Payroll preparation may not be the most glamorous aspect of public accounting, but it is an area where we have expertise, and our clients want and need our help. Over the past few years many smart practitioners have made payroll services a staple of their practice as they found it to be a great client retention service and also very profitable.

A generation ago, calculating paychecks and preparing quarterly reports was the sole domain of accounting offices. As payroll became more complex practitioners began to shy away and national providers such as ADP and PayChex rose to prominence.

In the mid 90s technology advances made it possible for many clients to prepare their own payroll. Then along came the Internet and with it the ability for accountant and client to actually collaborate in the payroll process. Since most clients feel more comfortable when someone outside the organization is looking for obvious mistakes and errors this new paradigm has grown dramatically. There is value in the consultative role for the outside accountant in the payroll process of a client and web-based payroll offerings make providing the service practicable for small firms and their small business clients.