Prep for 2024 payroll with these tips

Daniel Blaser (00:06):

Hello and welcome to On the Clock presented by Workstream. If you care about hiring and retaining hourly workers, you're in the right place. I'm Daniel Blaser, and today we're sharing a conversation all about payroll with Jim Kohl, head of payroll operations at Check, and Brett s Spusta, one of my teammates at Workstream. With just a couple months left of the year, it's not too early to start preparing for 2020 fours payroll. I chat with Jim and Brett about the things you can do right now to make next year's payroll as smooth as butter. We discuss how you can maximize efficiency, which payroll goals you should consider setting and more to get things started. I just wanted to ask, it's early November, why is now the right time to start preparing for the payroll in the year to come? It might seem a little bit early for some people. Why is now actually the right time, Jim?

Jim Kohl (00:57):

Yeah, if anything, it's not too early, it might be too late. I think a successful year to come always starts with a successful closure of the year prior, so ensuring that you have a very clean 2023 wrap up, making sure all employee information is right, making sure your company information looks good. You really, really want to have those perfect W twos when those first go out so your employees feel comfortable with filing. So ensuring that you close out the year perfectly and then you start the year off on the right foot, right? You're not dealing with any of those lagging issues when you think about beginning the new year. Wage basis are going to be reset, benefit amounts are going to be reset. Employees should be thinking about, Hey, do I want to update my W four? Did anything change in my life? So there's a lot of different information that employees want to think about and changing it right at the beginning of the year is a good time.

(01:59):

The other thing in the industry that we know, the beginning of the year is a perfect time. If you are shopping around for a new payroll provider, it's the best time to move from one payroll provider to another payroll provider. You don't have to worry about migrating that year to date information. You're actually just setting up your demographic information for all of your employees bank accounts and that very first payroll with the new payroll provider is clean. It's perfect. They're going to be the filing for the new year. The filing for the previous year is the old provider, so it's a beautiful time in payroll. Lots happening.

Daniel Blaser (02:37):

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. Brett, you kind of mentioned some of the customers that you've already been speaking with and specifically on the franchise side. I just wanted to tee it up because you are going to be sharing some of their perspectives. What are unique challenges faced by franchisees versus Jim's kind of talking about in general, like all companies, some of the challenges they face with payroll and hr, why are franchisees specifically? What are the unique challenges there?

Brett Spusta (03:18):

Yeah, it's a really good question and I think especially since covid, the HR challenges across the board have gotten a lot harder, but those have been really highlighted in franchisees. The pressure on wages, the competition for talent, this has all gotten much, much harder since covid. So we've really at workstream, spent a lot of time helping people hire the right people, and now we're learning with payroll. There's additional challenges that come with that. There's the uniqueness of having multiple locations. You might have locations in multiple states with different tax rules, local requirements, state requirements, federal requirements. You also have different ways to pay people. You have cash tips, you have pool tips, and everybody's payroll looks different every single week because they're all hourly and they might even have multiple roles in the company. You might be a driver one day and then a host the next day and a cook the next day, all with different pay rates. So it's really important for them to be able to find a tool that can help simplify all those challenges that come with being a franchisee and a multi-location hourly business owner.

Daniel Blaser (04:31):

Cool. Yeah, I wanted to ask that question right off the bat. Now I think we have some important context from Jim, why this is the right time to be thinking about next year's payroll, why you're kind of laying the groundwork, and then from Brett specifically on the franchisee side, there are some unique challenges for sure. So hopefully we can kind of address both perspectives as we chat today. But let's get started with everyone's favorite word, compliance. What are the most important pieces for companies specifically maybe franchisees to review right now to make sure that they are compliant in the year to come? Jim?

Jim Kohl (05:18):

Yeah, I mean, there's a ton of information that they can be doing right now, and arguably they should be doing it year round. Really staying on top of these things really helps to prevent any future issues. But the things that I like to think about, obviously verifying employee information, making sure that employees can access that data so that they can stay on top of updating if they're moving. I think Brett brought up some really good points. People who work in different positions, especially if they're working at different locations. One day they're working uptown, next day they're working downtown at different locations, making sure that information is staying in sync because they are going to get two W twos in that situation. Staying on top of state information, right? States are constantly changing laws, adding new taxes, updating, updating minimum wage. So a lot of labor law compliance is absolutely critical, and I'm sure Brett's got a lot of thoughts there as well.

(06:26):

I mentioned it before, but one of the big ones is just making sure employees stay on top of their W four. If their situation changes, they get married, they get divorced. It's not uncommon for folks to have more than one job nowadays and ensuring that that's recorded on their W four so that they're having the right amount of federal tax withheld and then their state withholding form as well, ensuring that they have the right amount of state tax withheld. I think I'm safe in saying this, but nobody wants to have a large tax bill when they're filing. So staying on top of that withholding information is absolutely critical. I think whether it's a franchise or a regular or a regular company that has multiple locations, ensuring that those locations are up to date. If certain locations close or you no longer have workers working in areas, you definitely want to close those. You don't want those state tax agencies expecting returns when you don't have anybody working there. So staying on top of what's open, what you're expecting to file. So those are a few areas that I would try to stay on top of and really keep up to date as often as possible.

Daniel Blaser (07:39):

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. One question that just kind of popped into mind as you were going through that list, A lot of things are always in flux when it comes to the federal government forms, that kind of thing. Are there any specific things on the compliance side that you know of that have changed over the last 12 months or anything that people should pay attention to specifically?

Jim Kohl (08:10):

So one of the big taxes that you're seeing start to pop up, I think all around the country is paid family leave taxes. I think there's about 15 or 16 states that have them available now. I think there's another four that are either looking to pass or have been passed and are going to be coming out next year. So being aware of those changes if you do have employees in those states is important. Another one, this is a really big one in the payroll world, but Alabama is changing overtime laws in 2024, so that's another one to be aware of if you do have folks in Alabama, but it just shows you just how disparate the states are from one to another. It can be really hard to do it yourself. That's why it's so important to have a really good payroll provider who can help you navigate these changes. They come fast and furious.

Daniel Blaser (09:05):

Yeah. Brett, I kind of wanted to ask you from what you've heard, work streams customers. I feel like when you're dealing with hourly employees, maybe there might be some additional challenges when it comes to just getting accurate information, making sure that information is up to date. Maybe someone who's earlier in their career, they're more likely to move and have their address change. Is that something that you've kind of heard from our customers as well?

Brett Spusta (09:36):

Yeah, definitely, and I think a big challenge of that. I think we can all agree that the tax forms are not exactly easy to figure out, especially if you've never done it before, and franchisees and GMs will spend a lot of time with new hires going through those documents with them to make sure that they're filled out correctly. They have all the necessary information, and so it is really important to have a way to do that efficiently so that they can start some of that process before they're working to not waste all of your GM's time sitting down with each new hire, but to also make sure that it's validated and correct. There's no errors in their withholding or their I nines or any other federal documents that they need to fill out. So that's a big point of concern for franchisees is making sure they have accurate data that it's in a system that's consistent. They don't want to have some data here, some data there. They want it all to be in one spot so they can go in and easily change it and have that ripple across their whole tech ecosystem.

Daniel Blaser (10:38):

Yeah, I didn't even think about that. A lot of if you're look at an average quick service restaurant, there's probably a lot of people who have never filled out some of those forms before, so that's definitely I think a valid thing to point out. Let's shift over to the benefits side of things, Jim. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what should be reviewed with benefits.

Jim Kohl (11:05):

Yeah, definitely. So a lot of companies will go through what's called a period of open enrollment where they're allowing all employees to select their benefits for the upcoming year. Do they want premiums? Are they willing to go less coverage F-S-A-H-S-A, and typically folks are opting into or opting out of 401k depending. So those are all things that I think always need to be reviewed with the new year coming, ensuring that you have a plan in place to have those new rates start with that very first payroll in the new year. You don't want to have to catch up on benefits or withhold at the wrong rate. Obviously, when you're dealing with pre-tax benefits, making those changes can be difficult because you're changing the tax amounts when you do need to make those updates. So those are definitely things to stay on top of 401k, they're going to release the 2024 rates.

(12:07):

HSA will probably go up. FSA will go up and making sure that folks know, am I single? Do I have a family? What's the amount I'm able to put into my benefits and ensure that they're prepared to do it. The other thing, and Brett, you kind of just inspired, inspired this, a lot of folks are younger, right? They don't know how to fill out some of these tax forms. I think also with younger folks, they don't really understand 401k and how that can be so impactful in their future life. Making a really good decision in your twenties can look amazing in your forties when you turn around and you're like, I had money going to a four one K for the last 20 years, didn't really even think about it, and now I feel very comfortable. So just having that sort of teaching moment with reviewing those rates can be really impactful, and like I said, it can change lives.

Brett Spusta (13:03):

I think to add to that too, Jim, on kind of looking at the compliance side of this, important to realize that certain states now are rolling out legislation to require 4 0 1 ks for full-time employees, and as franchisees think about adding a new location. There's certain states have employee thresholds that will put them into a required offering of healthcare or different benefit packages for their full-time employees, and then realizing you might hire someone as part-time, but if their average hours goes above 30, then they're considered full-time in the eyes of the state. So important to make sure that you're offering the right benefits, but also are in compliance with your state requirements around 401k and healthcare benefits for those managers and full-time employees.

Daniel Blaser (13:52):

I am glad that you pointed that out. I feel like something that I've heard from a handful of workstream customers is that one of the topics right now is just about seasonal hiring, maybe ramping up for a busy season. So to your point, Brett, if you hire somebody maybe a seasonal for seasonal help or you hire someone for part-time help, they do a great job, they are coming into the business more often and those hours get to that threshold. That's a great thing to point out. I'm glad you mentioned that. I feel like about this time of the year, maybe it's just me, but you're like, okay, we're getting close to the end of one year. Moving to the next one, you start to think, reflect back and also start to set some goals. So I just wanted to ask in a general sense, someone's listening to this, watching this, and they're thinking, okay, what sort of goals do I need to be setting to make sure that 2024 is like we talked about, compliant, the benefits are lined up, all that good stuff? Yeah. What sort of goals would you recommend that people consider setting Jim?

Jim Kohl (15:08):

I think we've already started to kind of hover in this area, but I just believe in general paycheck literacy and just literacy across, I think the whole payroll space is I think very helpful, especially for younger or hourly workers who don't entirely understand it. Brett, you talked about managers or heads of companies working with newer employees to help fill out that W four. That's a great step in the right direction, but then reviewing the withholdings from that W four because you might want to update that W four right afterwards. So sort of getting folks comfortable with this like, Hey, this form leads into your paycheck. What's withheld on your paycheck is because of what you put on this form, and really helping them understand the matrix behind being paid I think is a huge goal that I would love to see basically any company put in place.

(16:08):

I'm a huge advocate for folks really understanding their paycheck and on payday looking at their paycheck and not just their bank account. I think we all look at our bank account, we're like, Nope, good to go. But looking at that paycheck can be super powerful and really, really understanding how that works, why those amounts come out, where your taxed dollars are going is important. On top of that, I do believe that that leads into employee satisfaction in general. I think having a really good payroll system that employees are comfortable with, again, something they're comfortable accessing their own data, making those updates as life events happen, adding children, getting married, God forbid, getting divorced or some other change in that realm, adding a new job, knowing how to add those changes into a payroll system, I think is super important and I think does lead to employee satisfaction. The worst case scenario is an employee doesn't feel comfortable with their payroll system. They end up moving. They don't change it because afraid to go in there. They don't want to ask anybody. Next thing you know, it's six months later and they've been taxed in the wrong state the whole time. Nobody wants to end up in that situation. So having that literacy, having employee satisfaction, I think are huge, huge goals that companies can set to really set off on the right foot.

Daniel Blaser (17:38):

Brett, that kind of inspired a question that I wanted to ask you. I like the term, I think, Jim, you used the term paycheck literacy maybe, and I think that's a great, but Brett, the question for you is with a lot of these, if you have a hundred employees, 200 employees, like you mentioned, a lot of them are earlier in their careers, there might need to be a lot of education so that they do understand this form leads to this on your paycheck and here's what everything means. Jim also mentioned just feeling comfortable updating, and that just seems like a really big lift for some of these franchisees to help their employees feel empowered. What have you kind of heard? Is that a big challenge? How are some of these franchisees addressing this?

Brett Spusta (18:30):

I think an important part of that is how do you weave that into your onboarding process and how do you make your onboarding really simple for employees to go through? Can you prompt them in the onboarding? We always joke about our onboarding process being kind of the TurboTax style of onboarding where you're not actually having to fill out PDF forms. We're really just asking questions about your tax status and then filling out those forms for you to go and verify and sign. So how do you make those onboarding forms easier to understand and include some prompts on filling them out correctly? And I think as far as goal setting too, to touch on employee satisfaction, we know especially in hourly businesses, that first 30 to 90 days is really, really important for your new employees in reducing your churn, and how can you use your onboarding and payroll as really a competitive advantage when it comes to talent?

(19:29):

Can you increase your pay frequency from biweekly to weekly to make it easier for your employees to meet their financial requirements? Can you be more clear on their pay stubs about where those dollars are coming from, like Jim was talking about? So I think there's a lot of really cool ways that business owners can think about using the onboarding and payroll experience as a competitive advantage for talent and getting employees really excited about working at this company because they truly don't understand how they're getting paid, why they're getting paid, and it's really meeting their needs from a financial requirements for their families and their obligations.

Daniel Blaser (20:05):

I love that you said that because I feel like obviously you need to have a payroll system in place. There are certain requirements, but like you said, it can really be a competitive advantage when it comes to trying to fill open roles, trying to encourage people to apply at your business. You can kind of flip the thinking a little bit from just a must have must do to something that's actually a differentiator. So I love that you brought that up. I feel like we've talked a lot about processes and stuff like that, but I think when you think of this time of year, it can be a good time to actually look at what sort of technology are you using at your company, what sort of platforms, how are they talking to each other? Because when we're talking about goals, whether it's empowering employees or moving quickly or staying compliant, you're kind of only so good as the tools and the platforms that you have access to, so you need to make sure those things aren't standing in the way of achieving your goals for the new year. I'd love to hear, what are your thoughts? What should teams be looking for when they're taking a look at, okay, here's what we've got in place right now as far as technology. Is this going to be good enough? Are we missing a key component? Yeah, what would you recommend, Jim?

Jim Kohl (21:38):

Yeah, in the payroll world, I think one of the most important things, and I think any payroll admin's best friend is going to be reporting, right? They're very dependent on reporting to ensure that when they're running the payroll, they have everything they need on there. Did they remove terminated employees? Did they add the new hires? Are they seeing bonuses? Everything that they're doing that payroll, they want to make sure it's 100% accurate before it goes out the door. So I think reporting is a big one. Obviously the ease of use I think is important, but then when things go wrong, what support are you going to provide me when inevitably an issue comes up in payroll, right? Understanding the support you're going to get I think is also super important. I do think understanding how hourly workers are going to be impacted by the system. Brett, you talked about if you are biweekly, what's changing to weekly? A good payroll provider's going to tell you exactly how to facilitate that. I think starting to address those things or understand how a payroll provider approaches those things or what they have available is a great place to start. When you're looking at new technology.

Daniel Blaser (22:52):

Brett, I know as you've been speaking with a lot of workstream customers about payroll, I'm sure you've heard some specific things that they're looking for, so maybe a little bit unique to the franchise QSR world. What are some of those things that matter?

Brett Spusta (23:09):

Yeah, I think support is definitely a really big one. Like Jim said, especially with franchisees, they don't work a nine to five, so they might be running payroll on a Sunday night and they need to get it approved for Monday morning so their people can get paid, so they didn't know that they have access to somebody when they need it, and that might not be during your normal business hours. On top of that, they're not business owners, they're not HR professionals, and oftentimes they don't have the luxury of having a full HR team to help them with payroll. So they're relying on their GMs, their director of operations and themselves to make sure that their payroll is done on time and accurately. So making sure that it's really simple to use. It's not over complicated. They don't have to worry about all these different types of pay codes and requisitions and some of the complications that can come with more traditional HR processes is really important I think, for business owners that are just trying to have a simple, efficient, and easy to use system so that their people get paid on time because ultimately that's one of the most important things to them.

Daniel Blaser (24:16):

Yeah, definitely makes a lot of sense. This question, Jim, is maybe sort of generic, but I'd love to hear what other pieces have we maybe missed we haven't addressed yet. When it comes to teams that want to be maximized their payroll process, make sure it's as smooth as possible. All the wrinkles are ironed out,

Jim Kohl (24:46):

The best payroll, and I think the best payroll experience is the one you don't have to think about. You get paid on payday and it's perfect week in and week out. I think that's always the goal, but that doesn't happen without a lot of work behind the scenes. So I think in general, just having a really strong focus on payroll hygiene is important. Everything you do upfront will ensure a better downstream, better downstream scenario for payroll in general. Everything you do today for your payroll system for your people can make it easier in the future. That's always going to be beneficial. Any time you're doing an audit, anytime you're reviewing the payroll, anytime you're looping in your employees to have them review their information, all of that is going to be beneficial to avoid those large stream issues we talked about earlier. One of the hardest things can be being taxed in the wrong state for multiple pay periods, not as easy as just flipping that information.

(26:08):

Now you have to talk to one state and say, oh, we paid you too much money. Go to another state and say, Hey, we didn't pay you enough, and it's a dance that you have to do. Good payroll providers know how to do these things, but I always like to say the best correction is the one you never have to, the one you never have to do, or the best amendment is the one you never have to do. So I think any proactive time or energy or scheduling that you put into payroll is always going to pay off in the future. I can't help but be cognizant of the fact that we have a lot of holidays coming up and people deserve their time off. They deserve time with their families to enjoy these occasions, but realizing holidays impact payroll, right? You can't date it for that day. So knowing, Hey, I'm going to have to approve it early, or I want to make sure that I know who's going to approve it when I'm off that week, whatever it is, making sure that you are thinking through the next few weeks because of those holidays, which are bank holidays, and you can't schedule payroll those days. So it's making sure that you have a plan can also be really beneficial.

Daniel Blaser (27:18):

No, I'm glad that you added that because when it all comes down to it, all these factors really can impact employee satisfaction, employee engagement, which in turn, as we know, leads to maybe retention problems if you're not addressing them, and now you're back to the beginning trying to fill roles that are open at the wrong time, so it makes sense how it all can feed into the larger equation. Now, Brett, I wanted to ask you, Jim mentioned the best payroll process is the one you don't have to think about. As you've been talking to some of our customers about work stream's, new payroll feature, what is exciting to them or what have they mentioned as being the thing that stands out?

Brett Spusta (28:09):

Yeah. Yeah. I think there's a lot to be excited about for workstream. I think the number one thing people are excited about is just that same look and feel and user friendliness that they're used to seeing with our hiring and onboarding. Jim had mentioned earlier, how do we get more people to look at their pay stub instead of just their bank account, similar to how we work with hiring, getting a text that says you've been paid with a link to look at your pay stub instead of having to log into an HR tool or look at your email. So trying to gear what we're doing towards the hourly worker and franchise owners and making it easy for both a business owner to run their payroll, have all their data in one spot, have it be clean and accurate and validated, but then also how do we think about the employee experience and make it really awesome for them to have a great first 90 days to know when they're getting paid, to trust that it's hitting their bank account at the right time, and to really shift communication to where people want it, which is texting, especially in the hourly workforce.

(29:15):

We have younger employees there that are not looking at their emails. They're not like us who are sitting at a desk all day waiting for emails to come in. They're on the floor, they're working. GMs are very busy. They don't sit in a back office. So how can we shift things to be more mobile friendly, be more geared towards people who are on the go and not sitting at a desk, the desk-less workforce, and just keep it really, really simple so that you don't have to go through a six month implementation process to roll out a new HR tool. How can we get you going in 30 days with new hiring, payroll and onboarding tools all in one that's really simple to use for your whole team? So I think that's where people are really excited is just how simple and easy it is to use and following that same kind of mobile friendly geared towards the desk-less workforce that we've seen in the other workstream products.

Daniel Blaser (30:11):

Awesome. Well, I'm glad the response has been so positive up to this point. I'm looking at the clock. I think we have time for a few questions. If you're both game, we got these questions ahead of time, and the first one is for Jim. Given we're just a couple days removed from Halloween, I'm still kind of in the Halloween mood personally, but I'd love to hear what is the scariest payroll story that you have heard or seen?

Jim Kohl (30:43):

Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of these.

(30:46):

I think one of the worst days of my career was at one of my previous companies, we had a service where anyone who wanted a printed check, we would print it from my company's bank account. So we would collect all of the funds upfront and then cut the checks for those employees. It's easier for employers. They don't have to wait for each of those checks to be cashed because it's all coming out in one lump sum and then cashed on the payroll provider. Great service. What had happened was there was a Friday where there was an issue that every single check that was cut from our bank had all zeros on the check, so no one could cash these checks. Every single phone line was lit up. I mean, there was thousands of people that couldn't cash their checks that day because of the zeros on the bank stubs.

(31:44):

We ended up having to work with our printer. We had a local printer that we were able to work with, and we ended up getting checks out by the end of the day, very hard situation. Had to talk through it with a lot of very upset employers. So that's probably my biggest nightmare. There is a lot of upset employers, but I will say maybe one piece of advice coming out of all of this, I think any company is doing themself a disservice if they don't have a disaster plan, if they don't have a contingency plan, right? Payroll providers always want to ensure that companies get paid timely and accurately, but worst case scenario, having a backup plan, especially now in 2023 when there's so many different ways to get folks paid, just that in your back pocket, like, Hey, if for whatever reason we can't get everybody paid, we're sending out digital payments to folks we have in-house checkbook that we're going to cut checks to everybody, whatever that backup plan is, just being prepared for it. No payroll provider ever doesn't want to get folks paid, but God forbid all the zeros print out. Again, it's good to have folks with a backup plan there.

Daniel Blaser (33:04):

It's a great story. Very scary though, but I think you mentioned a great piece of advice about making sure you're partnering with a provider that has contingency plans. It goes back to what we were saying about making sure that you feel supported, that you have a good point of contact. All of those things feed into that. Definitely. Brett, I have a question for you. You were talking about one of the things that people have liked about the workstream payroll product so far is just like the familiarity, obviously, but when it comes to bundling your payroll with another existing platform that you're already using, maybe like your a TS or something, what are some of the other benefits beyond just it's familiar and it's one less platform to manage?

Brett Spusta (33:51):

Yeah. I think especially around bundling that a big advantage you get is just accuracy. There's a lot less room for user error if you're not having to manually type in data in multiple places, especially if it's sensitive data like direct deposit or W four information, and beyond that, I think some of the big advantages is having a tool that's really built for your business. I think there's a lot of great payroll tools out there that are solving a lot of problems for a lot of different businesses, and where we really want to focus is solving problems for hourly workers in the dusk list workforce, and building specific reports in permission levels and roles that are going to align with your business. So having that bundle that is really built to solve the HR challenges for the uniqueness of franchisees in multi-location hourly businesses is something that's going to have big effects on your accuracy, your efficiency, and just overall satisfaction from your employees and your managers on managing these HR administrative functions.

Daniel Blaser (34:57):

Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I think we have one more question for Jim. Jim, when you talk about this concept of payroll hygiene, I think that's a great term. I've heard this term sleep hygiene, and I think it feels similar to me, where it's like this thing that requires constant dedication, but it will pay dividends of your overall health. So payroll hygiene is a great way to frame it. What resources can you recommend if someone's like, oh, yeah, I want to make sure that we increase or check up on our payroll hygiene

Jim Kohl (35:37):

Outside of watching this video on repeat, right?

Daniel Blaser (35:40):

Of course. Of course.

Jim Kohl (35:41):

Yeah, of course. Well, I mean, check hq, I mean, we're always posting great stuff on our blog. There's a lot of great information that's available there. Separately, there is a payroll organization called Pay org, formerly the American Payroll Association. They're always putting out a ton of great information, and they do have a lot of local chapters, so if folks want to get connected with their local chapter, I think that's always a great way to stay on top of information. There is also a couple of really good podcasts that I like. In the payroll world Pay Talk is one of them that's put out from the payroll organization, HR and Payroll 2.0. There's a lot of great payroll information out there. If you throw it in a search bar, you're going to get something good. But those are a few of the resources I appreciate.

Daniel Blaser (36:45):

Thank you for listening to On The Clock. For more info, visit workstream us slash podcast. Until next time, we're clocking out.