7 Compelling Reasons Retailers Should Trust Professionals with their Payroll

Payroll can be a real headache for any business, and for retailers, it’s even more challenging. With a mix of salaried and hourly employees, varying rates, overtime, shift changes, and the occasional no-show, it’s enough to make your head spin. And let’s not forget about keeping up with ever-changing tax regulations, credits, benefits, and emergency tax bands – it’s like a full-time job just trying to stay in the loop.

While payroll is an unavoidable expense, it doesn’t have to be an expensive one. Here are seven compelling reasons why you should seriously consider outsourcing your payroll to AG Associates who specialize in payroll for retail:

1. Streamline Your Payroll Costs

Let’s face it: payroll takes up a lot of time. From gathering employee information to actually running the payroll, it can eat into your valuable hours. And if you’re doing it weekly, the hours can really add up.

Take a moment to think about how much time you spend on payroll-related tasks like tax filing, wage-slips, and answering employee questions. You might be surprised at how much you could save by letting the professionals handle it.

2. Boost Your Team’s Efficiency

Imagine what your employees could accomplish if they didn’t have to worry about payroll? By outsourcing this time-consuming task, you free up their valuable time for more important work.

Your in-house accountant or accounts clerk could focus on analysing your financials, preparing reports and identifying ways to improve your bottom line. Let them do what they do best – identifying monthly gross margins, liquidity ratios, cashflow statements and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which will help your business thrive.

3. Ensure Pinpoint Accuracy

Unless you’re a payroll expert, mistakes are bound to happen. But when it comes to payroll, even small errors can lead to big problems. The onus is on you – the employer – to ensure the correct amount of taxes are deducted, in terms of PAYE, PRSI, USC, LPT etc and returned to the Revenue on time. Getting it wrong opens you up to trouble with Revenue.

The last thing any business owner needs is to face penalties and back payments to the Revenue. That’s why it’s crucial to have experts who know the ins and outs of tax deductions and filing deadlines, e.g. P35 returns are February 15th and P60s must be generated and distributed at the beginning of the calendar year.

4. Master Sick Pay and Disability Pay

Dealing with sick and disability pay can be a headache on its own. And in the retail industry, where these situations are more common, you need to get it right. For example since 1 January 2023, there is statutory sick pay to consider and Under the new regime, employees will have an entitlement to three days of paid sick leave in 2023, and this will be rolled out as part of a four-year plan, with employees having an entitlement to 10 days paid sick leave by year four. The onus is on you to ensure all payroll deductions are correctly applied.

5. Understand Holiday Pay Entitlements

Similarly, holiday pay is also a topic that can cause confusion for many retailers. The rules and calculations can be tricky, and you don’t want to make mistakes that could lead to unhappy employees or legal issues.

Everyone is entitled to holiday pay and days off, it just depends on how much work is done in the leave year and how it is calculated. It could be 8% of hours worked or 4 weeks off or one third of a working week. And you need to know what days are considered ‘working hours’. Bank holiday entitlements is another area of confusion which isn’t often calculated correctly.

6. Stay on Top of Training and Best Practices

Payroll regulations are ever-changing, and it’s essential to keep up with the latest updates. From annual budget changes to employment rights and compliance requirements, you need to stay informed to avoid any surprises. By outsourcing your payroll, you ensure that your payroll provider is up-to-date with all the latest changes and best practices. Plus, confidentiality is guaranteed, so you can rest easy knowing that your payroll data is in safe hands.

7. Ensure Continuity in Payroll Operations

When it comes to payroll, there are no exceptions or sick days. Your employees rely on getting paid on time, every time. But what happens if your payroll person is out sick? Your employees will be affected.

Let’s avoid that.

To conclude, your wage bill is probably the biggest bill in your company. It’s important to get it precise, on-time and delivered professionally.

Contact us here at AG Associates and we’ll help you with your payroll.

AG Associates – Your Retail Payroll Partner

Precise | Punctual | Professional