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How Payroll Became a Booming Business for One Firm
There had to be a better way to do payroll. Kamran Awan had worked at accounting firms in North Carolina for ten years, before starting his own firm in 2013. He had grown it fairly steadily in the first two years, but he says that providing payroll ...
May. 10, 2017
There had to be a better way to do payroll. Kamran Awan had worked at accounting firms in North Carolina for ten years, before starting his own firm in 2013. He had grown it fairly steadily in the first two years, but he says that providing payroll services to his clients was often frustrating because of the limitations of the system he was using at the time.
“The payroll and accounting program we used was old technology and wasn’t able to handle our clients’ needs,” he said. Even worse, some potential clients would ask for certain features, which his system couldn’t handle, which meant his firm wouldn’t get their business.
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In 2014, Kamran started researching alternative payroll processing systems and found CPA Practice Advisor’s five-star review of AccountantsWorld’s Payroll Relief (www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/11675539). After a little more research, he implemented the totally web-based system for the clients at his firm, Accounting Solutions (www.AccountingSolutionsNC.com), in Greensboro, North Carolina. The general accounting firm offers year-round services, including write-up, business consulting, benefits management, financial reporting and full payroll, as well as business and individual tax compliance services.
Payroll Relief is among the cloud-based professional accounting systems offered by AccountantsWorld (http://accountantsworld.com), and offers streamlined payroll processing, comprehensive reporting, multi-account direct deposit, automated compliance, online portals for client collaboration, and self-service features for client employers and their employees. In the two-and-a-half years since adopting the Payroll Relief system, Kamran’s firm has seen significant growth that he attributes directly to the program.
“We’ve grown our payroll practice by three times just because of Payroll Relief, and now process payrolls for more than 400 clients,” Kamran said. The clients range from sole proprietorships to employers with more than 65 employees. The firm has specialty niches serving medical practices, insurance agencies, hotels, gas stations and restaurants. Since the program is web-based and allows remote collaboration and access, he says it has also helped him add clients in a dozen other states.
Most of the daily payroll processing functions are automated and managed by a dedicated paraprofessional staff member, with Kamran providing review and oversight, and troubleshooting any more advanced issues. In addition to the automation functions in Payroll Relief, Kamran says the system’s direct deposit features and portals for clients and their employees are exceptionally valuable and help set his firm’s payroll services above his competition.
“The W-2 functions are also amazing,” he said. “With just a few clicks we can prepare them all as early as the beginning of January. Before we used Payroll Relief, W-2 was a mess.”
Kamran’s firm is a great story of success, and Payroll Relief has been a part of it. Since 2013, the firm has grown from a start-up, to nine full-time employees in 2017, serving more than 400 local businesses, and preparing almost 1,000 individual and business tax returns annually. The firm also uses the cloud-based accounting and document management programs from AccountantsWorld.
“Payroll Relief has made my job easier, and has made our clients happier.”