charge for w-2 preparation

[oceanlovin'ea]

For those of you who do payroll and prepare W-2's for companies, what do you charge for doing this? This is the first time that I have had a large amount to do for any company.
Usually I have just had to do 1 or 2 or at the most 5 or 6, but one motel has 105 and the other has 168.

So I need an idea of what to charge for doing this?

Linda F

[BOB W]

Linda....

.... Your question has questions. If have been doing live PR for this client and charging them for that processing, then I would at least charge $5 per for any over 10. If a non client wants me to issue W-2s then the minimum would be $25 per, minimum ( too much setup required).

[geekgirldany]

Linda I do several payrolls. Most are around 1 - 8 employees. My largest one is 24 employees. Since I charge monthly/quarterly for the service I don't charge them extra for the W-2s. I charge my customer that has 24 employees $2,400 a year. I do his payroll checks every week, monthly forms, quarterly forms, and year end. What I suggest doing is going to ADP website. This is how I got some of my pricing on payroll prep. ADP's website has a quote system. This might help you with pricing. My pricing might be a little low.

[taxmandan]

If you haven't been doing the payroll, and they just want W2 done, I would charge at least $25 per employee. More if their records are a mess and require organizing. $25 per employee would be a retainer up front!

[Jiggers]

Fees for W-2's

My monthly bookkeeping clients
01 - 02 W-2's 7.50/ea
03 - 05 6.50/ea
06 - 10 5.50/ea
11 - 25 4.50/ea
26 - 50 3.50/ea
51 - + 3.00/ea

W-3's
01 - 05 W-2's attached 17.00
06 - 10 22.00
11 - 25 27.00
26 - 50 42.00
51 - + 52.00

For non monthly bookkeeping clients, the W-2 Fee is 2.00 more for each.

I have no minimum.

[Gretel]

Wow, what a range.

For W-2's, 1099's (non-payroll client) I charge $10 each, minimum $25. If I had one with lots of W-2's I probably would get lower on per item charge.

[sea-tax]

I am also an advocate of the monthly charge. For an average client to process payroll checks , all state and federal quarterlies and w2 and w3 it runs about 135 per month for 10 employees.

i like the monthly charge because I can count on the money and help plan my budget. also the client is less likely to think that I am nickle and diming then to death . this is a common complaint I hear from people who use ADP or Paychecks.

[oceanlovin'ea]

This helps

me a lot. I do their payroll twice a month and charge them for each payroll. Then quarterly I charge them for doing the payroll reports. I was going to bill monthly but everytime I take the payroll to her she wanted to pay, so I bill her for each payroll. One company usually has about 6 checks and the other one about 22 checks.
But I just realized that I need to purchase preprinted standard W-2's and envelopes to mail them in for these 2 businesses. I need to get ones that are QB compatible so that I don't have to reenter all the information.
That is why I was asking about pricing. I need to cover the cost of the forms and my times doing this. I had come up with charging either $2.50 or $3.00 per form. So Jiggers pricing is about what I was thinking about.

You have been a great help. Got to get these cranked out this weekend.

Linda F

[S T]

More

I don't do just payroll without the monthly accounting.

But even at that depending on my client I still charge for the year end processing which includes W-2 forms and 1099 forms. I still have to balance accounts, keep track and make sure the computer entries are correct. Throughout the year we Input or change employee info, do the State new hire reporting, change addresses, answer child support notices, etc.

Examples:

One client monthly accounting $185 billed at 13 months which covers her W-2 forms and 1099 forms (year end reports) she only has 2-3 employees. This one seems to work!

We bill monthly accounting, plus each payroll period that we issue checks, plus quarterly report fee and then other notices that we handle beyond that. Don't forget that you have to somehow acquire your supplies for W-2 forms and 1099 forms. That cost needs to be past on to the client.

At year end clients are billed for completing the year end W-2 forms and all of the Federal and State Annual Reconciliations. Billings range from $11 -$15 per W-2 form for year end and $15-$20 for 1099 forms

Extra amounts for sales tax reports, business property reports and Work Comp audits are billed as they arise.

Several years ago, I found out it didn't seem fair to me to try to build in the payroll with the monthly accounting, so I started separating the charges.

Compare with ADP and paychex and other payroll vendors. They seem to be charging quite a bit and provide less service!


Sandy

[oceanlovin'ea]

Don't want their monthly accounting

I am content to do the payroll for them. This is a Chinese family that run 2 motels. There is a lot of cash transactions. They also have several other partnerships and business ventures in another city.They wanted me to do payroll since I am in the same city and can get the checks to them quickly.

My husband told me to try to get all of their accounting, but after I saw how they operated I decided I didn't want any part of it.

I will provide all the payroll reports the other accountant needs and be very happy to do so.

Linda F

[Snaggletooth]

Cheapo

This is probably lower than any price on the board, but I am in a lower cost-of-living area.

Charge for W-3s and 1096s: $20 regardless of how many statements.
Charge for W-2s and 1099s: $2 apiece.
Processing fee: 15% of above total.

So there is a minimum $25.20 charge regardless of just one form.
Gets cheaper after that.

I still think this is probably too cheap because there's a lot of tedious busy-work
and more time-consuming than you would initially think. Lots of cutting, envelope
stuff, addressing, perforated paper, etc. Not to mention balancing hash totals
and report totals (which if you don't take the time to do this, God help you).

[geekgirldany]

That is what I spend most of my time on is rechecking QuickBooks. I go back and add all the 941 wages, 941 liab, State withholding, Futa, and Suga to make sure it jives with Quickbooks. Plus to make sure what I am filing is correct. If not I can change the 4 Qtr forms. Most of the time it is okay but I found a few this year where they overpaid futa and suga mainly because of shareholder health item.

[John of PA]

By the hour

I charge my hourly rate (175) for paroll work also. It's fair to both me and the client becasue I use an After the Fact Payroll program which automates the 941, 944, W-2's and state payroll forms.(Accountants World AFP).

[Gretel]

But I just realized that I need to purchase preprinted standard W-2's and envelopes to mail them in for these 2 businesses. I need to get ones that are QB compatible so that I don't have to reenter all the information.
Linda F

Linda, why do you purchase preprinted W-2's? They can be printed on blank paper.

[oceanlovin'ea]

I didn't realize that QB would print on plain paper. I thought it required pre printed forms.
What about copy A for social security? Does it have to have red printing? Now that I think about it, I have just sent in black printed copies before.

Didn't I read something about perforated copies?

Thinking out loud, I wonder if I can stop the order. They said it would go out tomorrow. I'll have to call early.

That would be great if I didn't have to order the preprinted forms. Save me a bunch of money.

Linda F