April just so happens to be “Records and Information Management Month,” a holiday created in 1995 by the ARMA International, which is a professional association that emphasizes the significance of document and information management, and its impact on business worldwide. In honor of Records and Information Management Month, here are two ways to keep your accounting and/or payroll software records safe.

Menu level security

Menu level security allows you to password protect databases, set up additional users, and track transactions entered by each user. You can also limit access to menu selections, so that an employee can only access the screens you allow. Using menu level security helps keep your data safe, while allowing employees access to the screens they need to perform their job.

Create and test backups often

Everyone keeps bugging you about making sure you get backups often. Don’t you wish they would just quit bugging you? Well, they are right. We are a software company providing support to our customers nationwide, and we see the unthinkable happen far too often: customers losing their data, partially or totally. The reasons for the loss of data are varied, but the inability to recover that data is due to the lack of a backup, or a backup that was never tested and doesn’t work. Just like so many other things, most businesses think it won’t happen to them. But it can. So take your backup and test it often.

Oh, and happy Records and Information Management Month!

Managing payroll for multiple companies is a big task. And the more locations you manage the bigger task it becomes. Whether it’s paying employees, managing employee information, running reports by location, or the multitude of other payroll functions you must handle for multiple locations, you need a way to stay organized, accurate, and timely. Here are some ways your payroll software can help.

Unlimited Companies

If you manage the payroll for multiple companies, it’s crucial for you to have the ability to keep track of them separately. Many payroll systems allow for just one company, some have a limit for the number you can manage within the system and others allow for unlimited companies. Due to the variations in payroll systems, be sure you choose a system that can grow with your company and handle all of the different companies for which it manages payroll.

Track Data by Location, Department, Project, etc.

Tracking the payroll data for different companies can be a helpful tool. For instance, maybe you want to compare the labor costs by department or by location. Setting up and tracking that information in your payroll system makes it easy to pull reports at any time to do the comparisons you require.

Direct Deposit with Publish Pay Advice

Managing the payroll for multiple companies means you may not be near enough to some of the companies to deliver physical pay checks to employees. This issue can be solved by paying employees via direct deposit, and delivering their pay advice or ‘stub’ electronically via e-mail and that is accessed securely on the internet. This eliminates the need to print anything at all, which also saves money on paper, ink, time stuffing envelopes, and more.

Multiple State Tax Filing

Having multiple companies typically involves employees in multiple states, and therefore you must be certain your payroll software can handle that, since not all systems do. The best way to be sure your system processes multiple state tax filing, is to implement a system that can handle the tax forms for all 50 states! Even if you don’t require it now, chances are you will down the line.

Import Time Electronically

To streamline the entry of pay for multiple companies, importing time directly from an electronic source can be helpful. A digital time clock, for example, allows you to import the time and populate the hours directly into your payroll software program, reducing errors by eliminating the double entry of information. Other ways to capture time include hand-held time capture devices and online time entry.

Customized Reports

No two businesses are alike, and that’s why each business has its own way of running reports. With different companies, the ability to run reports the way each company desires can be extremely helpful. Customize payroll reports to the exact specifications each company chooses, and then save and name them for easy access whenever you want to run them.

Check Designer

Each company’s payroll likely requires different check designs or styles. One way to handle this is to use your payroll system’s check designer to create and save appropriate check designs for each company. Many designers will allow you to add, delete or edit fields of information and even add a logo. You can go step further and print checks on blank check stock using MICR encoding. The MICR function also allows you to print a custom signature from a file on pay checks, especially helpful in the case where the person signing is not always nearby or available to sign pay checks.

Accounting Software is a tool that can help you manage your financial information and keep track of a variety of business data. Of course its main purpose is to give you a clear view of your financial and profitability status. In addition, the right accounting software can make a drastic difference in the efficiency of your office! That’s why it’s important to be sure your software is keeping up with your business needs. If you outgrow your accounting software, your financial data may become questionable, and your efficiency may go downhill. So how do you know if you are outgrowing your software? Here are three clues you are headed in that direction!

You can’t get the information you need.

The main purpose of accounting software is to provide you with the data you need for your company. Perhaps you want to see how profitable you have been for a period of time or whether you can afford a high dollar purchase. You should be able to gather that type of important information out of your accounting system, without any problem or hassle. If you find that the information you need is difficult to obtain, or takes a lot of manual calculations, it might just be time to look for a new system that can give you the information you need.

Processes take forever.

If data entry seems to take a long time, functions such as entering invoices or other information into your accounting system, you should check into why that is happening. Perhaps your needs have grown and you are no longer able to enter information in a way that fits your business. Your business may have grown to need purchase order management or order entry. These, along with many other accounting software features, are things that companies start without, but find useful as they grow. Look at the processes that have become time consuming, and see if your current system can be set up to handle them. And if not, you may be ready to move on to something new.

Your system seems frustrating rather than helpful.

Let’s be real here; all accounting software is frustrating when it’s brand new. But, shortly after you begin using it, you should start to feel it become a big help to you. If you have been using an accounting system for a long time, you may start to find yourself ‘tricking’ the system or creating your own workarounds to get it to do what you want it to do. This becomes a huge waste of time, and can also be very frustrating. It’s also a sign that you may want to start searching for a new accounting software system.

No matter where you are in your business lifecycle, your business can outgrow the accounting software you are using. Knowing when to move on and search for something new that fits better can keep your business running smoothly and also provide the tools you need to understand your business finances. For free accounting software guides, check lists and articles to help you find the right accounting software for your business, visit https://www.redwingsoftware.com/home/find-accounting-software.

There has been a trend in the last couple of years to use accounting software as a service or ‘in the cloud’, which basically means using the software which is hosted on somebody else’s server, instead of your own. You access the software and your data via the internet. No matter whether you prefer cloud-based or installed accounting software, you should always be sure that if your data is hosted elsewhere, the company you are working with is a trusted partner. Here’s why it is so important.

Security

When your data is hosted outside of your facility, somebody else is in charge of the security. Therefore, the more familiar you are with these people, the more confident you will feel with your data in their hands. And while pricing is important, probably the most important thing is trust. So choose a trusted partner, rather than an unfamiliar vendor who gives you the lowest price.

Control

If something goes wrong with the company hosting your data, you will want to be sure your data is safe. Think SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act, U.S. House of Representatives) and PIPA (Protect IP Act, U.S. Senate). These bills are aimed at foreign Web sites that infringe copyrighted material. These two pieces of legislation could greatly affect the use of data on the internet. Who will regulate what? Which site might be shut down as time goes on, in the quest to stop online piracy? No matter what, you will want to be sure your data is controlled by the company you have carefully chosen and trust. Of course, no matter whether your data is stored internally or externally, there are risks. But you can cut down on the risk by choosing an external host who is a trusted partner.

Backup

Never underestimate the importance of a good backup. When your data is hosted elsewhere, there is somebody else besides you in control of backing up your data, so you should check into how they are handling that. Make sure you are comfortable with the frequency with which they back up your data, and also the procedures they use to do so.

The internet is becoming more useful to businesses every single day. And yes, we should all take advantage of the time and cost savings benefits that it can provide. Simply be aware of the risks and dangers of hosting your data with somebody else, be sure you are working with a trusted partner, and most importantly, keep an updated backup of your data. There are circumstances for which you should weigh your options very carefully before moving forward. With whom you host your data, the heart of your business, is one of those times.

Many businesses start out by paying employees by hand. As a business grows, so does the number of employees, and along with those employees comes a growing variety of payroll needs. Managing earnings like paid time off, wage garnishment, overtime calculations, and a host of other options can become complex and nearly impossible to manage on paper. Enter: payroll software. Are you ready to say good bye to the long green sheets and manually processing payroll, for a long term solution that can streamline your payroll processes and save you time and lots of headaches? This article may just help you make your decision.

Tracking pay and deductions: Keeping track of pay and deduction types can become difficult as a business grows. Each employee has their own set of specific needs: hourly or salaried, regular or overtime hours, 401K participation or not, and these are just for starters! If you are tracking this information by hand, it becomes hard to know if what you have written down is the most current. A software system keeps track of this information with codes; each employee is linked to a code that fits how they are paid. This way you can be sure that the employee gets that pay or deduction type, and when payday comes, pay entry is a snap because calculations are done automatically behind the scenes, providing a fast and accurate pay process.

Tax payments: If you are worried about your payroll tax payments being timely and accurate, this may be a sign that it’s time to automate the process. Calculating these payments is a very complex and time consuming process, especially as your number of employees grows. Most payroll software programs will have the tax calculations you need already built into the system, so rather than calculating each employee’s tax by hand, you simply run a report for the tax form you need, and the information will be generated directly from the pay that you have entered into the system. Some programs even offer complete online filing “eFiling” capabilities, so that nothing needs to be printed, and the process is completed electronically, saving you money on costly forms, envelopes, stamps, and most importantly, your valuable time.

Support: Processing payroll by hand means you are going it alone, and have nobody to turn to when you have questions about payroll processing. This is a major advantage offered by most payroll software companies! Support services are offered to customers, so a source is available when questions or problems arise. This is especially helpful when there is a time crunch for completing your payroll!

Switching from hand-processing to a software program sounds daunting, but the majority of people are pleasantly surprised to learn how much time can be saved and how accuracy is increased after implementing a good payroll software program. To make the transition easier, create a plan for your switch, including a timeline and all the necessary steps. And when it comes time to make the switch, be sure to use all the help provided by your new software provider. You will be glad you did!