Payroll Providers in Canada
Payroll in Canada isn’t necessarily complex, but it does have some elements that need special attention. It’s absolutely possible to process your payroll on a manual basis and remit the appropriate amount on your own by the due date. I know many companies and organizations that still do that.
In order to be compliant with the CRA, you must deduct income tax, EI, CPP, and remit to the government on your assigned schedule. You also must file T4s by the end of February each year and file Record of Employments within a certain period after employment ends for employees.
Some items to consider if you want to do it manually:
Figuring out how much income tax, EI, and CPP to deduct
Figuring out how other deductions, such as benefits should be deducted
Filing T4s annually and sending to employees by the due date
Filing Record of Employments with all the exact information for up to 52 pay periods
Paying the statutory deductions by the due date (monthly or quarterly)
For most of these, you need a special filing code, need to ensure the accurate date is kept, and most importantly - information is kept in a secure location.
With that - we are a firm believer in using technology to help us with this. There are many options to help with your Canadian payroll - and it’s key you use a Canadian one!
Each of the options here will do most of the hard work with one or two still requiring you to pay the filing yourself.
There are ADP and Ceridian - typically larger payroll providers. They are a little more complex, and less user-friendly, but can handle a variety of job sites, many administrators, and a high degree of reporting.
Other options are Wave, Rise People, and Humi. These options are super simple with minimal reporting. It gets the job done and gets it submitted on time.
Finally, the option we chose for our clients is Wagepoint. Wagepoint has a direct integration into Xero (our favorite accounting software), handles all the T4s, ROEs, and has job reporting where needed for clients. It’s also the cheapest option for most of our clients so another win. Plus support is outstanding and usually replies the same day within a few hours. Wagepoint also has an ‘autorun’ feature so if you have salaried employees and don’t change their wage often, you can just set it to autorun and forget about it. If you don’t use this feature, it does give you an email reminder when payroll is due.
There are a few other options out there, but we haven’t had much trial and error with them (or maybe we just don’t like them…) so we can’t speak much about their capabilities.
Ultimately, it’s going to be what makes your life easier, saves you time, and takes away the payroll headache. If you have any questions on this, please feel free to book a free consult call or book a full hour for in-depth payroll reviews
Note: Our CEO, Erika, is a Wagepoint Ambassador but isn’t paid to post nice things about them.