The Buzz

This Year-End, Make Sure You’re Asking Your Clients (and Yourself!) the Right Questions Sponsored by Payworks

Between our easy-to-use tools, unmatched client support, and commitment to compliance, you’ve already heard how Payworks can turn year-end chaos into calmness!

Either way, whether you’ve already outsourced the management of your clients’ payroll to Payworks or are just looking to feel extra prepared for the months ahead, we thought we’d remind you of some oft-forgotten steps worth taking and questions worth asking as year-end approaches.

To mark your calendars now and save yourself a whole lot of hassle later, read on…

October and November: Getting organized

1. Get caught up on reviewing preliminary year-end reports for each of your clients. If you’ve already made a habit of taking care of this every few pay runs, you’ve likely saved yourself some much-needed time later. If not, there’s no time like the present to clear up any potential shortages, address employee info that’s missing or out of date, and more.
   
   Payworks clients can work through the interactive Year-End Checklist in November! Once it’s been released, see Steps 3 and 4 of the Year-End Checklist for more details.
    
2. Familiarize yourself with this year’s year-end documentation. Changes to reporting fields, new legislation… when it comes to year-end, there’s almost always something new to consider on your client’s behalves! Digging into the nitty-gritty now will save you a lot of confusion later.
   
   Payworks clients: Once it’s been released, see Step 1 of the Year-End Checklist for more details.

3. Confirm the New Year’s payroll run schedule. Trust us - it’ll sneak up on you. Get ‘er done now (or at a minimum, before the year’s last pay run) and save yourself a big headache later.
   
   Payworks clients: Once it’s been released, see Step 2 of the Year-End Checklist for more details.

December: Tying up loose ends

4. Make sure you and your clients haven’t missed entering any taxable benefits for any employees. Spend some quality time with the T4130 Employers’ Guide to Taxable Benefits to ensure they’re in full compliance. If they’re not, no worries - it’s an easy fix as long as it’s taken care of on or before the last pay run of the year.
   
   Payworks clients: Once it’s been released, see Step 5 of the Year-End Checklist for more details.
    
5. Deal with any outstanding manual payments or reversals that haven’t yet been entered. Whether it was a handwritten bonus cheque or a particularly generous gift card, you’ll need to ensure the applicable taxes are remitted on or before the last run of the current year.
   
   Payworks clients: Once it’s been released, see Step 6 of the Year-End Checklist for more details.
    
6. If your client switched payroll providers within the past year (perhaps to become a new Payworks client!), are all employees who were terminated within the past year (but prior to the switch) reflected in the year-end reports? If not, this is another task to take care of on or before the year’s last pay run.
   
   Payworks clients: Once it’s been released, see Step 7 of the Year-End Checklist for more details.

January: Getting ready to cross the finish line

7. Take care of any Year-to-Date (YTD) adjustments, including asking your clients:

1. “Do you have any employees working in a different province from where they live?” Employee tax provinces need to be verified, particularly for clients who offer their teams remote or hybrid work arrangements.
2. “Were any terminated employees left out of the system when you switched payroll providers?” Important: this isn’t a matter of whether or not they’re included in the year-end reports… they may have never been entered at all!
3. “Have you recently received any third-party information (for example, final pension contribution values) that would impact YTDs?” This information isn’t typically available to them until January, so as soon as it arrives, adjust accordingly!

Payworks clients: Once it’s been released, see Step 8 of the Year-End Checklist for more details.

Once you’ve got everything cleaned up and ready to go, all that’ll be left to do is to authorize year-end (and if you’re a Payworks client, we’ll go ahead and file to the Canada Revenue Agency and Revenu Québec on your behalf).

“Working with Payworks has allowed us to pay over 150 self-managed care clients while maintaining extremely low fees. Payworks provides a reliable, user-friendly platform that’s easy to navigate, and its intuitive interface makes it easy for users to learn. I particularly appreciate the automatic CRA remittances, and the easy-to-process T4s that are accurate, as well as audit reports that can help you catch errors or discrepancies.”

• Keen Payroll and Bookkeeping
  Placentia, NL

For Payworks clients, year-end is officially under control. Learn more about how our industry-leading toolkit can help here.