Small Business Payroll Guide

From Healthcare reform and technology developments to HR issues facing small businesses just like yours , let us keep you up-to-date on all things payroll.

Look through our FAQs to find straight forward answers to commonly asked tax and payroll questions. Use our tools and calculators to make simple tax and pay calculations.

Still can’t find the answer? No problem. Ask Abacus gives you the opportunity to pose those vexing questions to our payroll and tax experts.

How to Handle Annual Performance Reviews in Your Small Business

December 1, 2019 | posted by Abacus Payroll

Annual performance reviews provide, in theory, a welcome check-in and debrief period for employees and employers alike. Unfortunately, arbitrary rating criteria and a lack of communication between employers and employees can lead to annual performance reviews becoming nothing more than busy work that’s dreaded by everyone involved. While critiquing an employee’s performance never gets easier […]

5 Reasons Your Franchise Should Outsource Payroll

November 25, 2019 | posted by Abacus Payroll

Payroll is a great candidate for outsourcing due to its often-complex nature and the consequences that accompany easy-to-make errors. While hiring a third party to handle your company’s payroll services usually sounds like a solution reserved for small businesses, a business—or franchise—of any size can benefit from one less thing to keep track of. Here […]

How to Motivate and Evaluate Employees

October 8, 2019 | posted by Abacus Payroll

A motivated staff is a productive staff, and without incentives, your best people could leave for more satisfying endeavors. Pay and benefits are important, but they’re only the beginning. Motivate Employees to Excel To retain your best people, do the following: Establish reasonable, objective work standards, and base rewards and promotions on those standards. Communicate […]

Managing Overtime: 7 Common Questions

October 3, 2019 | posted by Abacus Payroll

Despite its frequent usage across occupations, overtime remains an elusively curious phenomenon from a payroll perspective—especially if you’re new to calculating your own company’s payroll. Overtime is expensive to maintain and even pricier to screw up; for that reason, we’re addressing some of the most common questions you’re likely to have about overtime so that […]

Tax Season Lessons: The Importance of a Paycheck Checkup

October 1, 2019 | posted by Abacus Payroll

In years past, the IRS has encouraged taxpayers to double-check their form W-4s to ensure that they’re paying the right amount in taxes—often to no avail. Even if you haven’t suffered the repercussions of an out-of-date W-4, here are a few steps you can take to make sure you don’t have an unexpectedly high tax […]

DOL Announces Final Overtime Rules for 2020

September 26, 2019 | posted by Abacus Payroll

After several years of attempting to get proposed overtime changes off the ground, the U.S. Department of Labor announced on September 24, 2019 a final rule to make 1.3 million additional American workers eligible for overtime pay. The new provisions update the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) regulations and minimum salary thresholds in which executive, […]

4 Benefits of Outsourcing HR

September 24, 2019 | posted by Abacus Payroll

A human resources department is one of the most crucial—and chronically overworked—sections of any successful business, but the fact of the matter is that not every business is large enough to warrant a full-time HR team. If this is the case for you, it’s still possible to reap the benefits of a fully functional HR […]

Wage Theft Act Enacted in New Jersey

September 23, 2019 | posted by Abacus Payroll

On August 6, 2019, the New Jersey Acting Governor, Sheila Oliver, signed into law the New Jersey Wage Theft Act (the “Act”), which modifies New Jersey’s existing wage and hour laws to protect employees from unfair pay practices. The Act is one of the strongest anti-theft protection laws in the U.S. and has gone into […]

2020’s HR Landscape for New Jersey Employers

September 19, 2019 | posted by Abacus Payroll

The coming year is set to usher in quite a few large-scale changes for businesses of all sizes in New Jersey, so starting your preparations now will help keep your workplace compliant and employee-friendly. Here is a round-up of the main things for which you’ll want to update your HR section come 2020. New […]

5 Tips for Smarter Payroll Outsourcing

September 11, 2019 | posted by Abacus Payroll

It’s no secret that in-house payroll can be a time-consuming headache for employers. Outsourcing payroll has many benefits, from increased productivity and enhanced security to peace of mind that your employees are paid timely and accurately. The most important part of outsourcing, however, is working with a reputable provider. Since your company’s payroll tax responsibility […]