According to Bill Zint of Sage Software, author of the article, “Payroll Your Way: In-House Payroll with Outsource Tax Filing”, (May 2007 issue of APA’s Paytech), about half of all the small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) out there, outsource their payroll. Most of these companies outsource simply to avoid having to keep track of the ever-changing tax filing that is required. Growing trends are showing that companies are moving toward blending in-house products and outsourced services to create the best payroll solution.

“SMBs are finding it convenient to keep payroll in-house, but outsource their payroll tax compliance,” said Mark Dresser, President of Dresser & Associates. “They can offload some of the most difficult tasks associated with the payroll function, while keeping the maximum amount of control and flexibility associated with using in-house software.” This new trend of keeping payroll in-house and using an outsourced service to take care of tax compliance makes business more easily run and productive, and it saves money.

Henley Enterprises, Inc. is a prime example of how this growing trend can help SMBs. Henley is one of the nation’s largest providers of automotive and fluid maintenance services. They own 60 Valvoline Instant Oil Change franchises, and 5 Aamco Transmission franchises spanning New Hampshire to Florida. With 600 employees across 65 locations, the company requires a powerful and flexible payroll solution.

According to Bo Bowditch, Sage Abra HRMS and Dresser & Associates are driving efficiency higher and payroll costs lower for Henley Enterprises. In January of ’07 Henley started talking with Dresser & Associates about buying an HRMS only. When their payroll service provider inadvertently postdated a batch of checks, preventing employees from cashing those checks on payday, they decided it was time to take control of their payroll. Even though Henley was bringing payroll in house, they were not ready to take on the burdensome task of tax compliance, especially as a company having employees in multiple states. That’s when Dresser & Associates introduced Henley to Sage Compliance Services. “Dresser & Associates showed us what we could save by bringing payroll in house-and that the savings could more than pay for the HR solution,” said Bo Bowditch HR manager at Henley. Read the full story

Sage Compliance Services is an outsourced tax reporting and filing service that completely automates complex and time consuming tasks. It also integrates seamlessly with their new Sage Abra Payroll system. Henley has said that the savings they have seen so far are significant. “We pay just $1,000 a month for Sage Compliance Services,” says Kathy Pittsley, accounting manager at Henley. “We were paying $4,000 per week for outsourced payroll.” Henley has estimated that bringing their payroll in house and outsourcing to tax services is saving them $15,000 each month.

Read Bill Zint’s Full article on the Dresser website or you can check it out in the May edition of Paytech, the official publication of The American Payroll Association.