Is there a software payroll service that interfaces with Powerchurch?
Thanks!
~P.
Using a Payroll Service
Moderators: Moderators, Tech Support
Re: Using a Payroll Service
I don't believe so as they would have it listed on the website. Why do you think you need a payroll service?
Neil Zampella
Using PC+ since 1999.
Using PC+ since 1999.
Re: Using a Payroll Service
Neil-
There are a couple of things going on.
One employee at her credit union, her Credit Union, does not accept phone deposits over a certain size.
Our office person says I'm verifying this as there may be some confusion; Power Church does not print a pay stub when printing payroll checks. I think there is something else going on here.
We want to offer our employees direct deposit. <- this is a driver
We are considering offering contributions to a retirement fund for full-time employees.
We could get out of the payroll business. <- this is a driver.
I look forward to your reply.
Thanks!
~P.
There are a couple of things going on.
One employee at her credit union, her Credit Union, does not accept phone deposits over a certain size.
Our office person says I'm verifying this as there may be some confusion; Power Church does not print a pay stub when printing payroll checks. I think there is something else going on here.
We want to offer our employees direct deposit. <- this is a driver
We are considering offering contributions to a retirement fund for full-time employees.
We could get out of the payroll business. <- this is a driver.
I look forward to your reply.
Thanks!
~P.
Re: Using a Payroll Service
Neil-
There are a couple of things going on.
One employee at her credit union, her Credit Union, does not accept phone deposits over a certain size.
Our office person says I'm verifying this as there may be some confusion; Power Church does not print a pay stub when printing payroll checks. I think there is something else going on here.
We want to offer our employees direct deposit. <- this is a driver
We are considering offering contributions to a retirement fund for full-time employees.
We could get out of the payroll business. <- this is a driver.
I look forward to your reply.
Thanks!
~P.
There are a couple of things going on.
One employee at her credit union, her Credit Union, does not accept phone deposits over a certain size.
Our office person says I'm verifying this as there may be some confusion; Power Church does not print a pay stub when printing payroll checks. I think there is something else going on here.
We want to offer our employees direct deposit. <- this is a driver
We are considering offering contributions to a retirement fund for full-time employees.
We could get out of the payroll business. <- this is a driver.
I look forward to your reply.
Thanks!
~P.
Re: Using a Payroll Service
OK .. is there no other way to send funds to her credit union?
This is incorrect, the system will print paystubs, you have to be using single laser checks with two stubs, but I can verify it does print the stub.Our office person says I'm verifying this as there may be some confusion; Power Church does not print a pay stub when printing payroll checks. I think there is something else going on here.
Direct deposit is available in Powerchurch, as is deductions for retirement. Getting out of the payroll business, that I can't help you with. You have to look at it from a pro-con point of view.We want to offer our employees direct deposit. <- this is a driver
We are considering offering contributions to a retirement fund for full-time employees.
We could get out of the payroll business. <- this is a driver.
I look forward to your reply.
Thanks!
~P.
The Pros:
Its in-house, you can see what is being done have full control over your employee's information and setup, you save on paying for an external contractor, you have full control of your funds.
Cons:
It does take some initial time to setup correctly (but once done it runs smoothly), if you have more than 10 or 20 employees, it can be a bit of a hassle to setup direct deposit with different banks, you have to make the deposits for Federal, state, local taxes (I think you'd have to do that anyway with some payroll contractors), you'd have to file the W2s and other forms at the end of the tax year.
All that said, having setup payroll in a three different congregations, once its setup, its fairly easy to work with. Not to mention that Powerchurch Payroll understands the requirements for ministers as far as being 'self-employed'. They understand what SECA entails, and what needs to be withheld or not withheld from Salary, Housing Allowances, etc.
Hope this helps
EDIT ... this is all based on the Assumption you're using V14 ... I don't believe its changed from v12 either but there have been some improvements in V14.
Neil Zampella
Using PC+ since 1999.
Using PC+ since 1999.
Re: Using a Payroll Service
I agree with Neil on a number of points.
Whether or not you use a payroll service, or use PowerChurch internally, you still have accounts payable transactions, employment taxes / liabilities, and other transactions that have to be entered appropriately for tracking purposes in the accounting side.
From my perspective, using a third-party payroll service that does all the calculations, direct deposit, and perhaps even the remittances to the appropriate vendors (retirement plan providers, even tax payments), is convenient. However, you will still have to do considerable work on the accounts payable side as well as other entries in order to keep your accounting numbers consistent with payroll expenditures.
You are also still responsible as the employer to ensure the deductions are correct, year-end values and reporting are done properly and on time, no matter what platform is used.
The key with using PowerChurch (PC+) for payroll calculations and payment is setting it up properly for all the pay items and employer liabilities.
Once setup correctly, payroll within PC+ is not as bad as I originally envisioned.
For example, our previous treasurers never properly setup employer liabilities for pay items, instead opting to do those entries by hand every payroll. By properly setting up all the pay items correctly, the accounts payable transactions for IRS, FICA, state tax, retirement, HSA/FSA, insurances are easily ported over to accounts payable via a couple of clicks, and all the payroll / deduction items are easily accounted.
Also, we moved to monthly payroll (not bi-weekly), which really cut down on the time involved on payroll actions.
I concur that paystubs are printed when using the proper checks.
I assume when you mean phone deposits, I assume this is using the mobile deposit method of taking photos of the check.
For direct deposit, we just started utilizing our bank's ACH portal service for direct deposit. They accept NACHA files, and verified that the payroll NACHA file from PC+ was formatted properly for their use. Meaning, once payroll is processed, we just have to upload the NACHA file and approve for processing.
Now that we just started doing direct deposit, payroll within PC+ takes all but 5 minutes to do. A few clicks to process in PC+, a couple of minutes to upload the NACHA file to our bank for direct deposit, and another minute to have all the payroll accounts payable entries ported to the PC+ AP module, which are all paid out via EFT debit (electronic) as well.
Then, another minute or so to email paystubs to all employees.
For direct deposit services themselves, I would try contacting the bank used by the church for ACH origination services, just to see what the cost is. There are a few other companies I was able to find with some reasonable pricing for ACH origination. If you want those names, i can send you the few I found. Again, these companies I found are ACH origination only, they will not calculate the payroll values for you.
We are fortunate in that we only have a few employees (5), but setting up PC+ properly allows for quicker automation each payroll.
Whether or not you use a payroll service, or use PowerChurch internally, you still have accounts payable transactions, employment taxes / liabilities, and other transactions that have to be entered appropriately for tracking purposes in the accounting side.
From my perspective, using a third-party payroll service that does all the calculations, direct deposit, and perhaps even the remittances to the appropriate vendors (retirement plan providers, even tax payments), is convenient. However, you will still have to do considerable work on the accounts payable side as well as other entries in order to keep your accounting numbers consistent with payroll expenditures.
You are also still responsible as the employer to ensure the deductions are correct, year-end values and reporting are done properly and on time, no matter what platform is used.
The key with using PowerChurch (PC+) for payroll calculations and payment is setting it up properly for all the pay items and employer liabilities.
Once setup correctly, payroll within PC+ is not as bad as I originally envisioned.
For example, our previous treasurers never properly setup employer liabilities for pay items, instead opting to do those entries by hand every payroll. By properly setting up all the pay items correctly, the accounts payable transactions for IRS, FICA, state tax, retirement, HSA/FSA, insurances are easily ported over to accounts payable via a couple of clicks, and all the payroll / deduction items are easily accounted.
Also, we moved to monthly payroll (not bi-weekly), which really cut down on the time involved on payroll actions.
I concur that paystubs are printed when using the proper checks.
I assume when you mean phone deposits, I assume this is using the mobile deposit method of taking photos of the check.
For direct deposit, we just started utilizing our bank's ACH portal service for direct deposit. They accept NACHA files, and verified that the payroll NACHA file from PC+ was formatted properly for their use. Meaning, once payroll is processed, we just have to upload the NACHA file and approve for processing.
Now that we just started doing direct deposit, payroll within PC+ takes all but 5 minutes to do. A few clicks to process in PC+, a couple of minutes to upload the NACHA file to our bank for direct deposit, and another minute to have all the payroll accounts payable entries ported to the PC+ AP module, which are all paid out via EFT debit (electronic) as well.
Then, another minute or so to email paystubs to all employees.
For direct deposit services themselves, I would try contacting the bank used by the church for ACH origination services, just to see what the cost is. There are a few other companies I was able to find with some reasonable pricing for ACH origination. If you want those names, i can send you the few I found. Again, these companies I found are ACH origination only, they will not calculate the payroll values for you.
We are fortunate in that we only have a few employees (5), but setting up PC+ properly allows for quicker automation each payroll.