While our business is providing easy online payroll at an affordable price, we’re also in the people business. We care about your story and what brought you to our service. We’ve recently opened up a LinkedIn group where you can share your small business experiences.

We also receive regular emails from customers with feedback. This recent example we thought was worth sharing because it illustrates an important service we provide for paying nannies:

I recently hired a nanny to care for my 5-month old daughter. I quickly realized how hard it would be to handle the taxes and paperwork myself. I called several companies but was quite discouraged. They either wanted to make me an elaborate sales presentation (and charge me a fortune for their services) or they were not interested in my business because my payroll needs were so small and simple.

It was such a relief when I spoke with Ryan and he told me how SurePayroll could do everything I wanted for a reasonable price. Within minutes he emailed me all the forms and explained exactly what I needed to do. A big factor in my decision to use SurePayroll was having Ryan as my account rep. Whenever I had a question, he usually responded within a few minutes to my email. Best of all, he walked me through the first payroll over the phone and constantly exceeded my customer service expectations. I would certainly recommend Ryan and SurePayroll to anyone who wants to outsource the headache of payroll and taxes.

We would love to hear more about your experiences in the small business community and what brought you to SurePayroll.

Please connect with us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and share your stories.

SurePayroll’s Michael Alter offers “5 Steps to Drive Your Business, and the Economy” in his latest column for Inc.com.

Also be sure to explore our extensive catalog of small business resources and consider how an easy online payroll service could help save you the time and money you need to grow your business.

Sure, pay and benefits are the main way you reward employees, but sometimes it’s important to take an extra step to show your appreciation and further motive the people working for you. The president, Michael Alter, and other executives at SurePayroll regularly wheel around a food cart (with everything from cookies to apples), offering people a mid-afternoon snack. The president also congratulates employees via a companywide email on a daily basis when they get positive feedback from customers they’ve helped. Other events during our busy season included a food drive and holiday ornament-making contest.

There is also a quiet room set aside for people who need a break or have to make an important personal call during lunch. They’re small touches, but SurePayroll feels they’re an important part of our workplace “culture.”

Share some of the perks of your workplace culture in the comments section or on our Twitter or Facebook pages.

SurePayroll’s President and CEO Michael Alter put together an informative five-point checklist for Inc. that is definitely worth checking out.

We also recently finished a four-part series on year-end tax tips. You can find the series here.

Take a look at these year-end tips and see if you could benefit from our easy online payroll services. Also connect with us on Twitter and Facebook to share your ideas on year-end.

With the NBA getting underway on Christmas day, we thought it would be interesting to look at payrolls around the league and how they correlate to performance. Based on our data mining of last year’s costs per win and costs per loss, we have projected the overall league standings for this year’s 66-game regular season.   

At the end of the season, we can measure our projections against the real world standings*, and see what teams are able to maximize their payrolls. Some key data points to monitor:

• The L.A. Lakers have the highest payroll in the league (more than $90 million), but are only projected to finish 6th overall.
• The Chicago Bulls are projected to finish 1st in the standings, but only rank 11^th in payroll.
• The Miami Heat are projected to finish 2^nd and rank 3^rd in payroll and San Antonio, projected to finish 3^rd, are ranked 4^th in payroll. The Heat and Spurs are the only two teams projected to be in the top 5 in the standings that are also in the top 5 in payroll.
• The Oklahoma City Thunder are projected to finish 5^th with only the 21^st largest payroll.

Orlando and Denver project to finish well above their payroll rank while teams like Atlanta, Philadelphia and Detroit appear to be spending more for less. The New York Knicks are also notable for jumping 14 spots in payroll spending, which projects them to jump eight spots in the standings.

Take a look at our data to see how well you think your favorite team is spending on its payroll and give us your feedback in the comments section or on Facebook and Twitter.

Data provided by www.spotrac.com/nba

*With the caveat that our standings can’t necessarily account for the impact of trades and acquisitions—payroll figures can’t measure how lethal the alley-oop combination from Chris Paul to Blake Griffin will be on the new-look L.A. Clippers—or what role major injuries might play during the season.

But according to the Society for Human Resource Management, 68 percent of organizations will hold a year-end/holiday party in 2011. Today companies just seem to be doing much more low-key, do-it-yourself parties and others are striking a balance between the pre-recession days and still having fun.

You’ll be hearing lots of tips about how to avoid getting into trouble at the office holiday party, but like most things, there’s an app for that.

Here are those last tips on special procedures:

• Schedule any special bonus payrolls for the current year, including special taxation or deduction amounts.
• Ensure adequate payroll supplies to complete the year and to begin the new year, including blank checks, payroll forms, blank W-2 Forms, 1099 miscellaneous forms and W-2/1099 envelopes.
• Determine whether all adjustments have been applied or that an adjustment payroll has been scheduled.
• Schedule any adjustments or payrolls to contribute employee retirement maximums.
• Remind employees to fill out a new Form W-4 if their situation has changed.
• Confirm that all “manual” checks written during the year have been accounted for and updated in the system.
• Determine that all voided or reversed paychecks have been accounted for in the system.

We hope you’ve found these tips to be a helpful reminder, but if it all seems overwhelming (and it certainly can), consider that SurePayroll canfile and pay all federal, state and local taxes on your behalf among many other features. Explore Surepayroll.com to see how we can fit your needs.

Make sure you verify the proper withholding for taxable fringe benefits, which include:

• Group-term life insurance in excess of $50,000.
• Third-party sick pay (is the third party issuing a W-2?).
• Personal use of company vehicle.
• Non-qualified moving expense reimbursements.
• Company-provided transportation or parking.
• Employer-paid education not related to the employee’s job.
• Bonuses/Holiday bonuses.
• Employer paid accident & health insurance premiums for S-corp owners.

Check back on Friday for our final installment featuring tips on special procedures.

To find out more about how SurePayroll can alleviate your tax preparation hassles, explore SurePayroll.com.

Whether you’re a customer or not, as a proud supporter of the small business community, SurePayroll wants to help. In that spirit, today we offer seven more important tax tips to keep in mind as the year comes to a close. Unfortunately, making errors in these areas can lead to confusion and headaches, or worse: costly penalties.

7 to Remember

1. Confirm that deferred compensation plan type is correct and verify employee contribution amounts.

2. Check that Group-Term Life Insurance adjustments have been updated and submitted.

3. Check for excess contributions to qualified plans, including 401(k), 403(b) and SIMPLE plans especially for highly compensated employees.

4. Check contributions to and distributions from Section 125 (cafeteria) plan for child care and for medical care reimbursements.

5. Verify the employer state unemployment insurance tax rate, taxable wage limit and deposit frequencies for each state.

6. Verify FUTA deposits and if any credits apply. Verify FUTA deposits and if any credits apply.

7. Verify all 1099 contractor payments have been properly allocated.

Next week we will bring you tax tips related to fringe benefits and special procedures. Be sure to check back and follow us on Twitter.com/SurePayroll; Facebook.com/SurePayroll; and linkedin.com/company/surepayroll.

If you’re interested in finding out more about how SurePayroll can alleviate your tax preparation hassles, be sure to explore SurePayroll.com.