2021 is a unique year for every business- whether that’s working remote and transitioning back into the office, or changing business value and structure for health and safety, or simply operating in the global pandemic. Most businesses have had to make some amount of change. In response to the stressful times, the IRS and US government have provided opportunities for loan forgiveness or other financial incentives to help businesses.
To benefit from these programs or simply set your company up for success this year, we’ve outlined 5 reports you should consider.
What is a payroll report?
A payroll report is what you will use to provide the government your employees’ tax liabilities. Payroll reports come in a variety of forms that all share different taxes you and your employees pay. These reports can range from employee time worked, wages paid, federal and state taxes withheld, and other information or data. Because payroll reports can quickly become complicated and doing it wrong has financial and legal consequences, many businesses choose to use payroll software or a payroll team to help.
1. PPP Loan Forgiveness Report
PPP Loan was a loan program created during the pandemic to help support small businesses.
Following the loan, businesses could also apply for loan forgiveness within 10 months after the last day of their covered period.
Those that received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan under the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act may need payroll data to calculate their loan forgiveness amount. This report is to help determine applicable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) covered payroll costs.
PPP Loan Forgiveness reports give the payroll cost associated with each employee of the company for the selected/applicable pay period (generally 8 or 24 weeks) with appropriate wage caps and excluding any FFCRA Covid Sick Pay as required to obtain PPP forgiveness.
If you had taken out a PPP loan and are interested in asking for loan forgiveness, you will want to file a PPP loan forgiveness report.
How it benefits your business
If you took out a PPP loan, the forgiveness report could be hugely beneficial as it gives your company more time to pay back the loan.
2. Approaching Overtime Report
Another report you should consider is the approaching overtime report. This report can show you the scheduled employees to exceed overtime rules and present data about given wage groups. To create such a report, you will need to determine overtime laws federally and locally and then use either a software payroll program or your own reporting structure to track employees approaching overtime.
How it benefits your business
For most hourly employees, any hours worked over 40 hours a week is paid at time and a half (1.5). Miscalculating overtime often happens when employers make errors and exclude bonuses, incentive pay, cash benefits, shift differentials, or longevity pay to calculate the regular rate. It’s a requirement that all these factors are included in the regular rate, which helps determine the overtime rate. Not paying the correct overtime means employees may sue and could mean your company is liable or fined by the federal and state government.
3. Change Report
A change report is an important tool to prevent fraud. Managers can see if direct deposits were changed and confirm that it was the employee that tried to change this, not a fraud attempt to route pay elsewhere. This type of fraud is very common in payroll, but with a change report, your company can help mitigate that risk. At CAVU, we help you create and track change reports.
How it benefits your business
A change report helps prevent fraud and saves your company money, by giving your business and managers the ability to track and confirm any changes made to direct deposits.
4. PTO Liability Report
PTO liability is the liabilities and obligations for accrued general leave and grandfathered sick leave by your employees. A PTO liability report helps you track your outstanding liabilities so you understand how much time each employee has accrued and is owed if they leave the company.
How it benefits your business
You don’t want to be caught off guard with PTO liabilities, so having a clear report where you can keep that from happening helps save your business money and liability.
5. Labor Distribution Report
A labor cost distribution report captures data such as work hours, wages, benefits, deductions, and more. Often this data is divided among departments, giving you insight into the general functioning of every department and what can be more efficient or costs cut. This report gives you a better sense of where dollars are being spent along with your goals.
Often times labor distributions reports include,
- # of staff members
- Total hours worked
- Salary or hourly rates
- Education hours
- Vacation hours
How it benefits your business
Knowing where and how your money is being spent, and how departments are performing is important for the success of your business and each function.
Learn more about different types of reports that your business should run by talking to our team today.