Jaclyn Anku, ProAdvisor Training & Certification Leader: On today's episode of In the Know, we'll be hosting a roundtable discussion with three leading ProAdvisors to hear why they use QuickBooks Online Payroll, and the benefits of using it for their firm and clients.
Hey, ProAdvisors, I'm Jaclyn and you are watching In the Know. It's the show designed to keep you in the know on the most exciting updates to QuickBooks Online.
Today, I'm thrilled to welcome back ProAdvisors Carla Caldwell, Dan Luthi, and Matt Skinner for a conversation on why they use Quickbooks Online Payroll and its benefits for their firm and clients. Carla, Dan, Matt, thanks so much for being on this episode of In the Know and talking about QuickBooks Online Payroll.
Dan Luthi: Yeah, thank you so much for the invite. Glad to be here.
Jaclyn Anku: Well, Carla, let me start with you. I'd love to just start at a high level. Why do you choose to use QuickBooks Online Payroll over any other solution on the market, including desktop [payroll]?
Carla Caldwell: Well, we don't do anything desktop, so that definitely is going to be out for us. We do everything online, and QuickBooks Online Payroll is such an easy tool to use, built right into the platform we're already on every day with our clients. And it's just very simple to use. It's obviously fully integrated, and the features that it has works really well for our clients. We work a lot with nonprofits and construction, so the integration into the projects is a really big deal for our clients. Those are some of the top reasons why we're using QuickBooks Online Payroll.
Jaclyn Anku: How about yourself, Matt? What are the benefits of using QuickBooks Online Payroll that stand out?
Matt Skinner: Sure. Like Carla said, I think accessibility is a big thing, and to that end, we try to keep people inside the same ecosystem. They already have 50 different websites to log into to do different things. So being able to keep that in league with all their financials and knowing it's touching the bank feed directly, and hitting the P&L directly with every change they make is one less place for them to go on the daily basis to manage their business.
Jaclyn Anku: And yourself, Dan, any integrations you particularly appreciate or use?
Dan Luthi: Yeah, I think there's a lot of great features that go along with it as well. There's been a lot of enhancements that come on the HR side, which have been really great as companies are growing. There's the opportunity to be able to provide insurance, and get quotes very quickly and very easily. There are enhancements also going along with time tracking, and how that's bringing information in to make it a lot easier. And just the whole employee onboarding experience is smoother with having digital I-9s and all those different kinds of things. And so that whole overall experience just makes it a lot easier to bring an employee who is just getting started through the system, as well as an organization growing with the system.
Jaclyn Anku: So that's the perfect segue, because I did want to ask about recent enhancements. Carla, have any of them stood out to you, or have you been able to put any of them to work right away?
Carla Caldwell: One of the areas that was recently improved was the automatic tax impounding. I absolutely love this, because we don't have to worry about making sure the client keeps enough money in the bank later to make sure they pay their taxes. We work in construction, so let's be real. We need to get all this done at one time. So I really like this. Honestly, it's also easier for us as we're balancing things on the balance sheet. We don't have to worry about reconciling those accounts because they don't have balances in them anymore. So I really think this has helped quite a bit with a lot of our clients.
Jaclyn Anku: And how about yourself, Matt? Any recent payroll enhancements that have come out that have maybe helped with your professional services clients?
Matt Skinner: Yeah, absolutely. Having the classes associated directly within payroll has been a really big pickup for us. A lot of people have departments or locations, and those allocations used to be more of a manual process, or if it was a process at all, now it’s already handled on the payroll side.
Jaclyn Anku: And how does having that additional data help you deliver better advisory work to your clients?
Matt Skinner: Sure, I think the less time we spend in Excel, or spend pulling payroll reports and calculating numbers is more time we have to work with our clients, review their books, and spend time actually knowing them and their business, versus the classic accountant nerd stuff where we hang out by ourselves and use spreadsheets.
Jaclyn Anku: How about yourself Dan; how do you put payroll data to work to help better advise your clients?
Dan Luthi: I think Carla and Matt hit the nail on the head with just speeding up the process of reconciliation and moving information through the system faster, whether it's taking time from time tracking and pushing that in and being able to allocate it to a job or to a location or some sort of dimension that we're using in QuickBooks. Or, we may want to allocate just the expenses across the P&L accurately and the balance sheet correctly. It cuts down the amount of time that our clients are potentially confused, or that they're having to spend working through these things. It just gives them a better opportunity to have better quality reporting at the end.
You know, reporting is one of the most critical parts of the reason why our customers use a general ledger like QuickBooks to be able to, you know, be able to see and understand what's going on in their business. So when the data gets there faster, it really does give them a better opportunity to be able to make better decisions with their business.
Jaclyn Anku: All right, Dan, let me round it out. Final question for you. I know that you recently migrated someone pretty close to you off of QuickBooks Desktop Payroll on to QuickBooks Online Payroll. Do you have any tips and tricks for folks who are doing that same migration?
Dan Luthi: Yeah, definitely. I never like to mix family and business together, but it just happened that my wife is an office manager for a construction company, and needed to transition to an online environment to be able to connect with some of their tracking apps they were using for job costing and things like that. I kind of got roped in or pulled into the opportunity to be able to help her to make sure it was transitioned.
I think one of the most important parts is that any time you're changing a payroll system from one to another, verifying data is always so important. The syncs and the integrations that have happened with helping to import the information from desktop to online has improved so much over the years. But it's also one of those things too, where you always want to double check that you always want to confirm that the data is where it needs to be and it's right in place. So it's super simple for you to be able to process payroll in the next cycle. Also, if you know you have employees in multiple states, make sure you're collecting all those tax notices and tax IDs together. It just makes it easier for you to verify that as well, too, when you're getting your payroll transitioned from desktop to online.
Jaclyn Anku: I love that: trust, but verify. Carla, I know you've done a payroll migration or two in your lifetime. Any tips and tricks or best practice that you can share?
Carla Caldwell: One of the big things we talk to our clients about is really preparing the employees so that they can be doing some of the information that they're going to be needing, and gathering and moving over a little bit is helpful to help them get ready for that process. I think sometimes we think of it being an internal process just to the employer that they have to do this, but really spending some time making sure the employees are ready for that transition as well can definitely make it go a lot smoother.
And so just spending some time doing some training with them is really good, and there are a lot more online tools for them, with QuickBooks Online Payroll. So we forget we need to make sure and introduce those to them as well.
Jaclyn Anku: Oh, I love that touch on change management. That's huge, because ultimately it's the employees’ paychecks and we want to get them paid on time. Well, Carla, Dan, Matt, thank you so much for being here talking about why you choose Quickbooks Online Payroll, its benefits, and migration tips and tricks. Thank you so much. We'll catch you next time.
And thank you for watching this episode. I'm Jaclyn, host of In the Know, and leader of ProAdvisor training and certification. Be sure to like, comment, and subscribe so that you don't miss a single episode. We'll catch you next time.
Meet the ProAdvisors
ProAdvisor Dan Luthi: partner, Ignite Spot Accounting Services
ProAdvisor Carla Caldwell: founder, Caldwell Consulting & Training LLC
ProAdvisor Matt Skinner: Partner, Beaird Harris
