In this Blog we will talk a little about workers compensation. First off, you might ask “what is workers compensation?”  Or you might wonder if it is something that you need.  Well, to start, Workers compensation insurance is a form of insurance that provides compensation medical care for employees who are injured in the course of employment, in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee’s right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence.

Next you might ask “do I need it?” If you have employees, then the safe answer is yes.  However there are states that do not require employers to  have workers compensation.  One state for sure is Texas.  I am not exactly sure if there are others.  If you know if any please chime in.

Ok, so enough about that.  What does all this have to do with Sequoia Payroll Solutions?  SPS has recently teamed up with The Hartford insurance group to bring our customers Xact-Pay.  The Hartford was one of the first national carriers to offer a payroll premium billing solution for workers compensation 10 years ago.  Today the Hartford is the largest provider of these services with over 65,000 insured small business clients.

Traditionally, insurance companies make employers pay an up-front premium at the beginning of each new policy year.  The up-front cost could be up to 25% of the yearly premium.  I have seen these premiums, and depending on the industry your in, yearly costs can easily be over 20k per year.  In a case such as this, you would have to fork up 5K just to make the policy effective. Ouch.  With X-act Pay, employers won’t have to come up with that kind of money. X-act Pay is deducted on a pay period basis.  There are many advantages to this method of payment.  Obviously it’s a whole lot easier to manage workers comp premiums one pay period at a time instead of large lump sums.  Another benefit is no more check writing.  The amount is withdrawn from your account automatically, so this saves you time, money and eliminates late fees.  Amounts paid are based on the payroll so payments will always be accurate.  In turn, the chances of a workers comp audit decreases dramatically.  This service is offered by our payroll service to employers for the small fee of 10.00 per month (on top of premium amounts).  10 bucks is a small price to pay to alleviate the time, guesswork, and hassle of workers compensation premiums.  This excellent service is just another reason why Sequoia Payroll Solutions is taking your business to new heights!

And now for a disclaimer:

XactPAY® is a registered trademark of The Hartford and used herein with permission. Our payroll services are paid a royalty fee by The Hartford in connection with the XactPAY® program described herein. Our payroll service is not a licensed insurance producer or agent of The Hartford and, as such is not authorized to solicit, sell or negotiate any insurance products offered by The Hartford. The Hartford insurance products are sold through licensed producers or independent agents of The Hartford.

Ok, so in the last blog we mentioned how awesome e-stubs and direct deposit really are.  They are awesome because they save paper, they save time, and they make employers look like hero’s to their staff.  We also discussed how e-stubs and direct deposit are included (unlike other payroll management firms) in the low prices from Sequoia Payroll Solutions.

This week we will talk about customer service.  If you are like me, then you expect excellent customer service. It drives me nuts when I call the phone company, the cable company, the gas company, or whoever and I get an automated voice on the other end.  Then I get put on hold.  Then I FINALLY get a human, and there is a language barrier because I was routed to India.  Now, I absolutely have nothing against India or the lovable people found there.  The point is, when I have a question, concern, problem, I want to talk to a person who can help me. I am sure that many of you out there feel the same way.  At our payroll service, you will always talk to a human.  No automated voice options here.  However, as with any other business you might get a voice mail.  Things get busy, and sometimes we miss the phone.  But I GUARANTEE, that we will call you back.  If you are looking into our payroll services, we want your business, and if you are already a customer, we want to continue serving you.

The problem with bigger companies, regardless of the industry, is that customer service suffers.  Somewhere along the way, bigger companies stop caring about YOU and only care about the almighty dollar.  The mentality is “go somewhere else, we don’t need your business”.  That is why it’s so hard to find a large company with great customer service.  I know it sounds cliche’ but at our payroll service the customer is always right.   We work very hard to be sure there are no mistakes with your payroll.  But in the event there is a discrepancy, we will make it right.  Mistakes are opportunities for us to prove to you that we want to be your payroll provider.

Well, there is my spill.  I truly believe that excellent customer service is essential to the success of any business.  Let Sequoia Payroll Solutions prove to you that we offer the best customer service in the payroll industry.

For more information about our services, please visit www.sequoiapayroll.com

In segment one of this six part blog, we discussed how 33% of businesses out there will pay a penalty to the IRS this year. Sequoia Payroll Solutions guarantees accurate tax calculations and assures that you will never pay a penalty again.
Part Two of this blog will discuss the beautiful invention of direct deposit and the e-stub. Most of us have at least heard of direct deposit. Some, including myself LOVE it. The benefits are many, and from my standpoint, the cons are nil. For those who dont know what direct deposit is, or why they should look further into it, this stubs for you.

Direct deposit is when your paycheck is directly deposited into the bank account of your choice. The beautiful thing about this is you don’t have to stand in line at the bank, and typically the money is in your account before your paper check counterparts have even received their paycheck. Employers love this idea because it means less check signing (less hand cramps), money is saved on check stock, and the employees are estatic about this benefit. Direct deposit is a great, time saving benefit.

But to make direct deposit EVEN BETTER, some GENIUS out there developed E-stubs. You see, while direct deposit is awesome, there is still paper used to create the stub for the employee. Paper supplies including envelopes can add up fast. E-Stubs mean that you can stop wasting paper. So what is E-stubbing? An E-stub is a record of payment that is automatically sent to an employees e-mail account. Getting your employees paid can now be completely paperless. This saves the employer money, is convenient to the employee because they can look at their pay stub from their e-mail, and using E-Stub also helps the environment. All good things!

E-stub is something that most payroll services offer. While some payroll companies charge up to $10.00 or more per month for this service, Sequoia Payroll Solutions offers this benefit at no extra cost. In fact, as you can tell, we are serious advocates of direct deposit and e-stubs. Direct deposit and e-stubs are just another benefit of using our payroll service. Next week, in part three of our blog, we will discuss how customer service is king, and how Sequoia Payroll strives to offer the best customer service available.