When a business considers hiring a payroll service company, it's important to understand all aspects of the service and equally important to understand the reasons why outsourcing makes sense.

A payroll service will cut checks, deliver them on time, withhold the proper taxes, deposit those taxes on time and file the appropriate tax returns.

Here are the important issues to consider in your prescription for your payroll headache:

• Will I save time?
• Will my payroll be accurate and on time?
• Will all my payroll tax payments and returns be paid and filed?
• Will I improve my tax compliance?
• Will I be satisfied with the level of service?
• Will it be cost-effective?
• Will I gain peace of mind?
• Does the firm belong to the American Payroll Association?
• Does its staff get ongoing training in the ever-changing wage and tax rules?

Some businesses try to make time in their hectic schedule to print their own checks from a computer software program, while others continue to spend money maintaining tax updates and access to their payroll software. Some owners are doing payroll in the evenings or on weekends that takes valuable time away from family, friends or precious personal time. And, cutting checks and making changes may seem simple and quick enough to some business owners, but they still have to make all the required tax deposits, fill out the tax forms and deal with deadlines. If a payroll tax deposit ends up even one day late, money is wasted on penalties, late fees and interest!

Outsourcing also provides many other benefits, such as security backup for all your payroll records, additional accounting and human resource information and ease of access to payroll detail. Additionally, today's technology allows companies to access their payroll through secure Web-based software or through software installed directly on your PC.