In our experience, businesses are using payroll outsourcing most often for these important reasons:

1. Free Up Your Time
Payroll processing by hand is a time-consuming process. Outsourcing payroll can free up staff time to pursue more important value-added and revenue-generating activities. Inc. magazine recently identified payroll as the #1 task for small business to outsource, along with most accounting tasks.

"Outsourcing payroll has given me extra time to focus on selling. That's been great for our business. I've also managed to attend a few of my daughter's soccer games, now that I don't have to spend the time preparing payroll."  Mike Kerrigan-Customer

2. Reduce Costs
The direct costs of processing payroll can be greatly reduced by working with a payroll provider. Our research indicates that a small business with 10 employees will typically spend $2,600 per year in direct labor costs associated with payroll.
"Even if I have a part-time bookkeeper helping with payroll, I still end up paying much more than I pay to outsource."  Bruce Beerbower-Payroll Customer

3. Avoid IRS Penalties
According to the IRS, 40 percent of businesses pay an average penalty of $845 per year for late or incorrect filings and payments. Most national payroll services provide a tax guarantee, ensuring that customers will incur no penalties because the providers take responsibility for penalties when they do occur. In many instances, this cost-saving immediately justifies outsourcing payroll.
"Not having to worry about IRS fines is one of the things I've enjoyed most since I outsourced payroll. I certainly don't miss getting those penalty notices." — Gary Choates- Customer

4. Alleviate Pain
Manual payroll is a headache in the best case and a nightmare in the worst case. Business owners who outsource payroll eliminate a tiresome source of personal pain.
"I always wanted to start a business, but once I got started I realized that doing payroll is tedious, painful and no fun. When I finally outsourced payroll, the pain was gone and I started having fun again." — Jolene McMorran-Customer.

5. Offer Direct Deposit
Providing direct deposit is difficult if a company doesn't use an outside payroll service. Increasingly, small businesses recognize that employees want direct deposit. Not having to make a trip to the bank is an important convenience for them. More importantly for business owners, direct deposit eliminates time-consuming and error-prone paper handling and the need to reconcile individual payroll checks every month.
"The beauty of outsourcing payroll is that I finally can offer direct deposit to my employees. They've been bugging me about it forever. I'm just as happy as they are not to have to deal with printed checks anymore."— Ross Kasner-Customer

6. Avoid Technology Headaches
A constant question for small business owners is whether they have the latest version of their payroll software and the most recent tax tables installed on their computer. Using the wrong tax tables can result in stiff penalties. Outsourcing payroll removes those headaches and keeps payroll running smoothly.
"We forgot to update our tax tables once when we were processing payroll in house. That resulted in some mistakes in our filing and then we got hit with the penalties. I tried to explain the situation to the IRS but it was like talking to a brick wall. Now that we've outsourced, I don't need to worry about keeping software up to date anymore." — Grant Patrick- Customer

7. Leverage Outside Payroll Expertise
Most business owners and controllers don't have time to keep up with constantly changing regulations, withholding rates, and government forms. By outsourcing payroll, a business can take advantage of expertise that was previously available only to big companies.
"God bless the people who are able to stay on top of all the changes in the payroll rules and regulations. That's not something we know anything about. We are happy to leave it to the experts at our payroll provider."— Pete Georgiadis- Customer

8. Avoid Payroll Knowledge Walking Out the Door
If your bookkeeper or controller gets a new job, they will walk out the door with their knowledge of the payroll process and how you do it. Using an outside service eliminates that business risk. 
"When our bookkeeper moved out of state, we hired a new bookkeeper to do payroll. Just as he finally figured out how to do it right, he decided that he wanted to go back to school and become an actor. Now that we've outsourced payroll, I don't have to train anyone to do payroll or worry that somebody I've trained will quit and go somewhere else." — Kevin Weinstein- Customer