Unless you have been under a rock for the past few years, you are aware of all the talk about our environment and what we can do to diminish our carbon footprint. Personally, I do believe that mankind has done damage to the planet. How much damage is to be determined, and there are various opinions our there. There are claims of global warming, there are commercials on TV asking us to save the polar bears. Most of the United States just went through a major freeze. Even southern Florida was covered in ice. Any many folks say this is directly tied to global warming. Is it? I don’t know. But I figure if all this is true, then as a company Sequoia Payroll Solutions should do something to reduce it’s waste. We offer payroll services, bookkeeping services and incorporation services. Anyone who is familiar with our field, knows that there is a whole lot of paper used in running financial reports, printing paychecks and direct deposit records, drafting statements, and other various day to day functions. Obviously, we enjoy nature and all that comes with the outdoors, which is part of the reason we named the company after the giant sequoia redwood. So in an effort to reduce waste, and benefit our clients, we have made a transition into a paperless working environment.
In this blog, we will discuss a few ways we have reduced our paper usage and benefited our customers when doing so. Maybe this information will help you “go green”, if you so desire. One of the big issues was the paperwork it takes to set up a new client. There are forms that need to be filled out regarding company information such as tax id numbers, YTD financial records, employee info, W-4’s, I-9’s, benefit info, and the list goes on and on. For the most part, we still have to print all this paper, because much of the information is not in paperless format yet. However, when the paperwork is returned to us, we scan it all into the computer and we save electronic files on our server and an offsite backup server just to be safe. These files are password protected to ensure complete security. Once everything is scanned, we place the paperwork in a locked box, and a shredding company comes once a month and takes the paper away to be shredded. The paper is then recycled. The shredding company charges us just 35.00 per month, this is well worth the price.
We started sending some accounting reports in electronic format to our clients. This has been a crowd pleaser because the employer can pull up the report at any time, from any computer and take a look at the information. We also have set up password accounts for our clients and they can log into our secure website anytime and run various payroll reports such as total cost reports, tax reports, etc. Another place we save on using paper is by using e-stubs. Our clients are very happy with this feature. An e-stub is just an electronic pay stub that is sent to the employees personal e-mail account. The paycheck is directly deposited into the account of choice, and the stub is in electronic form. This was a HUGE price saver. It allowed us to save on envelopes, paper, printer ink, and time. Tax forms and tax payments are now sent online as well. Since we have reduced our costs, we have passed this savings onto our customers. In this day and age who isn’t happy to save a little money. All and all, we have reduced our waste as a company, we have cut back on costs and we have helped our customers. If you can reduce waste in your day to day, not only will you help the planet, but you will probably find you save a little on spending as well.
If you have problems with your payroll, then contact us, we have payroll solutions.
