Sweep Accounts Simplify Separated Bookkeeping (Bottom Line)

Sweep accounts can make balancing all of the books easier for small business owners who operate several locations. This can be especially useful for keeping each store’s numbers separate, while moving revenue into a single account automatically.

Many business owners want to be able to see the amount of money going into and coming out of each location on a daily basis, all while processing payments out of a single operating account, said Stephanie Litzinger, manager for corporate and merchant services with Arvest Bank-Rogers.

All of the different accounts can be linked, and at the end of each day, any positive credit is swept into the main operating account.

Arvest has several different small business accounts, depending on the size of the business.

The bank offers a free small business account for customers that will clear fewer than 100 checks a month.

For businesses that are growing and might need sweep services, Litzinger recommends a corporate account.

Arvest offsets some of the fees associated with corporate accounts by applying the revenue generated by the money in the account from 91-day Treasury bills.

“I work with each customer and tailor make a program that they’re comfortable with,” Litzinger said.

Payroll Company Makes Payment Less Painful

Dealing with payroll can eat up quite a bit of a business owner’s time, particularly if some employees want to be paid via direct deposit and others want a check in hand every payday.

Additional time can be lost to handling disputed hours, miscalculations and other errors.

Most owners who are doing their own payroll spend an average of $16 on each check, when everything is added up, said Jeremy Turley, account executive with The Payroll Company, which is based in Springfield.

Outsourcing payroll duties can often save time and money, freeing up owners to focus on the big picture.

Businesses that hire payroll companies typically spend between $3 and $4 processing each check, Turley said, citing an American Payroll Association study.

“A lot of times, businesses don’t have any idea how much time they spend doing payroll,” he said.

Business owners are often busy or might have to travel frequently, while still needing to take care of their payrolls, Turley said.

With The Payroll Company, they can access their accounts online and submit their payroll “and we do all the back-end stuff,” he said.

“Everything can be as electronic as they want it to be, and we can do it the old-fashioned way too,” he said.

A business with 20 to 25 employees is just about the ideal size to be a good candidate for outsourcing payroll duties, Turley said.

However, of the roughly 100 clients he has in Northwest Arkansas, he serves businesses that range in size from one- to two-person “S” corps up to some that have 200 or more employees.

The Payroll Company has larger accounts that include more than 1,000 employees.

Pricing is catered to each business, and depends on the how many workers are on the payroll.

Other major small business concerns the firm handles include tax forms such as W-2s and 1099s and wage garnishment services.

The Payroll Company also offers human resources consultation in addition to payroll services, including employee relations, legal compliance issues, medical leave, recordkeeping, employee handbooks, disciplinary action and termination procedures and hiring procedures.

“What sets us apart is, [clients] can call us up and they have a direct representative that has their account,” Turley said. “It’s not a hotline, the same person helps them every time.”