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Have you ever wondered how much it costs your small business to pay its employees? Do you want to know what percentage of your revenue is being spent on payroll? Are you curious about how many hours your employees are working each week?
The answers to these questions lie in your payroll reports!
Payroll reports provide small business owners with a snapshot of the amount of money being paid to employees, how much it costs per pay period and how much is left over for other business expenses — without having to go through all of your peoples’ pay cheques!
Like other financial reports, payroll reports give companies a way to track and analyze their costs, as well as keep tabs on their revenue streams. Think of it as an important piece of the financial health puzzle. This information helps you make smart decisions about where to spend money and where to cut back to help keep costs low while still maintaining an awesome business for your customers.
When you’re running a small business, you need to know where your money is going and how much you have left over at the end of each month. If you don’t know this information, then it’s impossible for you to make decisions about how much money should be spent on different things or to know whether or not there will be enough money for paying bills or making payroll.
So, what exactly are payroll reports?
Simply put, payroll reports are collections of data related to your pay runs neatly packed into a document or spreadsheet that provide you with important information that you use to file with the government. But more than that, these reports also serve as practical tools for analyzing the costs associated with your payroll and payroll processes.
The different types of small business payroll reports.
Payroll reports aren’t all built the same. Each one serves its own unique purpose and can benefit you in a different way. And, in Wagepoint, there are a few key payroll reports to keep your eyes on.
The following reports are generated as soon as you run a payroll with Wagepoint.
Payroll Register
Your Payroll Register report shows you a breakdown of information categorized by employee and also includes departmental and company totals. Current and year-to-date information, such as hours, federal and provincial taxes and deductions and benefits, are also found in this report. Here, you can also find information about your gross wages, employee and employer taxes, and net pay.
Workers’ Compensation
The Workers’ Compensation report lists out all of the people on your team who have a Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) rate assigned to them as well as amounts calculated towards WCB contributions.
Receiver General Report
The Receiver General report shows a bunch of useful details surrounding the different deductions and contributions that go into a pay run. This includes your team’s gross pay, taxable gross income and the amount of tax for payroll deductions such as for income tax, Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) and Employment Insurance (EI).
Paystubs
The Paystubs report lists any details related to employee pay. This includes employee taxes, deductions and net pay.
Year-to-date (YTD)
The Year-to-date (YTD) report serves as an annual recap of employment income and taxes for each employee.
Posting Journal
The Posting Journal report lists out all of your business’s earnings, taxes and deductions per payroll for accounting and bookkeeping purposes.
Apart from those reports, there are also a couple reports that get generated as soon as we process your payroll — meaning the money movement is in action and funds are on their way to your employees. These are the reports you can review once payroll has been processed.
Deposit Summary
The Deposit Summary report acts as a recap of your net pay transactions by employee per payroll. This report also lists out all employees paid by direct deposit and those paid by cheque.
Payroll Invoice
The Payroll Invoice report is a recap of the funds collected by Wagepoint for each of your payrolls. This report includes information such as funds for net pay, source deductions and any Wagepoint processing fees, including applicable sales tax.
4 worthwhile benefits of payroll reports.
There are a few key benefits related to regularly checking your payroll reports.
1. Gain specific insights to help grow your small business
Payroll reports can serve as an awesome tool to help you gain specific and actionable insights about your business. Not only can this help with decision-making, these kinds of insights can even help you understand your business on a deeper level.
For one, you’ll always have the most up-to-date information about your business’ financial status. If you’re planning a project or deciding whether or not to buy a new piece of machinery, for example, you need to have access to the latest financial data. You may also be able to spot trends in the payroll data that will help make management decisions easier. Don’t miss out on your small business’s biggest opportunity to grow and learn!
2. Get to know your employees better.
Your payroll reports can also help you stay on top of things other than your money movement. For example, you’ll be able to gather data about employee turnover, and even keep track of employee milestones such as anniversaries or birthdays. These insights will help you better connect with them and make your working relationship stronger.
Of course, we’re all human, so don’t worry if you forget something occasionally. But, your payroll software system and your reports can help remind you of the important things.
3. View your payroll data in real time, quickly and easily.
As a small business owner, we know you wear many hats. It can be difficult to get a grasp on the bigger picture when there are so many things happening at once. Your payroll reports can give you a visual of your business’ data which you can quickly interpret at a glance during even your busiest days.
4. Keep track of how your company is performing.
Being able to analyze your company’s payroll will show you where you need to focus more time and effort, and where you can ease up. These reports can be used to analyze current employees, former employees, and even yourself if you’re the owner of a small business.
For example, payroll reports can tell you:
- How many hours an employee has been working in a week, month or year.
- Who’s costing you the most money.
- What percentage of employees are being paid more than minimum wage.
- Who’s working overtime.
- Who’s receiving benefits such as health insurance or maternity leave.
- What your company’s unemployment rate is.
Payroll reports: A force of good for your small biz.
While payroll reports aren’t the most exciting thing, they’re a force of good and play a key role in your small business running smoothly. When you know that role, you can use your payroll report prowess to stay on top of your business and finances, all while making sure everyone is getting the compensation and recognition they deserve. And with Wagepoint‘s payroll reports, it’s even simpler than you might imagine!
