As the year wraps up, it’s a good time to think about your payroll product!
Your marketing and sales team should be excited for this once-a-year “buying season” that so many of our partners use to grow their payroll customer base as much as 30% in a single month.
Your support team will be gearing up to ensure customers get ready for a smooth payroll transition into 2025. Salsa is here to help you avoid the anxiety around year-end challenges and deadlines.
As a Salsa partner, you have the tools - and our support - to guide your customers through this process, making it easier to keep your businesses on track and set up for success in the new year. This week we sent an overview guide and over the coming days we'll be releasing new training, help-center content and guidance. With Salsa’s infrastructure backing your payroll solution, many of the trickiest items associated with year-end are handled automatically, behind the scenes.
Year-end is a once-a-year sales opportunity
Year-end is prime “buying-season” in the payroll world. The new year offers a natural opportunity for your customers to switch from their old provider and start 2025 with an upgraded payroll process on your system. Now is the perfect time to get in front of customers who haven’t yet switched to your payroll feature - you can show them how easy it is to start the year with a better system. Plus, this is the best time to do it for another reason.
Why this time of year? Typically, when you switch from one provider to another, the new system has to take over the tax reporting the old system was doing, and will be responsible for year-end filing too. That means a big data migration is needed from the old system to the new one, to ensure the new payroll system knows everything that happened during the tax year. [.c-line-highlighted]All this complexity is eliminated and no migration is needed if you switch payroll at the beginning of the calendar year[.c-line-highlighted], ensuring your first payroll of the year runs with the new system. The old system handles the old tax year, and the new system starts fresh with no need to migrate from the old provider. It’s the cleanest time to switch systems.
How to get started? Many of our customers are already deep in marketing campaigns that put customers in a waitlist to run their first payroll in early January. Customers can begin setting up their accounts today so it’s ready to go in the new year. We’ve seen partners have very big growth during this time of year with multiple times the signup rates of typical months. If you’d like to review your marketing plan with our go-to-market team just reach out, we’re here to help you.
How to help your existing customers during year-end
Existing customers need to take a few important steps to avoid year-end complications. Here are some key things to remind and educate your customers to do:
Verify essential details
Accurate information is at the heart of smooth year-end payroll. Encourage your customers to check that tax IDs and employee details are correct, which helps prevent errors and avoids having to reissue tax forms - - or miss deadlines.
- For businesses: Tax ID and address checks: Remind customers to review their federal and state EINs, along with employee addresses. In your payroll platform, these updates are easy to make, keeping W-2 distribution and tax filings on track.
- For employees: double check information: Suggest that employees take a moment to update their basic tax information and address. Employers should be on the lookout for employees who have moved or had a major life-event such as a marriage during the tax year. Our system does a great job calculating and paying taxes, but it relies on accurate information entered.
Answer common tax form questions customers will have
Supporting your customers through year-end filing is all about clear guidance on important tax forms and deadlines. Here’s a quick overview to help them:
- W-2 Forms: Reporting employee earnings and withholdings, W-2s are due to employees by January 31. Your system automatically generates and files W-2s. They will be uploaded to the document center the last week of January and will also be printed and mailed to addresses we have on file.
- Form 940: Used for federal unemployment taxes (FUTA), Form 940 is due by January 31. Salsa will automatically calculate and file this by the deadline.
- 1099 Forms: If contractors were paid on your system during the tax year, Salsa will automatically generate 1099s with all necessary details for IRS submission.
- Annual state forms: State requirements vary, but your system handles these specifics, keeping compliance easy and reliable for customers.
With automated processes handling most of these tasks, your customers reduce manual work and avoid common errors, making year-end payroll more manageable for them.
Important year-end payroll deadlines to communicate
Providing customers with a list of key deadlines helps them stay organized through the year-end process. Here’s a timeline you can share, along with how your platform’s automated reminders help keep them on track:
- December 31: Decide on and complete the last pay day in 2024. Taxes are based on the day workers are paid, not the period the pay relates to, so it’s important to decide on the last check dates of the year. Encourage customers to record all earnings and deductions accurately to wrap up the year’s financials.
- January 31:
- W-2 distribution: All employees will receive their W-2s by this date.
- 1099-NEC distribution: Eligible contractors will receive their 1099-NEC forms for work done in 2024.
- Form 940 and Form 941: These forms will be submitted for federal unemployment and payroll taxes.
With your payroll platform’s reminders and automatic filings, customers can avoid last-minute stress and stay on top of deadlines.
Remind customers to check the mail, too!
Another part of year-end is watching for notices that are mailed to employers from tax agencies. These notices inform them if they need to make changes for the new tax year. This is the way federal, state and provincial tax authorities inform businesses if they’re subject to a rate change. Encourage customers to watch the mailbox for these notices, and make any update to tax rates in their payroll product - or reach out if they need help:
- State unemployment rate changes: SUI rates change annually and can impact payroll costs. Remind customers to check these rates if they apply.
- Change in deposit frequency: Every business has a set schedule about when they need to make tax payments to the IRS. This is the time of year that a notice might be sent informing them of a change for the next tax year.
Q: What about other tax changes? For example, we know 2025 will have a new wage base for social security, and/or a new local tax is coming out in my area:
A: For tax changes that affect all customers, such as a change in a tax rate or a new tax, Salsa handles all of these year-end compliance changes automatically and no action is needed from customers.
Salsa is your partner in delivering seamless year-end payroll
With Salsa as your infrastructure partner, you have everything needed to deliver a reliable payroll solution that makes year-end payroll easy for your customers. Our platform supports you at each stage, from data verification and tax form preparation to automated filings and compliance updates. These tools save time, reduce potential errors, and keep all year-end tasks on track.
Closing out 2024 with Salsa’s infrastructure means your payroll system will be ready for a successful start in 2025. If you have questions or need extra support, our team is here to make year-end payroll as smooth as possible. Let’s make this year-end a success and start the new year strong—together.
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