Many companies must offer their employees benefits, including health insurance and retirement plans. However, the cost of these benefits can add up. That's where payroll HR can help you determine your company's contribution for each employee per pay period and by month.

Payroll can help determine how much your company needs to contribute to an employee benefit plan. It can help a small business owner find potential tax deductions, such as contributions to a health insurance plan and other health-related expenses. At the end of each year, a small business may be able to receive a partial or complete deduction for these contributions. This could save you money in the long run.

Payroll can also determine how much you need to contribute toward your retirement plan, such as a 401(k). This number is calculated by dividing your current salary by the number of years you estimate you'll be working. You can choose how much you want to contribute based on your financial situation. You can use payroll to determine employees' Social Security tax contributions each pay period.

As you decide to outsource or do payroll independently, you should consider a few things. Do you have the time to take care of everything involved with doing payroll? You'll have to consider how much time and effort you'll need to put into each employee's paycheck. For instance, if you have 20 employees that need to be processed every two weeks, you'll also have to use payroll software that can do everything in addition to calculating overtime and other deductions.

Is your business small enough so that you can handle your payroll? Small businesses with only a few employees will probably do fine with their payroll. If you have more than 10 employees, however, hiring an outside source or using payroll services may be worthwhile.

What experience do you have with running a payroll system? Working with an outside firm for payroll will take some responsibilities off your plate and free you up to focus on other business tasks. For greater convenience, you can find many companies that offer online payroll services, such as completing new-hire paperwork and employee time-off and benefits tracking. Reporting, filing, and making payroll tax payments are other services these companies offer to business leaders.