Temperatures are rising, the presidential primary debates are airing, and the influx of requests for internships is at an all-time high. You guessed it, summer has arrived! In the midst of 4th of July BBQs and days at the beach, mid-year is the perfect time to check in with your business.
To help you out, we’ve put together our 2019 mid-year checklist as your ultimate guide to evaluating your company’s performance so far and set yourself up for success for the rest of the year!
Tax & Finance
Check in on your budget goals
If you set your annual financial goals in December or January, it may be time to revisit them. Where are you exceeding your projections? Conversely, are there any areas where progress has been slower than anticipated?
Evaluate your budget against actual performance, and update both your budget and sales forecast to get a better understanding of how the rest of the year will go. This will help you stay on track and make better decisions so you aren’t hit with any surprises at the end of the year.
Meet with your CPA or tax advisor
It’s officially summer, which means tax season is but a distant memory! Take advantage of the downtime and schedule an appointment to meet with your CPA or tax advisor. Mid-year is the best time to get in a meeting as you still have plenty of time to make adjustments for any action items, and your CPA will be much easier to get ahold of.
Revisit your retirement plan
Do you currently have a retirement plan in place? Now that California Senate Bill 1234 has officially passed, all California businesses with 5+ employees will need to begin offering a retirement plan. Exploring your options for compliance? Let us know and a member of our team can review these options with you to help you make the right decision for your business.
Top Tip: Already have a plan? Check out the IRS’s 401(k) Plan Checklist to make sure you’re meeting your employer responsibilities!
Collect your W-9’s now
Your 1099’s aren’t due until 2020, but you can save yourself from a giant stress headache next year by collecting your W-9’s now! You are required to file Form 1099-MISC for all independent contractors who receive $600 or more from you during the course of the year. To report these payments, you must obtain Taxpayer ID Numbers with Form W-9.
As you go through your records, review your vendor information and amounts paid so far, make sure all your 1099 employees are properly classified, and collect any missing W-9’s so you won’t have to later!
Legal & HR
Spring clean your records
When it comes to compliance, recordkeeping is critical to success. Whether you’ve already entered the digital age of going “paperless” or still keep hard copies in your trusty file cabinet, take this time to do some tidying up. Go through and organize all of your files, making sure everything is in the right place.
If you haven’t already gone paperless, there’s no better time than the present to do a little scanning. (Or put your summer interns to good use!) Better yet, ask us how services like SDP Connect and paperless onboarding can help you ditch that filing cabinet once and for all!
Double check your compliance
Oftentimes, we find ourselves letting the “little things” slide when it comes to compliance. Double check to make sure your business is in good standing with the state. Have you been reporting important changes, filing all of your required reports, updating any expiring licenses and permits, etc.? Now is also a good time to make sure your labor law poster is current.
Top Tip: SDP’s labor law posters have a QR code you can scan to check if they’re up to date. Plus, with our poster replacement subscription, you’ll never have to worry about missing an update again!
Update your employee handbook
On that note, mid-year is also a good time to revisit your employee handbook. If you haven’t already, you can log in to SDP’s HR Support Center to access our free Handbook Builder or review the laws in your state to ensure all of your policies are above-board.
Want to kick things up a notch? Ask about our HR On Demand service to learn how you can have a custom employee handbook built for your business!
Marketing
Audit your company website
When was the last time you went through your company website? If it’s been longer than you’d like to admit, then now is definitely the time for a quick audit. Make sure all of your information is up-to-date, your links are working, and that the site is on-brand. Short on time? Try spot checking your About and Contact pages and work your way out from there. If you have a web designer, get them involved to make sure everything is running smoothly on the back-end, as well!
Revamp your social media pages
Speaking of updated information, when was the last time you reviewed your social media bios? Make sure you have accurate contact and biographical information on all of your platforms. While you’re at it, evaluate your social strategy and performance so far this year. Where are you doing well? Are there some platforms that need more attention, or that just might not be right for your business? Adjust accordingly!
Conduct mid-year client check-ins
Now is the perfect time to reach out to your customers for feedback. Reach out to your loyal followers as well as less-satisfied clients to get a better overall picture of your customers’ perception of you. Not only will this help you identify large-scale adjustments that may need to be made, but it also gives you a chance to satisfy your unhappy customers. Genuinely and humbly listen to their experiences, and take immediate action to improve the situation. Not sure where to start? Check out one of these customer feedback tools to get started.
Technology
Evaluate your business apps
With many business services operating on annual subscriptions, take some time to check if your business apps (CRM, anti-virus, etc.) are functioning as intended. Check your ROI–does this investment make sense for your business? Is it something worth using again once your contract is up? Many companies opt for a simpler platform when starting out, but will ultimately need to upgrade to a more robust system later on. Take the time to measure your application performance now while things are less busy. That way, it will be much easier to make your final decision later on.
Check in with payroll
With technology changing constantly and new laws taking effect all the time, a mid-year check-in with payroll can give you valuable insights for your business (i.e. the new Washington Family Paid Medical Leave tax, new harassment prevention requirements, Calsavers, etc.).
For SDP clients, have you already migrated to our new platform SDPConnect? The upgrade is completely free and greatly enhances the user experience. The bottom line? Giving payroll a call to see what’s new in terms of legislation and tech improvements can only benefit your business.
Update your timekeeping procedures
Just like payroll and business management technology, timekeeping procedures are improving by leaps and bounds. Manual timekeeping is going the way of the dinosaurs–and costing businesses thousands of dollars on the way. If buddy punching, time card theft, or even just the time-consuming cost of managing timekeeping are bleeding your business dry, it may (finally) be time for a change. As you update your budget and practices, calculate the ROI of upgrading your timekeeping to see if this is something your business is ready for.
What do you think?
We’d love to hear about your experiences conducting mid-year reviews of your business. Have you already done your summer tune-up? Comment below to share your tips for staying on track and keeping the momentum up throughout the year. And don’t forget to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to make sure you never miss a beat!
Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels