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"BIG enough to get the job done and SMALL enough to care!"

That’s a direct quote from a small business owner I received when I asked him what prompted him to contact Connect & Simplify™ for information on payroll.

“Max” found Connect & Simplify™ after a google search in mid-February 2022. Here’s what “Max” shared about his prior experiences on his web contact form:

“I previously did payroll with Sage/Peachtree and we tried to move to other services to free up my time. We had bad luck with the moves and are looking for a company to do what others have promised and failed to deliver.”

FIRST, Max tried Insperity HR, a PEO (Professional Employer Organization)

For those who are unfamiliar, PEOs are service providers that take over the employer relationship and provide benefit programs, payroll, human resources and other services to companies. They lump employers together with a promise of lowering their benefit costs but does not materialize. Companies find themselves locked into benefit options paying a premium for the concept of combined services. When an employer looks at their bill, they are unable to determine if they are being overcharged for a service. Many times administrative service fees are billed as a percent of payroll fees. We have seen employers that spent an extra $2,500 just to run an extra bonus payroll.

Back to Max and our story – Max has a company with 20 employees in the professional services industry. Most of his employees are in Illinois plus one Kentucky employee.

He shared that the reason for selecting a PEO was that they were supposed to do everything for you. What he experienced is that they emailed his completed payroll unsecured and included 2 people outside his company in the email!

Max informed his PEO sales rep and forgave him for the error, and then his sales rep “became a jerk” to him! So Max left the PEO.

SECOND, Max went to ADP

Max needed ADP to set up a Deferred Compensation deduction for himself as the CEO, and they couldn’t do this. (A standard request we’ve done many times for our clients.) The set-up team didn’t know how to do this and his ADP sales rep became unreachable! His mailbox was always FULL! So he left ADP.

Note: ADP never ran payroll for him, yet they did run his year-end 2021 941 and W-2s which caused tax issues. ADP thinks Max’s company is still client! They keep sending him customer surveys.

THIRD, Max tried PAYLOCITY

Here’s what happened next. The set-up was haphazard and completed in only 3 days! He received minimal training on Paylocity but he muddled through. His W-2s were wrong! Paylocity lumped the employer’s portion of the health care cost and the employee’s portion into the employee’s box on the W-2s. The last payroll was wrong and Paylocity also filed an incorrect 941 for 2021, which caused issues with the IRS. As of his mid-February conversation date, Max still did not have replacement W-2s!

THEN MAX FOUND CONNECT & SIMPLIFY

Max started with payroll, only due to his past experiences, but he also intends to expand Connect & Simplify™ by adding the TLM (Time Labor Management) and the HR New Hire Onboarding modules later this year.

Here are some of the things we do for our clients that would have helped Max:

• Each client is assigned a dedicated payroll specialist who knows and understands your account.
• All payroll data is sent securely from our office to each client and all tax inquiries are handled internally by our tax management team on behalf of our clients.
• Our Director of Payroll Operations oversees each client implementation to ensure we collect all the information needed to set up and run payroll properly: paycodes, deductions, state taxes etc.
• Our implementation team sets up your payroll according to your policies and procedures. Our YTD totals and taxes must balance with your existing provider before we run your 1st payroll. We run a parallel payroll with your current provider to double-check.
• We offer full training on Connect & Simplify™ and ongoing support. All questions and service calls are met with priority from knowledgeable, seasoned staff. No call centers here.

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About The Author —

Barb Schnoll is a Subject Matter Consultant in Payroll, Time Labor Management, HR, and HCM systems. Her prior history also includes many years of business-to-business consulting, sales, implementation, and training in technology. She has seen payroll evolve from writing checks, paying taxes, and producing W2s to a full-fledged, cloud-based HCM system offering mobile access from smartphones to employees and new hires.

In her spare time, she loves traveling, motorcycling, and new this summer, discovering the endless trails of UTVs.

She has represented The Benefit Companies for 20 years.

Connect & Simplify™ partners with UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) to offer best-in-class Payroll Software, Kronos Time Clocks, HR, and HCM solutions.