How to Use Tech to Keep Your Business Compliant

Running a business requires an array of moving parts that entrepreneurs must juggle: maintaining employees, increasing profits, and staying compliant so the government doesn’t come after you, to name a few. That last one may not be the most exciting aspect of business management, but it’s really not fun when a lawsuit arises. 

Still, it can be difficult—and time consuming—to maintain compliance when you’re juggling all of your other duties as a business owner, so finding useful tools that make following the law easier is a good strategy to increase your operational efficiency and decrease the danger of any unwanted legal surprises. 

By automating necessary tasks like running payroll and managing employee scheduling, you can spend more time on growing your business and developing your team.

Take your timesheet online

Did you know that 40% of small to midsize businesses are hit with fines from the IRS? Or that the average penalty fee is $845?

Running payroll is stressful and time consuming to begin with, and if you’re operating with traditional timesheets, there’s a lot of room for error. Are you sure you’re tracking every employee’s paid and unpaid break time properly? What about missed breaks? Overtime? 

An automated solution such as Homebase’s free Timesheet App will take all of those worries away by catching any errors and reducing the chance for compliance issues. The app automatically identifies errors like missed breaks, tracks paid and unpaid breaks, and saves you around five hours a week on payroll.

The app will even alert you ahead at the beginning of the week if an employee is set to hit overtime, and will send you a text if they end up going over their hours. This means that even if your state’s minimum wage rate is increasing at the beginning of the year, you’ll save money on your labor costs by reducing errors through better management. 

Easily schedule employees in advance

Predictive scheduling is a hot topic these days, with many cities (and one state) implementing stricter laws and regulations in the past few years surrounding how far in advance employee schedules must be posted. 

The practice benefits both part-time employees who have fluctuating schedules and full-time employees who work at an hourly rate because they can better estimate how much money they’re going to make in a given workweek and maintain a more predictable lifestyle. 

Most predictive scheduling laws also require employers to give extra pay to employees if an employer changes the schedule, provide adequate rest periods between shifts, and keep all scheduling records for a certain amount of time. 

This may seem like a lot to manage, but Homebase’s Scheduling app can help you get ahead of any compliance issues that may arise if your city of state implements a predictive scheduling law. The app allows you to create reusable schedule templates and publish predictable schedules weeks in advance, track time-off requests and employee availability changes, and manage shift trades and covers in the mobile app without phone calls.

You can also take compliance management a step further with the Team Communication app, which lets you message your entire team in one place. This way you can ensure everyone received the schedule plenty of time in advance. 

These features will decrease the time it takes for you to publish the weekly schedules and ensure your employees receive them as soon as possible. This way you can avoid breaking a predictive scheduling law and you’ll increase the happiness of your team by giving them more stability. 

Automatically track PTO

You probably have a policy in place for paid time off, but if you don’t have an automated solution for tracking each employee’s requests and used time, it’s easy for vacation logistics to slip through the cracks—and you could face a lawsuit if an employee doesn’t receive the proper amount of accrued hours.

Homebase allows you to set up your PTO policy online and track accruals automatically. You’ll be able to manage all time off requests, both paid and unpaid, and even set different policies per regulation and employee.
By letting technology take the wheel and utilizing online apps for your management routine, you’ll be able to rest easy knowing you won’t have any compliance issues pop up regarding payroll, scheduling, and more, and your employees will thank you for the increased operational efficiency.

Shelbie is the Content Marketing Manager for Homebase. She works to provide relevant, informative and engaging material to local business owners and their employees. 

Harbor Compliance does not provide tax, financial, or legal advice. Use of our services does not create an attorney-client relationship. Harbor Compliance is not acting as your attorney and does not review information you provide to us for legal accuracy or sufficiency.