Do You Love Your Point of Sale?

Posted on February 18, 2020February 13, 2020

With Valentine’s Day approaching, love is in the air. But if you’re not in love with your point of sale (POS) because it’s unreliable and hard to deal with, it’s time for a change. Breaking up with your POS doesn’t have to be messy. Look for these telltale signs that you and your POS are no longer compatible.

Your POS isn’t cloud-based

If your POS system isn’t operating in real time, you’ve lost the ability to see an immediate and complete picture of what’s happening at your business, what isn’t happening, and what absolutely needs to happen in terms of day-to-day operations. For example, a traditional POS requires you to run reports from an in-store terminal, so your ability to make data-driven business decisions is limited to when you’re at a business location. Having real-time sales and inventory information in the palm of your hand wherever you are is a game changer. That immediacy can only be provided by a POS system connected to the cloud. To stay competitive, moving to the cloud-based POS becomes a necessity, not a luxury.

Your POS isn’t user-friendly

Does your staff hate using your POS when it comes to voids, refunds, split payments, modifiers, and last-minute changes to order details? If your staff has bad user experiences on your POS, chances are your guests have too. A well-designed POS increases staff productivity. For example, it is far quicker for a staff member to punch an order into an iPad and send it directly to the kitchen or bar than to write it down.

Your POS system doesn’t accept all payment options

If your POS isn’t keeping up with all of the rapidly expanding ways customers want to pay, you’re missing out on sales. Payment technology is evolving at leaps and bounds: EMV chip cards, Apple Pay. Google Pay, Samsung Pay and more. Supporting the methods guests prefer to pay is fundamental to your ability to serve them, including digital wallet, pay-at-the-table and pay by guest app options. Your POS should serve that expectation, too.

Your POS makes data vulnerable to attack

Data attacks on POS systems in hotels, restaurants, and foodservices are notoriously common. To protect you and your customers, your POS must have the latest security measures. An investment in a cloud-based POS system that is PA-DSS compliant, and partnering with payment partners who support these strict standards, helps you avoid data breaches. In turn, this helps you avoid the costs associated with attacks, which are significant.

Your POS system is unreliable

Outages and hardware issues can occur at the worst possible moment. The question is: How do these circumstances affect your POS? Can you continue to serve guests during an outage? If not, this is yet another sign that your POS needs to be replaced. Modern POS technology provides performance that legacy systems can’t match. They’re designed to perform flawlessly (99.999%), and you can continue taking orders and payments even if the internet goes down.

Your POS system doesn’t meet guest expectations

Flexibility is key to a great guest experience. If your POS doesn’t connect easily with loyalty programs, self-serve kiosks, and provide electronic receipts, it’s not connecting with how your guests want to interact with your business. For instance, your POS should allow guests to be served and billed right where they are. It should integrate with loyalty apps, and split a bill between customers and various modes of payment. If your POS solution is letting you down in these areas, it’s time to say goodbye.

Your POS isn’t supported by the right partner

Have you had issues or questions which required you to contact your POS provider? Did that partner immediately resolve these issues, or did a delay cost you sales? As the most critical tool in your store, any questions about your POS system should be answered promptly in person, via phone, chat, email and a 24/7/365 support center. You should never have to go it alone.

About Heartland
Heartland provides entrepreneurs with software-driven technology to manage and grow their business. The company serves more than 400,000 merchants nationwide, delivering trusted solutions for payment, payroll and human resources, point of sale, customer engagement and lending. Heartland is a leading industry advocate of transparency, merchant rights and security. Heartland is a Global Payments Company (NYSE: GPN), a Fortune 500 Company. Learn more at heartland.us.

Make 2020 a Breakout Year!

Posted on January 15, 2020January 15, 2020

January means new opportunities to do new things. If increased business success is at the top of your 2020 bucket list, take these five steps to make that wish come true. They will amp-up business to create a more prosperous New Year.

1. Create a website

If you’re part of the third of small businesses that still don’t have a website, make this the year you add one. Your customers expect it. They need to be able to find you. Thirty percent of consumers won’t even consider a business without a website. With a website, you’re reaching people even when you’re asleep and selling products all the time — not simply between your brick and mortar hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Without a website, the chances of showing up on the search engine results are zero. But if you have a site, you can optimize it for search engines and increase your chances of appearing at the top of Google’s results. Why is that important? A vast majority of customers use their smartphones and tablets to decide where to go and what to buy. If you don’t have a visible website, customers simply go elsewhere.

2. Be Social

Have you been putting off getting your business on social media? With more than three billion people using social media, you can’t afford not to be social any longer. Make 2020 the year you join the crowd. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube are perfect digital spaces to showcase your business, products and promotions. Plugging into social media gives you new ways to connect with your customers, hear what they want you to offer more of, and promote your website.

3. Get Mobile-Friendly

Is your website mobile friendly? Most visitors to your web page are reaching it through a smartphone or tablet these days. Make it part of your e-commerce strategy this year to optimize your website for small screens. After all, no one wants to squint to read a website or scroll ten times to find your phone number.

4. Find Your Marketing Voice

If you’re using the same marketing strategy year over year and getting mixed results, it’s time to change things up. Your business can’t be everything for everyone. Instead of casting a wide net, use sales records from your in-store POS, mobile app and online store to define exactly who your target customers are. Once you’ve zeroed in, make sure to use email marketing to reach out to customers about upcoming promotions. Seventy-two percent of consumers say email is their favorite method of communication with companies they do business with, and 61 percent like to receive promotional emails every week from businesses.

5. Fine Tune Your Customer Service

Every year, you should be looking at all of your customer touch points – from the counter to curb to doorstep and online – to ensure you’re providing gold-star customer service experiences. Seven out of ten consumers spend more with companies that provide excellent customer service. And if that isn’t reason enough, consider that it’s five times more expensive to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones. Adopt these five resolutions and you’ll get your business off on the right foot by helping more customers discover you throughout the New Year.

About Heartland

Heartland provides entrepreneurs with software-driven technology to manage and grow their business. The company serves more than 400,000 merchants nationwide, delivering trusted solutions for payment, payroll and human resources, point of sale, customer engagement and lending. Heartland is a leading industry advocate of transparency, merchant rights and security. Heartland is a Global Payments Company (NYSE: GPN), a Fortune 500 Company. Learn more at heartland.us.

Ready to modernize payroll? These technologies can help.

Posted on December 11, 2019December 11, 2019

Are you one of almost 30 percent of businesses still using payroll technology more than 10 years old? If so, your days of working with paper timesheets, punch cards and physical time clocks should be over.

Luckily for today’s entrepreneur, modern technology makes payroll administration easier and more affordable than ever. You can use cloud-based platforms, automated workflows and mobile-friendly apps to accurately manage payroll on the go, and assure compliance.

Payroll administration is a lot more than just handing out checks. Cloud-based payroll systems make it easy to share data, work remotely and stay up to date on ever-changing labor laws and requirements. They simplify data collection to determine how someone should be paid, how benefits time is managed, how taxes are withheld and paid, and how compliance and reporting is conducted.

Here are five ways technology is simplifying payroll management, reporting and compliance.

Powered by the cloud

Software updates and data backups are automatic, and keep you current with tax compliance and other regulations. Convenient, remote access eliminates the need to be at the office to run payroll. And with your payroll and Human Resource Information System (HRIS) data stored in the cloud, in a single system, you have better, more secure control over sensitive data such as Social Security numbers, compensation, benefits and address information.

Increased process automation

When multiple people are inputting the same information across a spectrum of applications, the risk for inaccuracies increases. Payroll automation creates error-free data by eliminating this manual and redundant entry. Additionally, modern payroll software accesses all relevant information necessary to automatically adhere with ever changing federal, state and local tax codes, wage rates and more.

Bio-metric time tracking

Employees today can clock in or out with their phone, iPad or the web using facial recognition and GPS. This eliminates “buddy punching” and records late arrivals, early departures and unplanned absences. Geo-Fencing is used to draw boundaries around the site where employees can clock in and clock out so you always know the exact location of an employee. Recorded time punches are automatically sent to payroll.

Online employee engagement

Self-service and a greater focus on the employee experience are hallmarks of modern payroll systems. Today’s self-service portal enables employees to track their time, update personal information and manage their benefits on their laptop or mobile device – without ever having to contact another person. Mobile apps also allow employees to remotely access schedules, swap and cover shifts (with manager approval) and request dates/times to take off. Additionally, job seekers can apply to open positions via text to make it easier for you to recruit new hires. Applicants can fill out and submit forms online. The hiring process needs no face-to-face time with an applicant until the final interview.

Unified data access

Having different systems talk to each other makes payroll much easier to manage. The data belonging to the areas of benefits administration, payroll, deductions, taxes, staff reviews and more is today integrated and consolidated across platforms so you can quickly access and reference it.

These payroll technology advancements can save you substantial time and money, and also do a better job of keeping you compliant with current labor laws, tax regulations and filing requirements. Upgrading your legacy payroll system will have you working smarter, not harder, and you’ll be asking yourself “why didn’t I make the change sooner.”

About Heartland

Are you guilty of committing these 5 payroll mistakes?

Posted on November 14, 2019November 14, 2019

Not knowing or failing to comply with payroll laws can put your business under a magnifying glass, and lead to fines and penalties. In fact, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) penalizes nearly 1 in 3 businesses for payroll mistakes. To avoid being one, don’t get tripped up by these common payroll mistakes:

1. Poor Record Keeping and Inaccurate Data

Poor record keeping and data entry mistakes can result in overpaying or underpaying payroll taxes. When it comes to record keeping, the law requires that you hold on to the following documents for at least four years:

Timesheets
Canceled checks
Tax forms
Proof of past payments

It’s also important that employee information be 100 percent accurate. After your employees fill out their W-2s, make sure to double-check the following information:

Employee’s Full Name
Current Address
Social Security Number
Start Date
Termination Date (If Applicable)
Date of Birth
Payroll Details, Including Hourly Rate, Overtime, Etc.

2. Falling behind on payroll tax and filing deadlines

The government collects payroll taxes on a pay-as-you-go basis. Almost half of all small businesses get fined an average of $850 every year for late or missed payments.

There are two reoccurring payroll tax deadlines you need to remember. A biweekly or monthly deadline is set by the IRS to deposit both withholding taxes and your share of taxes. If you fail to make a timely deposit, you are subject to a penalty of up to 15 percent, depending on how late the deposit is. And, there are quarterly and annual returns that you must file with your W-2s.

3. Withholding errors

There’s lots of potential slip-ups in the withholding process. Misclassifying employees is one way businesses screw up withholding. Other common mistakes include:

Failure to withhold federal and state taxes
Inaccurate calculation of pre-tax and post-tax deductions
Making incorrect deductions from exempt employee’s salaries
Excluding taxable fringe benefits like gift cards, awards, and bonuses
Excluding specific expense reimbursements from the employee’s taxable wages
Issuing incorrect W-2 forms

4. Exempt or non-exempt?

A non-exempt employee (generally hourly workers) is entitled to overtime pay while an exempt employee is not. When your non-exempt employees work more than 40 hours in a week, you owe them time and a half. You can’t sidestep this overtime obligation by instead giving them comp time (take off for the overtime hours worked). Doing so violates the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and can leave your business vulnerable to a lawsuit.

An employee must meet three conditions to be exempt from overtime pay:

Earn more than $455/week or $23,600/annual
Is either salaried or on a consistent hourly schedule with a relatively unchanging paycheck
Position is managerial, administrative (staff employees and not “on the line”), or professional (degreed like an engineer, doctor, or lawyer)

It’s wrong to assume that if an employee works overtime without advance approval, you do not have to pay for that overtime. It’s also never a good idea to ask an employee to work off-the-clock or reduce hours worked.

5. Contractor or part-time employee?

Confusing an employee with a contractor can come back to bite you. Businesses are generally not required to withhold or pay any taxes on payments to independent contractors, who are subject to self-employment tax. If workers are your employees, you owe payroll taxes on their wages and taxable benefits. You can’t avoid payroll taxes on wages and taxable benefits by labeling workers as independent contractors if they truly are employees.

If you are unsure about a worker’s status, request an IRS determination by filling out Form SS-8. If you’ve already made the mistake of misclassifying employees, the IRS offers you relief through the Voluntary Classification Settlement Program.

As a small business owner, you’ve got a lot on your plate. Finding a trusted and experienced payroll provider will eliminate the confusion and stress that often accompanies paying employees, filing forms, and meeting all your tax requirements.

About Heartland