I was contemplating switching to Data Plus for our payroll services last year. I was quite content with Peachtree Accounting Solutions – even though I had seven properties of payroll I had to key-in on a bi-weekly basis, it was simple – but yet it was time consuming – every other Monday was reserved for doing payroll – most times I would not finish until nine or ten in the evening. When I found out that Data Plus had a feature in which the hotel would simply key their hours in a spreadsheet (which was already being done) along with any tips and banquet gratuities, and all I had to do was import this spreadsheet into a file, my interest in this payroll piqued.
With the help of Cathy from Data Plus, the first payroll for each hotel was effortless – no more keying in hours – just follow some simple step-by step procedures, and the checks were processed –saving at least an hour or two from my work schedule – especially for our larger properties. Another special feature that I really savor is their direct deposit functionality. As long as I receive the employee’s Direct Deposit Authorization form by Monday when I process payroll, the associate will have that check direct deposited that payday on Friday! No longer does an employee have to wait one or two payroll cycles before their direct deposit is approved.
Since we use Data Plus as our payroll service, paying payroll taxes is simple also! Data Plus has a “941” report that will specifically state how much your payroll tax deposit is for that particular payroll – I use this report to pay my taxes online every other week.
My biggest time-saving measure with Data Plus just occurred last week – in the past, every quarter I had to process our State Unemployment Taxes – by keying in each employee’s name, their quarter’s wages, their state income tax withheld, etc. into our state’s website for online reporting– not only this was a time-consuming measure, but a process that obviously, had to be done correctly and accurately. The programmers at Data Plus had created a program that now all I have to do is simply create a file for each hotel prior to starting a payroll in the new quarter. I then upload the file into our state’s online web reporting, and that’s it! Twenty seconds if that!
My Monday nights are now free to watch Monday Night Football – I like that.