Covid-19 Tax Tips and SBA Payroll Options

Covid-19 has put the entire nation on the edge of its seat, as we wait for developments, scale back business, and try to weather the storm. Lake Mary businesses are feeling the pinch right now, as is most of Central Florida. 

Luckily, the government has come to the table with several options for managing, deferring, and lowering business tax and other expenses for the betterment of both businesses and their employees.

Not sure where your payroll is going to come from during a national lockdown? Worried about paying extended sick leave to employees who contract the virus? Join us today as we break down three ways you can mitigate these costs and take care of your employees with these Covid-19 tax tips for relief during this difficult time.

SBA-Guaranteed Low-Interest Loans

To call Covid-19 a stressful time for business owners isn’t saying anything new. You may not have enough income coming in, right now, to cover your most important expenses. Payroll, among many other things, has become a source of stress for many businesses. It’s for these reasons that bank loans have become such a talking point. Specifically, Small Business Administration (SBA) loans, or Economic Injury Disaster Loans.

In response to the outbreak, President Trump recently announced that the American government would provide millions in funding for these federal disaster loans. These loans apply to qualifying businesses, providing coverage in the form of:

• Low interest rates for companies and non-profits, at 3.75% and 2.75%, respectively
• Long-term options for repayment, for up to 30 years

It’s worth noting, to all the Lake Mary companies with outstanding credit somewhere else, that you will not be eligible for these loans in this situation. The SBA allows businesses to apply for these loans to cover bills they can’t pay, due to Covid-19, making it well suited to payroll expenses.

Employer Tax Credits

The American Senate’s March 18th bill proposes paid sick leave and leave benefits, mandated by the federal government. With the aid of the relief package, eligible employees must receive paid sick leave for up to 14 days, at the standard rate of pay. This caps out at $511-per-day, in addition to any paid sick leave those employees still have due to them. 

It’s important to note that employers cannot change their sick leave policies at this time, or retaliate against employees who make use of them. The new legislation provides business tax credits to help offset these costs, equivalent to 100% of the benefits distributed during this time. This directly reduces your company’s tax liability, making it a much more clear cut choice for both you and your employees.

Lastly, Lake Mary employers who don’t actually have enough payroll taxes in place to cover paid sick leave request an expedited payment from the IRS. More information will be made available by the IRS, soon.

Government Cash Payouts

One of the more talked-about safety measures for businesses, right now, is the government’s groundbreaking stimulus package. The CARES Act provides checks as a means of direct assistance to US adults on both sides of the employment spectrum.

Enacted on March 27th, the CARES act provides cash payments of up to $1,200, per person, as a means of helping residents pull through in this difficult time. People who earn more than $75,000 in gross income, as confirmed by their 2018 tax returns, receive less, while anybody without a federal tax liability will receive $600.

Tax Deferrals

As a final note, companies are making use of tax deferments during this time as a cost cutting method. Deferral of federal income tax for employers and Social Security payroll are on the table for businesses across the country.

The following operations are eligible for a business tax refund deadline of October 15th:  

• sole proprietors
• single-member LLCs
• corporations ending their year on December 31

Across various states, tax and payment filing guidelines are also available, and you can view those here. 

Covid-19 Tax Tips

At Vision HR, we understand that many of our clients are experiencing slowdowns related to the COVID-19 outbreak. This obviously makes it much harder to manage additional expenses and facilitate regular business operations. During this time, we encourage you to reach out with any business requests, Covid-19 tax tips, and to encourage safety in the workplace if you are remaining open.

HR Tips For 2020

For both small businesses and large corporations, HR is an important part of building your operational success. Human resources are responsible for more than just managing open enrollment seasons and processing payroll every few weeks. It’s what develops a company’s strategy and manages its employees’ activities.

Are you a Sanford business, looking to streamline your operations with improved human resource services? Here are three key HR tips to consider for your ongoing growth and success.

Review Your Onboarding Process For Better Retention

Business turnover rates aren’t what they used to be. With new opportunities, a tougher market, and different career paths, Sanford workers onboard and leave quicker than ever. There are strategies, however, to reduce turnover and help your employees grow alongside your organization. A great first step, for instance, is to review your onboarding process.

Supporting your business’ new hires through expert onboarding can have a massive impact on your turnover. Research conducted by Glassdoor shows that organizations with solid incorporation processes improve new employee retention by up to 82%. Productivity was also improved by more than 70%, in some cases, when compared to businesses with poor or non-existent onboarding strategies.

There are simple steps you can take to start the ball rolling, here:

• provide welcome packages containing your key information and a breakdown of your operation goals
• provide full training in all software relevant to their job and your business
• introduce them to other teams and departments, and maybe a mentor

Evolve What Your HR Department Does

Advances in technology have changed the way businesses operate, and this goes for human resources as much as any other department. With innovative tools and solutions freeing up more time, every year, HR departments are evolving, and their responsibilities are changing rapidly. The days of Human Resources being seen as “just the people handling recruitment” are long gone, with HR bringing much more to the table.

The takeaway? Human resources must work, hand-in-hand, with senior management to establish strategies that benefit employees and keep them engaged with the company. The benefits of this are far-reaching.

Stay Ahead of Trends

Human resources professionals are at their most productive when they are keeping ahead of trends in the industry. An awareness of the industry and what is at stake helps with finding inspiration and improving whatever practices are currently in place. HR, as an industry, has a lot to offer the modern business, and that manifests in trends, practices, and solutions. The best way to approach it is always to stay ahead of what’s happening right now.

HR Tips

Luckily, keeping abreast of current trends has never been as easy as it is today. Articles, guides and HR tips abound, with premium insights available at the click of a button. At Vision HR, our online HR Support Center offers training on-demand, a comprehensive policy library, access to state and federal forms, and much more. Pair that with our expert human resource management services, and Vision HR is ready to help you transform your Sanford business into a place that retains employees through better management.

Human Resource Advice: What To Do If You Receive An EEOC Complaint

So your Titusville business has just received an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint. Complaints of harassment or discrimination are commonplace to most large businesses, but an official complaint can be a scary experience.

Join us today, as we break down three steps to take in response to an EEOC complaint. With the right precautions in place, you’ll be able to cover yourself fully and avoid a nasty potential fallout.

Pay Close Attention To The EEOC’s Rules

An employee filing charges against your company with the EEOC can throw your day off, completely, if you let it. It is important, however, to keep a level head. 

Firstly, a complaint against your company doesn’t mean that you’ve been found guilty or that you will, in the future, be found guilty of discrimination. All it means is that a complaint has been lodged and that there are steps that need to be taken, moving forward.

You’ll be notified, firstly, of all the basic information regarding the complaint. This correspondence will also include instructions for how you can respond to the charge. At this point, you may be able to resolve the charge with mediation or a settlement, without moving on to any actual proceedings. 

Choose not to go with early mediation, and the EEOC will need some specific information from you. You’ll need to outline why your company took whatever labor action you are being looked into over. Specifically, you’ll need to provide a legitimate business rationale for these actions to help justify them to the EEOC.

This typically includes some of the following:

• A statement of position, wherein you’ll explain what happened from your perspective.
• A request for information or RFI. For this, you’ll want to incorporate copies of your specific business policies, the employee’s personnel files, and as much other information as you can specific to the case.
• An appointment for a site visit to inspect your workplace for signs of ongoing or previous violations.
• Witness employee information in order to conduct interviews.

At this point, your business will want to present any information you believe might go toward proving the accusations incorrect or, at least, not in violation of any workplace law.

Equal Employment Opportunity Policies and Training

Of course, hindsight is 2020, but it’s important to note that the best protection against repercussions from a case like this is a solid established EEO policy. Employers must have updated policies that include procedures in case of discrimination complaints.

To take it a step further: training managers and employees to maintain a discrimination-free workplace does a lot to prevent EEO complaints. In the event of a complaint, being able to demonstrate that your company has established an active commitment to anti-harassment and discrimination work.

As they say: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.

Maintaining Records

Good housekeeping is key to proving your case in the event of a complaint. It’s also standard operation recommended by the EEOC, which requires all employers to keep personnel and employment records for a year at a time. 

Your Titusville business is subject to the federal record-keeping requirements as everyone else, including the following:

• Keep personnel records of employees who have been involuntarily terminated for one year from the date of their termination.
• Keep full payroll records going back three years at a time.
• Maintain records of employee benefits plans going back the full length of the plans themselves.
• Salary records, evaluations, and any bargaining agreements to explain varied salaries.

These are standard requirements applicable to any and all employers under federal anti-discrimination laws, regardless of any outstanding charges.

Handling Your EEOC Complaint The Right Way

When it comes to an EEOC complaint, there’s never a good time or place. But, if you’ve kept up your records, maintained your equal opportunity policies, and kept up with the EEOC’s rules and regulations, you can come out on top.

Looking for more great insights into the HR process? Interested in professional human resource, time and attendance, and payroll services? Visit Vision HR, today, to find out more.

Why Use Digital Timekeeping

Digital timekeeping has been around for almost as long as the Internet has, and it’s been benefitting businesses since day one. What’s interesting, however, is how many businesses opt for traditional timekeeping systems, either because they don’t understand digital or just because that’s how they’ve always done it.

So join us, today, as we break down five of the best reasons around to use digital timekeeping, and get ready for a whole new perspective on staff management.

Keep Your Employees Honest

Marking a switch to newer technology can make it more difficult for employees to steal time via traditional channels. According to surveys, nearly 80% of employees have openly admitted to stealing time under traditional timekeeping systems. One of the most common methods, by far, is physically checking in on someone else’s behalf. This is not a possibility when you go digital.

Convenience

Today’s time and attendance systems go well beyond being simply paperless. They are also far more flexible. Because the reality is we have embraced its mobile phones in nearly every part of our lives. So why not take advantage of technology by allowing staffers to clock in and make adjustments on the fly using their own devices?

Easily Maintained

In addition to being convenient, cloud-based time tracking software is also easier to maintain than traditional punch clock mechanisms. Since this data is being communicated via the cloud, your IT department will not be forced to deploy updates, install updates or troubleshoot.

Improved Accuracy

Accuracy is everything to running a successful business, especially when it comes to labor management. Federal and state laws work to regulate factors like overtime pay, for instance, adding pressure for accurate shift reporting. Employee audits can be a nightmare of paper if you’re trying to find things the traditional way. Digital makes that easier.

Better For The Environment

Using a manual attendance system isn’t just cumbersome. It’s expensive to maintain. And that maintenance is bad for the world around us. Think about all of the paper wasted in a given fiscal year. How many supplies are purchased. How much energy is spent repairing time clocks.

Time tracking software makes these problems a thing of the past. Employees have access to time cards through via an application, cutting the materials used down to virtually zero. This means a reduced carbon footprint, which is better for the world overall.

Digital Timekeeping

Ultimately, how you keep track of your staff members depends on what works best for your business. But, with so many great reasons to use digital timekeeping, the writing’s on the wall for this tech and its potential in your office.

Visit Vision HR today to find out more about our timekeeping, payroll, and time and attendance services for your business in Orange City, Deltona or anywhere else.

Employee’s Handbook Benefits

The employee’s handbook is one of the most important documents a company can invest in. Defining key policies and procedures for your Ormond Beach company and outlining a full description of your company’s culture, this is a versatile business tool with a lot to offer.

Today, we’ll be outlining five great reasons to invest in an employee’s handbook that your staff members can benefit from.

1. Formalizing Your Policies

For an employee handbook worth the paper it’s written on, it has to clearly define your business’s policies and procedures. This document will help you to organize your company’s policies in a clear and concise manner, so you can have them all in one place and easily accessible.

2. Promoting Equality and Transparency

An employee handbook communicates one very important message, loudly and clearly: that you have consistent policies for its employees. It’s a public declaration that everyone has the same rules applied to them, meaning more equality overall.

3. Time Saved

If your employee handbook is well written enough, it should offer comprehensive answers to any common questions your employees might ask. With this on hand, you can avoid answering time-draining questions about policies. Make it easier on your employees so they can find the answers themselves, saving both you and them time.

4. Prevent Legal Disputes

With all of your official policies established and clearly define for all of your employees, you’re also investing in legal protection in the event of a possible legal dispute. A comprehensive employee handbook should outline your employment relationship, serving as important legal protection as your relationship with your employee progresses.

5. Enhanced Onboarding

When it comes to bringing on new employees, a handbook is especially important for onboarding. This document is an invaluable tool for incorporating your new employees, helping new employees to get their bearings.

Your Employee’s Handbook and You

For any business to truly thrive, there needs to be transparency about the rules, regulations, and expectations between employers and employees. This is where your employee’s handbook is most important.

Looking for expert HR management services in Ormond Beach, including the creation of professional employee handbooks and more? Visit Vision HR today and find out about our comprehensive services portfolio!

Employee Care: Four Signs You’ve Stopped Caring About Your Staffers

The people who work for you are the lifeblood of your business. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, your employer-employee relationship has to be positive or your work will suffer.

Which is why it’s such a pity that so many employers fall into the trap of neglecting their relationships with their staffers. Maybe you get too comfortable for your own good. Maybe you’ve been distracted by other things. Whatever the reason, the worst thing you can do is to come across like you don’t care.

This is where the rubber meets the road, and employees make decisions on whether they want to continue working at a company. And today, we at Vision HR are about to break down four of the biggest employee care warning signs you’ve stopped caring about your employees.

You’ve Stopped Asking For Their Input

As an employer with an Orlando office, let’s say, your relationship with your employees’ ideas can be a complicated one. While you want to maintain a hierarchy, you hired these people for a reason, and hopefully, they’re bright. So why would you want to ignore good ideas when they have them?

The answer is, you wouldn’t, and you shouldn’t. Not asking for input from your employees is a surefire sign to them that you’ve stopped caring and want to steer the ship entirely solo. This will not do wonders for their morale.

You Don’t Pay Them Fairly

This might sound like obvious advice, but cheating your employees out of their hard-earned money is never good for business. While you might think this is a smart way to save money, cut corners, or get ahead, the long-term effects can be disastrous for you as well as them.

Remember we live in a digital age, and anybody can Google the average salary for their job. If you’re grossly underpaying them, it just takes the words “bag packer salary in Daytona Beach” and they’ll find out pretty quick. Then, the only impression for them to get from this is that you don’t care. And nothing makes people look for new positions quicker than feeling underappreciated.

You Ignore Calls For Help and Resources 

This is a pretty simple one to get right. When your staff needs help, help them. Obviously, not every request will be within your budget, but a good rapport where your employees know they can ask for resources or help is important.

A company that doesn’t care for its employees will ignore their requests for help. Don’t be this kind of company.

Bullying Them

Human relationships are complicated things, and not everybody is going to get along all of the time. Even with employees you like, it’s possible to develop an abrasive relationship, with ribbing, teasing, and light insulting in many offices.

When you cross over into bullying territory, however, this is actually a problem. Threatening or intimidating your employees is always a negative, as it amounts to dismissing their emotions and indicating you just don’t care.

Employee Care For Better Relationships

As a business owner, your staff care can make or break your workplace. Make sure you’re managing your human resources correctly with professional services from Orlando and Daytona Beach’s leading HR business, Vision HR.

How Timekeeping Platforms Can Help Your Business

In human resources, we place a lot of emphasis on time.  We build a culture within our businesses that values timeliness, hitting deadlines, and keeping an eye on the time spent on your projects. So it should come as no surprise that the act of timekeeping itself is significant to the modern human resources professional, in terms of employee management and avoiding penalties and expanding your organization.

Go Automated

A simple, trusty punch clock with a set of reliable time cards may seem like a simple and economical solution for your timekeeping needs. But there are limitations to keep in mind. Is it going to be able to generate a report when you need to find out which departments are pulling more overtime hours than others, costing your business in the long run? 

Automation can help you manage your employees and company in this regard.  Information management systems used in automated installations fit the timekeeping needs of your unique company. Vanish those paper files vanish, slap passwords on your user system, and get the help of a reliable support department, and it’s smooth sailing for timekeeping.

Protection

Data management systems not only provide you with information to accurately evaluate your business’ performance but also whether you’re in compliance with federal and state labor laws. 

Boost Productivity

Automated information systems give you the option to make it more transparent, both on your end and the employee’s side. User-friendly interfaces mean everyone can observe the hours they’re meant to have logged, their vacation and sick time and upcoming events and responsibilities.

Check-Ins

Perhaps you have an automated system that’s been performing less well than you hoped. Maybe you’ve been burned before by a technical mishap, something that lead to some sort of apocalyptic payroll snafu or a dance with the IRS. Automated timekeeping adds a layer of protection by tracking your times and identifying missing data, inconsistencies and other issues. This is all done before anything needs your attention, helping you to preempt and avoid snowballing.

Looking for more reasons to invest in automated timekeeping services? Visit Vision HR today, to find out more!

Paperless Payroll: Discover The Benefits for Your Business

Prior to Internet payroll solutions, companies finished their payrolls off with pencil, paper, and the might of a well-trained accountant’s eye. This soon evolved into Excel spreadsheets, which eventually migrated from desktop to online. To this day, HR branches around the country still spend hours manually processing payroll and cutting paper checks. 

Which is cute and unexpectedly antiquated, but also leaves companies vulnerable to payroll mistakes, leaving them responsible for adjusting paychecks and other miscellaneous errors. 

Now, though, technology has made it so that companies can automate these time-consuming payroll procedures.

Paperless Payroll

Making the switch to paperless payroll can seem like a daunting task, particularly if you’ve always processed payroll by hand.  When you realize the benefits of switching to paperless payroll, the choice is a no-brainer. Here are a few reasons why your company must make the change to paperless citizenship:

24/7 Employee Access

Employees can enjoy 24/7 access to their pay information. Self-service portals allow for communication between companies and employees. 

Saving Money

The money and time saved from removing paper check prices are substantial.  The typical operations cost of paper checks is $24,450, annually, in terms of labor, materials, fees, and stamps. Go paperless, and you can save yourself and your company unnecessary expenses and time.

Removing Clutter

Removing paper-based payrolls from your business saves you the headache of organizing and locating actual reports for an audit. An online platform manages your payroll processing, allowing simple access to real-time analytics dashboards.

Paperless Payroll: The Way Of The Future

It’s no secret that paperless payroll is an important part of streamlining the whole payroll procedure.  Now more than ever, organizations are removing the supply of paper reports, direct deposit coupons, and also checks.  Ditching a paper-based payroll process can help save you time, money, and physical distance, in addition to eliminating potential errors.  

Visit Vision HR today to find out more about our paperless payroll, payroll packages, and other human resource services, today!

The Benefits of Co-Employment for Your Business

Modern businesses are many-headed beasts. It takes a lot of departments to get the job done, not least of which are your HR representatives. These people serve as the administrators of an organization’s human resources, bridging the gap between employers and their staff members.

Sadly, many employers choose to handle these processes themselves, spending more time than they should handling simple payroll processes. Recruiting and human resource (HR) services give you the breathing room you need to grow your business. But every business is different, and many don’t prioritize the position the way they should.

Co-employment gives two employers specific legal rights concerning a shared employee. It frees employers up to focus on core business functions without having to worry about the responsibilities of traditional employment.

Co-Employment: What Is It?

Co-employment between two companies gives both employers rights and obligations to the employee. One business maintains standard responsibilities relating to the worker’s job duties and daily functions. The co-employer manages concerns like payroll. Thus, the worker becomes technically employed by both businesses at the same time.

Why Co-Employment Matters to HR Outsourcing

When business owners develop co-employment relationships with HR companies, they can put off a substantial amount of the risk and responsibilities associated with having employees. Employees enjoy access to possibly more health and retirement options, and there are reduced associated payroll and accounting costs, as well.

Workers’ compensation management is another factor many small businesses worry about but which can be taken care of with a co-employment arrangement. These same small businesses often pushed into making bad decisions with their compensation packages simply because they don’t know any better. In a co-employment arrangement, professionals who handle benefits on a daily basis can keep you compliant so you don’t misstep.

There’s also recruiting assistance. Hiring new employees is a process that takes time away from your normal business activities. Being able to find and secure job candidates who fit the position as well as match your company’s culture is important, but your regular work activities should still take precedence. By bringing in a professional recruiter as a co-employee gives you access to that same experience, making them ideal for once-off job hunts. 

Co-Employment

Co-employment services allow two sets of employers to enjoy the benefits of a shared employee. Interested in these services for your business? Visit Vision HR to find out how you can benefit, today.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Choosing A Timekeeping System In 2014, Forbes wrote that one in five Americans reported arriving late for work at least once a week. Timekeeping systems, which help companies keep track of these times, have become the norm in modern businesses. With people clocking in and out, both on and offsite, it’s important to know who’s working precisely which hours when payday comes around. But is it as simple as “just getting a timekeeping system” for your business? What are the potential pitfalls? Join us today as we take a closer look at six crucial timekeeping do’s and don’ts for your timekeeping system. Also Read: 10 Ways to Make Money Right Now

Do

Always Use An Accurate Timekeeping System

Employers may choose any timekeeping system or method they prefer, from timesheets to clocks to badge readers and beyond. The only proviso is that it has to be accurate, making digital timekeeping systems easily the best choice.

Require That Your Employees Record Their Work Times

Once you have a system in place, it’s important to insist your employees keep accurate track of their clock in and clock out times. Non-exempt employees must know that their time reports, including work time after hours. Where employees are having trouble using the system, make sure to take the time to instruct them.

Demand That Employees Be Able To Verify Their Hours Worked

After any pay period, you may need to ask employees for a full breakdown of their time records. You’ll be better prepared to make corrections ahead of payroll, and you’ll be able to prove you’re paying your employees fairly, every month.

Don’t

Withhold Pay As A Punishment For Not Signing Timesheets

Employers must pay employees for all hours worked according to the agreed-upon payment schedule, period. Timekeeping system procedures aside, pay should be carried out every month according to most state regulations.

Allow Off-The-Clock Work

This is an inescapable fact, no matter where you work. Employers can’t ask their non-exempt employees to work “off-the-clock,” so make sure to keep your policies aboveboard in this regard.

Neglect Your Recordkeeping

Employers are required to keep payroll records for at least three years. These can be called on later if the company is ever audited, so it’s crucial to keep up with your timekeeping system records.