Payroll administration is never straightforward, no matter what the line of work. But few businesses face as much red tape as construction and manufacturing. Unions, irregular hours, and immigration issues conspire to create an accounting job fit for a payroll expert.
The Challenge of Construction and Manufacturing Payroll
A growing number of construction and manufacturing businesses are relying on professional services to handle payroll preparation. Construction and manufacturing operations present additional administrative challenges--they are more likely to manage multiple jobs in different states, hire unionized labor, take on government contracts, and deal with labor complexities such as variable hours, overtime, and high turnover. These conditions add many layers of complexity to payroll accounting.
Industry-Specific Payroll Services
Payroll companies are answering the demand by adding industry-specific services tailored to the needs of construction and manufacturing.
Standard payroll services cover the requirements all businesses face, including:
- Withholding employee taxes
- Complying with federal, state, and local reporting requirements
- Managing employee information
- Preparing tax documents
- Tracking hours and calculating pay
- Printing, delivering, or depositing employee checks on time
Construction and manufacturing payroll services meet additional industry-specific reporting and administrative challenges, such as:
- Job hour tracking
- Calculation of overtime pay, double-time pay, bonus pay, vacation pay, sick pay and commission pay
- Union compliance and reporting
- Workers compensation
- EEO minority compliance
- Certified payroll
- New hire reporting
- Managing different jobs
- Government contractual obligations
Construction and Manufacturing Payroll Software
Payroll preparation companies typically rely on advanced accounting software to manage the administrative details associated with construction and manufacturing work. Using specialized software, the company can manage the most complicated payroll scenarios. For example, a construction worker may spend variable hours working on different jobs at different pay rates. The jobs might be located in different states, each of which mandate different reporting and labor requirements.
The software allows the employer to record the relevant data and rely on the automated system to calculate payroll based on local laws. For example, the system can charge a workers time for a single pay period against multiple workers comp codes. The ability to handle multiple job codes for each employee makes job tracking and reporting easy. The software can also generate the standard quarterly and annual tax reports required by the IRS. Software reporting tools not only meet government and union payroll requirements, but also allow business owners to track job costs for billing and strategic planning purposes.
Without the proper resources, construction and manufacturing payroll can be a logistical nightmare. Fortunately, industry-specific payroll specialists have the expertise and electronic tools to handle the details of manual-labor payroll administration. An expert payroll preparation service ensures timely, accurate, and legally compliant payroll accounting. By leaving the paperwork to the professionals, business owners can focus their resources on core activities that grow the business.
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