If you’re a small business owner and you’ve been thinking that your payroll program could use some help, you may want to consider outsourcing the program to a professional processing service. Why, you ask?

Many small businesses find themselves caught between two (or more) countries — for example, many businesses are based in the U.S. but often employ Canadians. You would think that tax regulations would be pretty similar between these two countries, but they’re actually really different. And it can become difficult to stay up-to-date on regulations and policy changes for one country, much less two countries. A professional payroll processing service employs people who do just that — they stay informed about policy changes so that you don’t have to.

You may think that all of these regulations aren’t too confusing, but just wait for tax season to creep up. So many businesses make mistakes when doing payroll tax calculations, and the mistakes are honest, but that doesn’t matter. Steep fines can accompany mistakes, no matter how small, and this can be really harmful for small businesses which have tight budgets to begin with.

And speaking of money, outsourcing your payroll program might actually save you money in the long run. It cuts down on time that you have to spend doing boring paperwork and number calculations, and it lets you focus on the business you want to do. If you wanted to sit around and fiddle with numbers all day, you would have become an accountant — right? The fact is, you started a business because you were passionate about something and wanted to share your passion with others. Opting to outsource all the extra paperwork lets you do just that. It keeps your employees happy (because they get paid on time), it keeps the government happy (because it gets taxes), and it keeps you happy too!