Intuit Payroll Blog

Free Payroll/Employee Management Events this Month

As we learned in last month's Intuit Payroll survey, a significant portion of small businesses are planning to hire within the next 12 months. At the same time, there are challenges to attracting and managing these future employees. If you fall into one or both of these categories, we're offering a series of free online webinars which address many of the common issues you may be dealing with:

• Employee Management and Motivating Your Staff: Wed, Nov. 11th at 9:30am PT
• Getting QuickBooks Payroll Right From the Start: Tues, Nov. 17th at 11:00am PT
• QuickBooks Payroll at Year-End: Wed, Nov. 18th at 11:00am PT
• How to Select the Best Employees: Thurs, Nov. 19th at 11:00am PT

You can register for these events and others at our Intuit Live Events page.

Are the Clouds Beginning to Part?

Our latest Intuit Payroll survey findings are out, and the results give me hope. While unemployment figures have reached a 26-year high, 44 percent of the 1,000 Intuit Payroll customers we surveyed said they plan to hire new employees within the next 12 months. Now, don’t get me wrong — we here at Intuit are not uncorking the champagne bottles quite yet. But we do think this is at least one sign that the clouds are beginning to part.

Although we’ll start seeing more “now hiring” signs hanging in windows, business owners are facing a dilemma when it comes to attracting strong talent. Nearly 90 percent of our survey participants cited health insurance benefits as an important carrot in attracting and retaining good employees. Yet nearly 60 percent don’t actually offer healthcare insurance of any kind.  The most cited reason: high cost.  Employer-provided retirement plans are even scarcer. Just a quarter of the businesses surveyed offer them. 

So what I’m seeing is a widening gap of expectations, in which society assumes that health and retirement benefits are part of every employee’s compensation package, but small business owners are particularly worried about being able to afford the cost of these benefits. And rightfully so.

Now back to the good news. For those of you who are looking to staff up, or even just thinking about it, we’ve put together some useful tips for you on how to get started and manage employees at: http://IntuitOnlinePayroll.com/hire.

These are just a few of my observations. You can make your own by checking out the survey results at: Intuit Payroll Survey Stats. And then come back here and let me know — is this what you’re experiencing in your business?

Nora Denzel is SVP of Intuit’s Employee Management Solutions Division. Nora grew up helping run the family business, an organic cattle ranch in upstate New York. 

Accountants: Save the Date for a Free Payroll Virtual Conference

Making Payroll Painless and Profitable

Join this special web event and learn from thought leaders such as Darren Root and Doug Sleeter - find out how thousands of accountants are making payroll profitable and helping their clients save money. The sessions will review the opportunities, products and services that meet the combined needs of both accounting professionals and their clients, at whatever level they choose to be involved with their clients’ payroll.  Attendees will have the opportunity to earn CPE credits and learn from their peers.

Keynote speakers include Darren Root, CPA, CITP, and Executive Editor of CPA Technology Advisor, and Intuit’s Nora Denzel, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Employee Management Solutions.

When:  October 28, 2009, 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time

For More Info or to Register for Free: http://events.unisfair.com/rt/vcon09~payroll

Intuit's Commitment to Accounting Professionals

Are you an accounting professional interested in how Intuit can help grow your business? Are you curious about what our recent acquisition of PayCycle will mean for accountants? Check out this 10-minute interview with Intuit's Director of Marketing for Payroll Services (Cameron Schmidt) to find the answers to these questions, and to learn more about how we're working with accounting professionals and small businesses to meet their needs. For more information on Intuit Payroll solutions for accountants, check out this overview.

PayCycle Gets a New Name

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." – Shakespeare

PayCycle was acquired by Intuit a little over a month ago.  Since then, I’ve been adjusting to the new environment.  I’ve slogged through a dizzying-- albeit very pleasant-- array of new benefits, navigated and gotten lost on the new Intranet, and struggled to remember the names and functions of the bevy of new co-workers I’ve met.  Despite the changes though, I’ve been very gratified to learn that the core mission of PayCycle, now Intuit Online Payroll and Intuit Online Payroll for Accounting Professionals, remains the same.  That mission is to delight our customers with our product and our excellent service.  One of Intuit’s operating values is that our customers define quality and I think that perfectly expresses the approach and philosophy with which we will continue to address our customers’ needs. 

New name, same value, same service, same customer commitment.  Being able to deliver on the same promise I’ve made to customers over the last five years makes me very proud to now be a Customer Care leader for Intuit!

Kathleen Echeverria

Leader of Customer Care, Intuit Online Payroll

Help Your Favorite Local Business Win a $1,000 Grant!

Do a good deed.  Pay it forward.  Build good Karma. 

"Love a Local Business" is your chance to help your favorite small businesses thrive.  A few kind words of praise will put your favorite businesses on the Love a Local Business map (click "Put Them on the Map!" below). Each comment you add gives them a chance to win one of thirty $1000 Intuit Growth Grants.

At the end of each week, 5 of your favorite local businesses will be selected to receive a $1000 Intuit Growth Grant. Each week that you add a new comment, you give them a new chance to win.

You can even nominate your own business! Let your community and customers know why you love serving them.

Do you want to do even more to help the local business you love? You can help increase the odds for your favorite local business to win a growth grant. Add the Love A Local Business widget (ie, the map above) to your own website or blog and ask your friends and fans to support them too. Just click the  image in the widget below to get the embed code.

Good luck!

Intuit Payroll team

Intuit Payroll Survey: SMBs Rely on Themselves, Not Government, for Success

According to a new survey of more than 1,000 Intuit Payroll customers, small business employers in overwhelming numbers are relying on themselves - and not government - to weather the economic climate.

94 percent of those responding say the health of their business depends more on what they can do for themselves rather than on what the government can do for them. In addition, 86 percent do not believe the federal economic stimulus plan will directly benefit their business, while 75 percent do not believe the government offers them enough support.

Saving money tops the lists of concerns among 94 percent of those surveyed, with payroll comprising between 25 and 50 percent of operational costs for many of these employers. Some 47 percent have already reduced their own pay or have not paid themselves at all, while just 22 percent have laid off employees.

Payroll regulations also dominated employers’ concerns, with 84 percent of respondents worried about staying in compliance with federal, state and local regulations to avoid penalties. Their concerns seem justified. This is notable as, according to a recent government report American small businesses are behind on their payroll taxes - to the tune of about $58 billion.

Even with the downbeat economy, employers remain upbeat about growth prospects. Sixty-one percent expect their business to grow in the next 12 months. They plan to invest to fuel that growth, in everything from advertising and marketing (65 percent), employee training and development (55 percent) and new equipment (48 percent). One-third believe it’s important to invest in business or financial software in the coming year to help better manage their business.

But this bullish appraisal does not translate into broader optimism. Some 56 percent of respondents believe the recession will last another two years or more.

For additional results, please check out: Intuit Payroll Survey Stats

Intuit Payroll team

Intuit to acquire PayCycle

Just announced today - Intuit has signed a definitive agreement to purchase PayCycle. Check out our press release which has additional details.

Need QuickBooks Payroll Help? Answers Inside…

My friends Bob and Barbara Glass run Bad Ass Coffee, a gourmet speciality coffee shop and deli in Santa Cruz, California.  On any day of the week, the place is buzzing with people drinking coffee, eating sandwiches, and purchasing coffee beans and logowear. There are a dizzying number of tasks that must be done to keep the business running smoothly: ordering coffee beans, making coffee, hiring baristas, keeping customers happy, and yes, paying employees. Bob and Barbara are like many of you: small business owners who need to pay employees quickly and accurately, then get back to running their business.

We know how busy you are. When you have a question about how to use our product, we want you to find the answer quickly and easily. That’s why we’ve built Help right into QuickBooks Payroll.

Get your questions answered in Help:

When you have a question on how to use our product, try going to our in-product Help by selecting QuickBooks Help from the Help Menu:

 

Click on the Search tab and type your question into the search field:

 

 

You’ll see a list of topics that we think will answer your question. If you select “Write a bonus check”, you’ll find step-by-step instructions on creating bonus checks for employees. 

 

 

We’ve designed our Help topics so they’re easy to read. If you need more information on a specific topic, click on the underlined text to get more information.

 

 

Want to find out how other Payroll users would answer your question?

You can also use the Help window to get advice from other QuickBooks Payroll users. Just click on the Live Community tab in the Help window (or Live Community directly from the Help Menu).  When you type your question into the Live Community search, you’ll see how other Payroll users and experts have answered the same (and similar) questions.  

If you type “How do I create a bonus check?” then click “Ask My Question” you’ll see that someone already asked the Community that question and got fourteen responses from QuickBooks Payroll users.

 

 

Still need more information?

If you select “Support” from the Help Menu, we’ll take you directly to the support site for your version of QuickBooks Payroll.  You can search our KnowledgeBase for up to date information on a variety of Payroll issues and questions.

Lesley Kew
Senior Manager, Information Management and Design
Intuit Payroll team

ViewMyPaycheck from a developer's perspective

Last month we talked about our ViewMyPaycheck beta which which allows employees to access their paycheck information anytime, anywhere. In this video we interview our lead Product Manager and Developers to discuss how ViewMyPaycheck came to life from a development perspective. If you're interested in development and deployment be sure to check out the interview!