Profitable and Painless Payroll

From the Oct. 2013 issue.

When Mauro Adornetto decided to focus more on providing payroll services to business clients, he didn’t just dabble with it: He jumped in with both feet. With an already successful full service tax, accounting and consulting firm in Mount Kisco, New York (www.adornettoaccounting.com), he started his payroll business eight years ago by forming a separate entity, with separate office space and staff, for the new APS Payroll (www.adornettopayroll.com) firm and then looked at professional payroll solutions that would fit his needs and those of his clients.

While his firm had previously managed a handful of payrolls for clients, mostly manually, his goal was to grow the service into a profitable stand-alone entity that could handle all of the payroll needs that businesses face, including live processing, full state and federal compliance reporting, direct deposit and year-end production of forms.

When he found Payroll Relief, a completely online payroll solution from AccountantsWorld, he knew he had found the perfect fit. Over the past eight years he has grown the service to about 60 business clients and the firm now processes about 1,500 checks per month, of which close to 90 percent are direct deposit transfers. His clients include a wide array of business types, including auto dealerships, consulting firms, restaurants, construction firms and nonprofits.

“Payroll Relief is very good overall and very easy to learn for staff and for clients to understand,” Mauro said. “It’s amazing how much the system automates all of the wage reporting and 1099 and W-2 processing, and the new dashboard is one of my favorite features because it shows everything that’s important, like a road map. It’s just very well presented even for people who don’t really understand payroll, like clients.”

Since the program is completely online, his payroll staff can give secure access to clients so that they can upload employee hour and wage information or check on reporting. It works similar to online banking, with clients able to access only their own information, and Mauro having the ability to give some clients more or less functionality, depending on whether they want to enter their own information.

The system also can be set up to allow client’s employees to view and download their own paystubs from a computer or mobile device, once again with bank-like security, with employees only having access to their own information.

“We really like that it’s online so that we can check it from anywhere, and our clients love it, too, since it gives them the freedom to check reporting when they have the time and to do some of their own data entry,” he added.

Mauro also applauds the customer service that AccountantsWorld provides and gives them a “AAA rating,” noting that he can always talk to a live representative and that the technology company treats him like he treats his own clients.

“Payroll Relief has helped us turn payroll into a profitable revenue channel and we plan on growing it even further, since businesses in the area prefer to deal with a trusted local professional.”