GO GREEN, SAVE MONEY WITH QUICKBOOKS: PART IV

Tip 4: Go Paperless with Payroll

Payroll processing, filing and form preparation can cause extremely high paper use and can cause other environmental footprints like using mail delivery for paychecks, employee W-2s and for payroll forms. QuickBooks has several product tools that can reduce the entire payroll process to a paperless filing and electronic delivery systems. First, QuickBooks and its partners offer several different online or electronic timecard add-ons. Most have associated fees, but they integrate directly with QuickBooks and Intuit payroll. Two examples are Intuit’s TimeTracker and Corrigo’s TimeCard for Intuit Payroll.

Probably the most basic way to reduce paper use is to pay employees with Direct Deposit and provide them with electronic paystubs. For a per transaction fee that rivals other payroll companies, your employees can have their paycheck directly deposited into up to two bank accounts. When using Direct Deposit, you no longer need to print paystubs, since employees can view their paystubs online view ViewMyPaycheck.com or they can be sent directly to employees as a PDF.

Lastly, QuickBooks allows you to electronically file payroll forms like the quarterly Form 941 and annual Form 940. You can file almost all state payroll forms directly from QuickBooks as well. You can also save copies of these forms as PDFs. The related payroll liabilities can also be submitted to the IRS and almost all state revenue agencies electronically.

Jessica Ingram, Associate Accountant II
Davis & Hodgdon Associates, CPA’s
June 2011