister that he would also ask about partnership funding.

During the same week, there were problems in inventory. That was the department where John had initially worked, before he took on the office job. And Grace began to suspect that John was in over his head. She was right about that too, when the company was fined.

Apparently John had not cleared up the problems caused by changes in the payroll taxes. Thankfully, John didn’t argue about Grace’s suggestion. He realized that he had walked away from his strength, which was to keep inventory current. He had taken responsibility for an area of the business that he knew very little about.

Call on professionals for help

Thankfully, the staff at The Payroll Department, Inc. was able to step in and quickly resolve the payroll tax issues. They also cleaned up other – potentially costly – mistakes. Their expertise helped John and Grace save the company from additional penalties.

After that the new small business owners continued to play to their strengths and rely on the expertise and leadership of other small businesses like The Payroll Department to keep the company running smoothly for their employees and their customers.

-Elaine of The Payroll Department Blog Team