A small business will often employ an outside payroll service to execute their payroll and all that it encompasses including filing the required federal and state payroll reports and making tax payments. If your business opts for an outside service, you may be familiar with the reports submitted to you upon completion of your periodic payroll. But, as you know, the procedure doesn’t stop there. Accounting must then be completed.

The reports contain all details for each paycheck, tax liabilities, and payroll fees for the period; all of which become part of the company’s financial statements. However, a common occurrence for the busy owner who wears many hats is just giving the reports a quick glance to confirm the operating fund has the cash requirements to cover the scheduled deductions. The reports are then set aside for a thorough review at a later date. The problem that arises is just that – the later date.

A frequent mistake when recording the payroll out of period is taking a shortcut by making a lump sum entry and ignoring individual paychecks and their actual dates. This is especially true when a company consists of a high number of employees as doing so will save time in bookkeeping tasks that have already fallen behind. Unfortunately, this method will not only create a headache when reconciling your bank statement, but will also create inaccurate tax liabilities and expenses which will lead to bigger issues at year-end.

Reconciling to the payroll reports each pay period is crucial for expenses and liabilities to be 100% accurate. To accomplish this, record actual gross wages and accrue tax liabilities in real time. In so doing, data will be contributed for processing of annual tax returns throughout the year.

This is a bookkeeping task that needs prompt attention and one more way to save money. Your tax accountant will earn more billable time with other clients!