146 Part 3:Keeping Employees Happy In-House or Outsource? Your head may be spinning now that you've seen how much is involved on the employer's side when it comes to payroll and paying taxes. We haven't even touched on the complications added with benefits. Payroll can be such a time-consuming task for small businesses that the trend has been to outsource payroll to a company that specializes in payroll management. However, now that more software programs are available to handle the complexities of payroll, many small companies are saving the fees they had to pay to payroll specialty companies and bringing the function back inside the company. Small companies, in particular, were dissatisfied with the attention their payrolls received. A payroll company obviously gives priority to their largest customers and makes the smaller company a lower priority. This lack of customer service has helped to fuel the push to bring payrolls back in-house. ACCOUNTING ANSWERS Many alternatives to manage payroll are on the market. Business.com has an excellent collection of links you can use to review the possibilities at www. business.com/directory/accounting/software. Whatever you decide, be sure to talk with others in your business network to see how they manage payroll and compare notes. You may find your best solution is a small local payroll company that is offering service at a reasonable rate, or you may decide buying payroll