Human Resources

Why You Need A Customer Success Manager 0

One of the biggest mistakes most small- and mid-sized businesses make when interacting with customers is treating them as if they’re only good for one purchase. That’s why it’s important to nurture your customer relationships and prepare to turn them into a long-term customer -- opposed to a one-time customer.

At first, when a company is only managing a few customers or clients at a time, nurturing those relationships is rather easy. Unfortunately, the need for extra help arises once you start to see an influx of customers at any given point in time.

A customer success manager, also known as a customer service manager, client success manager, or CSM, is one of the most popular careers today and the need for it is real. Still, it’s a new concept for most business owners and they often have a lot of questions regarding the position.

Don’t worry, we’re going to answer some of those questions below! 

What Is a CSM and What Do They Do?

A customer success manager is vital to the day-to-day operations of your business. Acting as the middleman between your company and your customers, they represent your business as customers work their way through the sales process.

The work your customer service manager does is crucial to meeting the immediate demands of the customer, but that attention to detail early on in the relationship helps build a long-term relationship that continues to pay off in the future.

Not only that, but the knowledge your CSM has about your customer base can bring further insight to your company and how you can continue to improve -- in both the front-end and back-end.

Let’s take a look at some of the most important responsibilities of a customer success manager: 

1. They act as a salesman when customers need recommendations for certain products or services. Having a keen idea of your business’ core values and your customers’ needs helps your CSM provide powerful and useful insight to the customer.
2. They act as a support agent when customers have questions about your business and do an excellent job of either answering the question accurately or directing the customer to an answer.
3. They increase customer retention by building a long-term relationship with customers that wouldn’t even think about doing business with any of your competitors. You’ll have supporters for life.
4. They act as a quality assurance agent by frequently checking in with past customers and ensuring they were not only given a positive experience the last time they interacted with your business, but also receive the same positive experience in the future.
5. They act as a consultant to other employees on your team due to their firm grasp of what the customers need and how they currently feel about the business’ initiatives.
6. They act as an advocate for your business and an advocate for your customers. This is crucial to maintaining a healthy balance between employee and customer satisfaction.

Your customer success manager is asked to do a lot for your business and your customers, but that’s what makes them such an essential part of what your business is doing on a daily basis.

What Do Businesses Gain With a Customer Success Manager?

Now that you have an idea of what the customer success manager is asked to do, you’re probably wondering how that’s going to translate into results for you and your business. Don’t worry, the benefits aren’t just real, but they’re plentiful.

We believe there are four major benefits when finding the right customer success manager for your business and three of them have to do with revenue -- which should make most of you business owners excited.

Let’s take a look. 

• Revenue, Revenue, and Revenue

The first three benefits are all related to revenue, but they’re each beneficial in their own way.

The first is the one we all want to hear when running our business efficiently -- increased revenue. This is evidenced by the increase in customer loyalty, the valuable recommendations given by the CSM, and the constant upselling or cross-selling of your products.

The second benefit you receive is the ability to multiply that revenue over the long-term. This is evidenced by the increased customer retention, the stronger relationships built with customers, and the ability of your CSM to address the needs of the customer to improve your business over time.

The third benefit is finding new ways to earn money that you wouldn’t have found before -- or that would’ve taken you much longer to find. Whether through customer referrals or through the everyday knowledge your CSM learns about your customers. 

• Valuable Insight for You and Your Team

The fourth and final major benefit we’re going to discuss when hiring a customer success manager is the amount of valuable insight you gain about the way your business operates and the way it interacts with its customers.

Whether through the feedback given to the CSM by the customers or through the CSM’s own observations and expertise, you’ll have a much clearer idea of what your business does right, what it can do better, and what it hasn’t been doing at all. 

How Much Does a CSM Generally Make?

Since a majority of the responsibilities your CSM will have fall under the consultant category and salesperson category, ensuring you roll out the right compensation plan when paying them.

You want to incentivize them to sell, but don’t want it to take away from the quality interactions they’re supposed to be having with your customers. Basically, you don’t want them to be more focused on gaining commission -- opposed to focusing on what the customer actually needs.

With that being said, let’s take a look at some of the average salaries for a customer success manager throughout the world: 

• United States - around $60,000 per year
• South Africa - around $20,000 per year
• Canada - around $50,0000 per year
• UK - around $53,000 per year
• Australia - $70,000 per year

Before you decide on a salary for your customer success manager, you’ll want to ensure it fits your budget and make sure the salary is reasonable, yet not too high where it will eat into the return on investment.

If you’re going to offer commission, be careful with it. Make sure they still have to work for it and make sure they’re still incentivized to help first, then sell. It’s also good practice to offer additional benefits that help improve the CSM’s morale when working for your company -- while salary plays a big role, it’s not the only thing that matters. 

How to Find a Customer Success Manager

One of the major keys to finding the right customer success manager for your company is ensuring the job description is accurate and transparent about what the job entails. If potential employees aren’t clearly made aware of the responsibilities, you could garner the wrong interest from individuals.

Let’s take a look at some tips you can follow when writing a solid job description and recruiting the perfect CSM to join your amazing team: 

• While it’s important to note that there’s a selling element to the job, it’s best to focus more on the customer support aspect because that’s the meat of what they’ll be asked to do.
• When writing the description, make sure it says there will be a lot of communicating with customers, so interpersonal skills are required. You should also make note of these skills when interviewing.
• Be as specific as possible. It can’t hurt and will limit the number of people that apply without garnering the proper amount of interest to be a viable candidate.
• When writing the job description, don’t be bland. Make sure your brand’s voice and personality are displayed in the description.

With the customer success manager position continuing to evolve, it’s important that your company stays up-to-date on all the latest trends and patterns we’re seeing in business. There will always be new and unique ways to utilize a CSM, so keep your eyes peeled and make sure you update that description.

If you need further assistance when hiring a CSM -- or becoming a CSM -- don’t hesitate to contact the professionals at Consultants In-A-Box today. We have a lot of experience and expertise working with customers and ensuring a positive experience is met every single day.

We look forward to speaking with you and teaching you more about how we can help your business find success.

Employee Training: The Ultimate Guide 0

Every business is unique in how they operate, what they do, and how they want things done on a daily basis. That’s what makes employee training so important to any business that wants to make sure their employees share the same values as the owners do. 

Employee training is necessary at every level, no matter the position. Oftentimes, it might be needed more than once as a company grows and evolves. As you can likely imagine, making sure your employee training is as effective as it is helpful to the employee is essential when finding success in this area. 

While the goal behind employee training will differ based on the position and employee in question, it will always boil down to that one specific goal. It could be to develop an employee’s skills, it could be to refresh them on new policies, or it could be to get a new hire situated with your company. 

Either way, you need to make sure your employee training works. It not only needs to give the employee everything they need to know when getting started with your business, but it also has to make them feel comfortable enough to not get nervous. It also has to include the rest of your staff as seamlessly as possible. 

It’s necessary for limiting mistakes when dealing with the inevitable turnover with employees, as well as increasing productivity from the start. Being more comfortable at work, your employees are more likely to stick around long-term and enjoy their job more. 

Learning how to train employees properly isn’t just necessary, it’s required in today’s business. Luckily, there’s a lot you can do to make the most of these situations. 

Are There Different Types of Employee Training?

Like we mentioned above, employee training is something that needs to be done several times to ensure employees remain on-pace with company standards. In other words, the training needed on Day 1 is different from the training needed once that employee has been around for several years. 

When training employees, there are three major types to consider -- onboarding, ongoing, and transitional. Let’s take a closer look at each one: 

1. Onboarding - this type of training is necessary for getting new hires up to speed about your company, how it does what it does, and what you expect out of them on a daily basis. Most onboarding models follow a combination of hands-on and in-class styles of learning.
2. Ongoing - where the previous training aimed at getting employees up to speed this type of training involves keeping your employees up to speed. It’s generally introduced anytime a company undergoes major changes to policy, but it could be as simple as re-doing the onboarding a second time.
3. Transitional - this type of training is reserved for employees that are being promoted or entering a new department. Since each department has different duties and responsibilities, you need to get your employee caught up in that specific department. 

The key here is making sure each employee receives the right training, the right amount of it, and at the right time to keep them as productive as possible. When you can find this balance, you’ll start to form that ‘A-team’ we all wish we had on a daily basis. 

Invest in your employees and they’ll reward you every time. 

How Often Should You Train Employees?

Most business owners expect employee training to occur once and then that’s it. In reality, it’s something you should do consistently and it’s something that you should improve each time you do it. Otherwise, you run the risk of having confused employees that aren’t effective as they could be. 

As we learned from the different types of employee training, it’s best to initiate this process anytime any major change is made to a company policy, anytime someone is hired, and anytime a promotion is handed out. 

Obviously, you won’t need to train everyone each time you train someone, but it’s best to ask yourself, “Who else on my team could benefit from this training?” If someone’s name comes to mind, it might be best to include them as well. 

How Much Does Employee Training Cost?

Employee training can cost anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars per employee, generally taking up anywhere from 5-70 hours per year per employee. Of course, this largely depends on the size of the company, industry, and position you’re training them for. 

While managing employee training is difficult without a budget, it’s best to not look at the budget as a concrete number. This is because your management might feel they need to spend everything in that budget, when not every month requires the same amount of training. 

Instead of treating it as a concrete number, try setting an average, an upper, and a lower margin for employee training each month. Operate under the impression that some months require a larger investment in this area than others. 

Focus your time on making sure the training is effective, rather than making sure you hit a certain amount of allotted hours when training. Keep in mind, the mistakes employees make from ineffective training costs more than the training it takes to limit those mistakes. 

How Can You Minimize Costs When Training Employees?

While there are a wide range of ways to manage, monitor, and initiate employee training, there’s nothing more effective than employee training software. It’s what’s new and exciting for businesses of all types and sizes. 

Here’s what your employee training software can do for your business: 

1. Keep your business’ knowledge and policies in one place for everyone to see.
2. Manage which content is viewable to which employees and departments, allowing you to keep it organized.
3. Gets your employees comfortable in their role at your company and keeps them on the right track to success.
4. Gain valuable insights and feedback about how well the training is working with your employees.
5. You’ll always have a clear idea of which employees know what information.
6. Effectively cut the costs of employee training.

What you’ll get is a more consistent, accurate, and effective process from start to finish. Your employees will benefit from it, the rest of your team benefits from it, and most of all your business benefits from it. 

Properly Tracking Employee Training at Your Business

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make with employee training is not monitoring and tracking how well it’s working. Your software makes this easy, but it’s up to the business owner to make use of it. 

At any which time, you should have a clear idea of who went through what program, any feedback that employee had for that program, and how you can improve the program moving forward. 

The best thing you can do for your employees once you see they completed a program is to hold them accountable for not only retaining that information, but using it in the field. When you notice something isn’t getting across, hold them accountable and see what you can do to better the situation in the future. 

If you need assistance picking out the right employee training software for your company, don’t hesitate to reach out to Consultants In-A-Box. We’re ready to provide you with the advice and guidance to make the right decisions for you, your employees, your customers, and your business as a whole.

How Your Business Can Benefit From Outsourcing Payroll 0

Outsourcing companies play a crucial role in the growth of businesses. It’s now commonplace to see major players in the marketing world commission outsourcing firms to handle core and non-core responsibilities.

With the complexities and intricacies involved in payroll, a lot of companies and businesses are now resorting to a permanent solution: hiring payroll providers. This decision, over time, has proven to be a wise and sustainable choice.

If you’re wondering whether your business will benefit from a payroll outsourcing service like Consultant In-A-Box, you’ve come to the right place.

Benefits of outsourcing payroll

Below are some key areas your business will benefit from payroll outsourcing.

Saves Time

When it comes to businesses, time is directly proportional to money. A lot of time goes into payroll processing that it is often difficult to keep up with other core responsibilities.

Manually processing payroll requires undivided attention. An employee’s net salary needs to be calculated accurately, deducting taxes, pension and healthcare, and including several allowances. And that’s just a single employee.

The action needs to be repeated for the remaining employees, and that can be mentally exhausting. Outsourcing this vital responsibility to payroll providers will save time that can be channeled into a venture that is more productive.

Reduces mistakes

Another benefit of outsourcing payroll providers is that administrative and financial mistakes are reduced to the barest minimum. For instance, when an employee’s work hours aren’t imputed correctly on the timesheet, it may result in a salary decrease (which affects the worker negatively), or an increase (which affects your business).

When an employee receives less of their deserving pay, they may decide to seek resolution in the court of law, and this invariably impacts your business.

To refrain from making costly mistakes like this, the expert service of a payroll provider is necessary.

Improves data security

When it comes to payroll processing, there are so many dangers involved. Some of them include payroll fraud (which affects 27% of all businesses worldwide), identity theft, and embezzlement of funds.

Even if you’re confident about the security of your payroll software, one can never be too confident in matters that pertain to money.

Contracting a payroll outsourcing service like Consultants In-A-Box will ensure that your company’s data is well protected. Leading payroll providers make use of state-of-the-art tech to store payroll information that cannot be breached.

You can rest assured that your business won’t suffer a financial hit internally when you hire a payroll provider.

Leverages on modern technology

Everyone is saving their data information to cloud-based systems, and it is only necessary to hire a payroll provider with a cloud-based system. Modern payroll outsourcing services utilize these systems to foster data security and manage information.

This invariably means increased payroll efficiency, reduced financial costs, and hitch-free processing of payments.

Offers Professionalism

Payroll outsourcing services are leading experts in the field of payroll processing. These companies understand and navigate the many complexities in payroll and give their best to clients. Some of their impressive responsibilities may be tasking for the administrative officer in your firm. They include:

• Adhering to federal and state tax laws.
• Accurately deducting social security, FICA, and healthcare fees.
• Updating W-9 forms to accurately make tax deductions.

Ensures compliance with government laws

It’s difficult to keep up with all the federal and state laws pertaining to employee allowance. Your business needs to remain on the side of the law always. That’s why it’s so beneficial to hire the services of a payroll outsourcing firm.

Consultants In-A-Box is a leading payroll outsourcing service whose mission is to provide lasting solutions to the financial needs of your business. Do contact us today.

How to Protect Your Business Against Fradulent Payroll Providers 0

Many businesses, small or big, are suffering from a different kind of pandemic today: payroll fraud. A record 27% of businesses the world over are currently under attack from this accounting fraud. While this fraud can be typically traced to workers with ill intentions working within a business, it is often advised to hire the services of a professional payroll provider.

Payroll providers are expert agencies that offer effective and safe payroll processing for businesses. While they are tasked with navigating all the intricacies involved in payroll systems, can they really be trusted with your company’s financing?

While there are reputable payroll providers like Consultants In-A-Box out there to entrust your business payroll processing, we can’t help to disclose that there have been a couple of bad eggs in the business, soiling the hard and success of good payroll outsourcing companies.

In this article, you will learn how these fraudulent payroll providers operate and how you can prevent your business from one.

Causes of Payroll Fraud

Fraudulent payroll providers cripple the finances of many businesses through the following methods:

• Ghost employees - If your business is fairly large, it is tasking to know all your employees by name or the actual number of your staff size. Fraudulent payroll providers exploit this common flaw by creating a fictional worker(s) and inputting their information along with genuine workers on the payroll list. The company ends up paying that ghost worker’s salary which is collected by the payroll providers. In some cases, these providers may use the names and details of former employees to trick businesses into paying them.
• Falsification of timesheets - Some fraudulent payroll systems deliberately increase the number of work hours by a staff (whom they must’ve connived with) to have a bigger paycheck.
• Payroll impersonation - Fraudulent payroll providers may ask your employees to update payroll data through a phishing website made to look genuine. They’d steal this information and make alterations to it on the genuine website.
• False commission - It’s commonplace to see some businesses giving commissions to employees. A deceitful payroll provider can deliberately increase the commission of workers to make them earn a larger pay. This stunt is pulled by illegally increases the target sales and other marketing bonuses.

With the aforementioned ways in which businesses can be affected by fraudulent payroll providers, how do you ensure your business is well protected?

How To Protect Your Business From Fraudulent Payroll Providers

The steps below will guide you on how to prevent payroll fraud from scandalous providers:

• Properly vet payroll providers. This is the important step to make before hiring a payroll provider to handle your company’s payroll. Ensure that they’re adhering to the regulations of the SEC and can also provide proof of their liability insurance. Also, ensure that their customer service is top-notch. Your business deserves nothing short of the best.
• Check out reviews. When selecting a payroll provider to work for your business, you should the internet for user reviews. Reviews reveal a lot about a payroll provider you’re planning to work with.
• Request for further certifications. You need to request for further verification from governmental agencies before hiring a payroll provider.

We at Consultants In-A-Box take pride as permanent solutions to your business’ payroll problems. We combine professionalism with a wealth of experience to deliver the very best for your employees and business. Do reach out to us today.

PPP Loans and Payroll Software: What You Need To Know 0

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many small and mid-sized companies to completely change the way they operate. Some companies have had to let staff members go, while others have had to enforce a full shutdown.

Either way, companies are hurting right now. Customers aren’t shopping the way they used to and businesses aren’t making the amount of money necessary to maintain daily operation. If that’s not enough, this all has a negative effect on the economy we all rely on.

The government has taken notice and is providing a variety of funding options for small and mid-sized businesses. One of those options, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), is included in the CARES Act and is designed to keep employees on payroll throughout these difficult times.

For companies with 500 employees or fewer, the PPP allows you access to the Small Business Association (SBA) loans. Not only does this give you the funds needed to keep employees on the payroll, but it allows you to bring back those you were forced to let go.

The great thing about this program is the potential loan forgiveness or repayment deferral if certain requirements are met. When used to its full advantage, it could be the program that saves your business from going under.

A Brief Look at the PPP Loan

Since the PPP loan is still new to most business owners, there’s a lot of confusion about what it is exactly, who’s eligible, how to apply, and what the benefits are. Don’t worry, we’re going to break it all down for you below so there’s no guesswork involved.

First off, let’s talk about eligibility.

We mentioned how it’s available to businesses with 500 or less employees, but those businesses must be classified as one of the following: Accommodation or Food Services, Tribal businesses, independently-owned franchise, self-employed workers, independent contractors, gig workers, and sole proprietors.

In addition to that, you need to be able to prove that your business has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, let’s talk about loan forgiveness.

In order for the PPP loan forgiveness to work, it’s imperative your business keeps all full-time equivalent employees on payroll for 24 weeks following the loan acceptance -- or the end of the year, whichever comes first.

In addition to that, businesses must use at least 60% of the loan for payroll expenses and no more than 40% for other expenses (rent, utilities, etc.). Your business can only count 24 weeks of coverage, with December 31, 2020, being the final date for eligible expenses.

If you meet the requirements, some or all of the loan will be forgiven -- which means this can do a lot for your business when done properly.

How Can the Best Payroll Software Help?

Having an HR payroll software that’s integrated with your business’ operations is essential to owning a business. It keeps everything in one place and allows you to worry less about errors -- which are more important now than ever.

In addition to that, the best payroll software helps you fill out your PPP loan application and allows you to keep track of expenses when calculating loan forgiveness. It’s an extremely valuable tool when managing the PPP loan process throughout the rest of the year.

There are two main numbers you’ll need to get from your HR payroll software when filling out the loan application -- the average cost of your payroll each month and the number of employees you have.

The average cost will give the government an idea of how much funds you need, while the employee count will tell them how many employees you need to keep when maintaining loan forgiveness.

Calculating PPP Loan Application vs. Loan Forgiveness

One of the most confusing things with the Paycheck Protection Program is the difference between calculating your PPP loan for the application vs. calculating the amount of loan forgiveness you receive.

There are four main terms that come into play for both sides -- the calculation period, payroll costs, non-payroll costs, and headcount.

When calculating the loan application, the calculator period is for 2019 or the rolling year. You’ll take the average monthly payroll costs and the actual non-payroll costs -- as well as the actual headcount of employees.

On the other hand, calculating loan forgiveness works a little differently. The calculation period is for either 8 weeks or 24 weeks -- or December 31, 2020, whichever comes first. The payroll costs forgiven are the actual costs, as well as the non-payroll costs. When it comes to the headcount, only full-time equivalent employees are eligible for forgiveness.

What Constitutes as Payroll and Non-Payroll Costs?

When calculating loan forgiveness, it’s imperative you know what costs are covered and which are not. Failing to understand this can lead to miscalculations, which can leave you in a hole when you aren’t forgiven as much as you were expecting.

In terms of payroll costs, the following are included: salary, wages, commission, tip, vacation time, parental leave, medical leave, family leave, sick leave, allowance for separation, group health care benefit provisions, insurance premiums, retirement benefits, and taxes assessed on employee compensation.

Non-payroll costs include rent, utilities, and the interest paid on your mortgage.

Are You Eligible for Loan Forgiveness?

Knowing if you’re eligible for loan forgiveness is probably the most important thing you need to know when managing the Paycheck Protection Program. There are certain requirements you must meet before being eligible.

First off, you can’t have any reduction in the headcount of your employees. If you had 176 employees, that’s the minimum you can have when you apply for loan forgiveness. Anything less will result in less forgiveness.

Not only that, but forgiveness will be reduced if any employees receive a 25% or more reduction in salary or wages. This is true for anyone who makes less than $100,000 per year.

Outside of that, you’ll need to use at least 60% of the funds for payroll costs and no more than 40% for non-payroll costs. This will need to be proven when you apply for loan forgiveness. Keep in mind, you must apply for forgiveness, as it won’t be automatically applied to your loan.

To make sure you’re properly prepared for the application process, it’s important to keep detailed records of how you spend the funds you receive, make sure they’re being used for the right things, and make sure you keep a proper headcount of employees throughout the duration of the loan.

How Can Consultants In-A-Box Help?

Of course, having the best payroll software available to you helps make this process much easier. You can manage payroll costs, HR operations, and even expenses -- all in one integrated system.

If you need help managing your Paycheck Protection Program loan and the loan forgiveness that comes with it, Consultants In-A-Box can help.

We provide practical, logical, and simple solutions for businesses of any size. We ensure these systems support everything you need for the PPP loan forgiveness. We will be by your side the entire way in case you have questions or concerns.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you and your business find success during these difficult times.

Paychex vs. Gusto: Which One Is Best for You? 0

Introducing a simple accounting software into the daily operation of your business is essential to the future success of your business. It’s something most business owners don’t think about when first starting out, but becomes more of a necessity as your business grows.

If you’ve been scouring the web for the best payroll and human resources software, you’ve likely realized that you have a world of options available to you. Navigating through these options can be difficult since they all market themselves as the best for your business.

Today, we’re going to detail two of the most popular accounting software programs available to businesses today -- Paychex and Gusto. We’ll discuss what they are, as well as the various benefits and downfalls that come with them.

By the time we’re done with this comparison, you’ll have a much better idea of which one works best for you. As a result, you’ll feel much more confident in your accounting department and will gain a large amount of your time back.

Let’s get started.

What is Paychex?

Paychex is known as the ‘big brother’ compared to Gusto because it’s been around longer and is a much more reputable brand. It’s known as an all-in-one solution that can provide help with HR services, payroll management, and administration tasks.

Paychex was founded in 1971 by Tom Golisano. Headquartered in Rochester, New York, it’s been around for nearly 50 years and has learned a lot in the industry. It’s designed to increase the amount of automation inside the workplace, giving you and your employees more time to focus on things that are most important.

Understanding the Benefits

Paychex definitely has much more capability when it comes to larger businesses. It’s certainly designed to meet the needs of businesses with 1-100 employees but can even support businesses with as much as 1,000+ employees.

Some of the features it’s capable of include: payroll, taxes, employee time, attendance, analytics, reports, hiring, health insurance, applicant tracking, HR services, employee benefits, employee screening, payment processing, expense management, and retirement plan benefits.

Paychex combines the benefits of a digital-based platform with the effects of a human-powered element. While many payroll and HR software programs feature fully-digital solutions, you get much more with Paychex.

Understanding the Downfalls

As great as Paychex is, there are some downfalls you should be aware of -- much like any accounting software. For example, some users have noted that the timesheet approval process takes too long and it lacks customization when running reports.

You also can’t print off your own checks, though you can have Paychex send their own checks in the mail. This is largely going to hurt employers that want to send a physical check, instead of a direct deposit.

Finally, many users say they didn’t enjoy the steep learning curve associated with Paychex. While they do admit it has a variety of benefits once understood, they mention getting there as being a bit difficult.

What is Gusto?

Gusto is the much newer accounting software on the market. It was introduced in 2012 as a cloud-based platform designed for small businesses looking for help with their payroll, HR, and administration operation/management.

Gusto is a more affordable option compared to Paychex, though it doesn’t come with as many features. It’s better suited for small businesses that don’t plan on growing anytime soon, if at all. For that reason, it’s a great option for self-employed individuals and sole proprietorships.

That’s not to say Gusto is perfect, though. They have their fair share of benefits and downfalls, just like Paychex did. Don’t worry, we’ll take a look at both of them as well, that way you get the full picture before deciding which one is best for you. 

Understanding the Benefits

There’s a lot to like about Gusto as a simple accounting software solution. One of the things we like most about it is the beautiful and easy-to-use interface. It’s one of the best in the industry and provides an excellent experience when managing payroll and HR tasks.

While Paychex required a bit of a learning curve, Gusto doesn’t require much. Their payroll programs are super easy to learn and don’t require you to spend a lot of time training your employees in each department.

There are also four types of payroll you can manage -- regular payroll, bonuses, off-cycle payroll, and termination. It also supports an autorun, which allows you to set your Gusto payroll to run automatically without needing you involved.

Understanding the Downfalls

While there’s a lot to like about Gusto, there are also some downfalls you should consider before making a final decision on Gusto or Paychex. Some of these downfalls could be the reason you choose one over the other, so it’s important to take everything into consideration.

The first major downfall is the fact that Gusto is a US-only service. That means if your business is headquartered outside of the United States, it won’t be of much use to you. In addition to that, it can be rather pricey for those that are in the United States.

Finally, you should be aware that it doesn’t have a mobile app. This takes some of the accessibility away, making it harder to manage when on-the-go -- which most business owners are these days.

Which One is Best for You?

Now that you’ve learned more about what each accounting software has to offer your business, you should have a better idea of which one’s better suited to meet your business’ needs. It’s an extremely important decision, so don’t rush yourself into a commitment.

If you’re still struggling to determine which one you should incorporate into your operations, Consultants In-A-Box can help. We’ve assisted a wide range of companies to find the right accounting software and we can’t wait to do the same for you.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help and how you can start to take better control of your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly payroll or HR tasks.