Payroll Processing (Most Economical Solution)

[pikester1967]

Have 1 client requesting me to prepare and process the payroll. All they wish to do is print out the paychecks.

So I'll be completing all the tax forms, tax payments etc.

Anyone have an economical solution. Trying to avoid being held hostage by 1 certain product.

[mcb39]

I use a combination of Medlin.com and ATX.

[Catherine]

I *love* Medlin payroll -- and at about $60/year, you cannot beat the price.

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

Thanks for the mention...

[Catherine]

Thanks for the mention...

Thanks for a terrific program that does everything it needs to do, efficiently and low cost!

[pikester1967]

TY everyone. Appears Medlin and ATX combination is the cheapest alternative.

[Catherine]

Look Medlin over carefully first; you may not need ATX at all. Payments can be done through EFTPS, and 941's are still accepted on paper.

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

I am fond of following the regs and printing forms to keep for compliance. Dropping another copy in the mail is easy too.

[Lion EA]

May I change this topic slightly? I have a client who wants to do her own payroll, probably one employee during two quarters (when they're busy) each year. She likes that the payroll services take the taxes in small bites and handle everything so no big check to write quarterly, no big fines if she's a day late. She hasn't found anything cheaper than $30 per payroll plus some extras such as the W-2, so nearly $800 per year. NY state. Any suggestions for her?

I've used QB which is pricey. She looked at Medlin online, but that still has her writing checks. People's United Bank has a payroll company in VT that I have a CT client using, but she called and no NY yet.

[Lee B]

I do payroll processing and i have been evaluating different programs for the last several years.

You are going to be hard pressed to do it much cheaper than $ 800 per year given your clients desires.

The biggest thing your client could do to impact the cost would be reduce her paycheck frequency

down to monthly.

[WITAXLADY]

we use Medlin and print our checks... we also pdf them to the clients and they print on check paper

[Lion EA]

I think her state requires weekly payroll for hourly employees. A waiver might be available to pay every two weeks. I also talked to her about paying her payroll taxes each pay period.

[Randall]

Not sure about each state, but I thought the minimum payroll period was biweekly. For the very simple situations where a client wants to do their own payroll, I've set them up a simple Excel spreadsheet. Then I do the quarterly returns for them. It still runs them $100/quarter, $400 for the year.

[Catherine]

we use Medlin and print our checks... we also pdf them to the clients and they print on check paper

I have several clients with in-home nannies (and yes, despite no specific provisions, one CAN do nanny payroll in Medlin even with employer paying all employment taxes). I email the pdf of the "paycheck" and they print out and give to the nanny with a handwritten net check. Yes, the check numbers are not the same. Whop-de-do.

[mcb39]

I, also, prepare the payroll report and PDF it to some clients so they can write the checks. I don't even know how many years I have used Medlin, but do know that I have a drawer with several floppies in it; each one representing one year of the program. Now it is CDs or download.

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

We can always tell when media is going to change. Matches the time when we purchase a fair sized lot of current media. Finally got rid or our last box of 5.25 and last box of 3.5 floppies. For our current version cycle, we are at 6% receiving a CD. Of those, it is safe to say a large chunk download and never use the CD. Old habits, such as having a hard copy on hand in case the entire internet fails are hard to break.

MCB, your first order was in Nov of 2002... Our longest continious customer goes back to May 1986.

[kcjenkins]

Even if I download a program, I still want that CD in case I need to reinstall. Belt and suspenders? Maybe. But peace of mind has it's value.

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

I understand, but the flaw is payroll is not all that static, with form and calculation changes... While we do not suggest updating every payroll run (as others do/require), I cannot think of a month where I have not changed something. A CD is outdated as soon as burnt.

[kcjenkins]

Sad but true.

[Catherine]

I tend to keep the downloaded installation files... has saved my bacon more than once.

[Karen Lee]

Love my Medlin. I do about 10 payrolls and it is nice to access different years without having to get into the paper files.

My questions are answered instantly with a phone call. I finally had to retire my payroll program that I had for 15 years when Social Security went to 4.2% and couldn't be changed in the old program and my personal geek squad was really tired of making the DOS program run on new computers. So my geek squad loves Medlin too.

The price is so nice. I do use ATX also and use the W-2 Compliance feature as well.

Thanks Medlin

Karen Lee