OK, so now you've completed your 2009 Payroll tasks and gotten your employee's W-2's and your vendor's 1099 forms to them. You are vowing that this year you'll handle payroll more efficiently - but how? Here are 5 steps to get you started.

1. Give every employee a new W-4 form (Employee withholding). That way you'll have updated addresses for all of your employees.

2. Check to see if every employee has an I-9 form (are you a citizen?) in their file.

3. Send out a W-9 form (Request for tax payer ID) with every new vendor purchase order. When you fill out 1099s at the end of the year, you won't spend days collecting the data.

4. Get new employment law posters from both State and Federal Departments of Labor. You can print them off the Internet for free. You don't have to buy pretty laminated ones - unless you don't have a better use for your money.

5. BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER DATA EVERY SINGLE DAY. Always take the latest backup off-site. I know of some companies that have different management personnel assigned to take a backup home on rotating days. This is your protection against natural or man-made disasters and in case of either, it will allow you to get up and running with a minimum of stress and lost data.

Contact CCS to have us help  you make a complete Payroll plan and check that all of your software and systems are up to date.