Although the festive season is still a couple of months away, it doesn’t mean that you cannot start planning already when it comes to your payroll. Often, this is the time when 13 bills are due – and the last thing you want is unhappy staff being paid late, especially considering additional holidays during this time.
In today’s blog, we will take a closer look at which aspects of especially the festive season you need to consider when it comes to your payroll – and how having a bookkeeper will ensure that you are on track with your finances.
Festive considerations
Public holidays such as Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day all come into play when it comes to paying salaries during the festive season. Whether you are paying your staff before Christmas, on 25 December or at the end of December, or if bonuses are usually paid during this time, there must be no payroll delays, as many of your employees would have budgeted for expenses.
Also, if your business is closing for the holidays, payroll needs to be sorted out promptly to ensure you do not have to deal with late payments when everyone is enjoying well-deserved breaks. You furthermore need to ensure that payments are allocated for public holidays during the festive season – if these days aren’t counted as paid leave, leave put in during this time could reflect negatively on your payroll system.
Depending on your business model, you need to ensure that your holiday leave and payroll process is communicated timely to your staff, whether you alert your team of your payment schedule 2 months or 4 weeks in advance. Considering how many people have additional payment considerations such as expenses for holidays, the new school year and other occasions, sooner is always better to do this.
How your bookkeeper can ensure smooth sailings during especially the festive season
The benefits of having a bookkeeper – not just for your festive payroll, but also beyond – can truly ensure that your business steers the course.
Especially for the festive season, having a bookkeeper that ensures all payment deadlines are fixed and that all processes are in place will allow you to focus on your business and the well-being of your staff. You will have more time to also plan for office festivities and ensure that everyone can ease into the festive season.
Another big plus of having a bookkeeper is that errors will be prevented, including non-payment for public holidays and late payments. Your bookkeeper will also ensure that all your payments are up to date in terms of paying any external contractors or overheads, and that your books are up to date.
As bookkeepers are cost-efficient to employ and are flexible to adapt to your processes, they can improve your payroll process and ensure that when it comes to festive season payments, that there will be no glitches or backlog to deal with.
So, consider hiring a bookkeeper if you have not yet made this business change. Most bookkeepers offer flexible packages and will be able to provide a service that will easily adapt to your budget and goals- including making your festive season payroll seamless and 100% fault-free.
