The private sector continued its slow recovery in September, with new hire onboarding gaining steam as businesses struggle to fill long-empty positions.

According to an article from Accounting Today, the ADP National Employment Report revealed small businesses with fewer than 20 employees hired 63,000 new employees last month. That’s a lot of small businesses investing in the new hire onboarding process, which can be a headache for accounting purposes later if you miss any steps.

Make sure as you hire new team members that you use this handy checklist to make onboarding, payroll, and business record-keeping more efficient, and to protect your business from legal liability down the road.

Job Application and Attestation

Naturally, you’ll have an applicant fill out your company’s job application and sign it, just below a legal statement that says everything they’ve put on it is true. Make sure you verify past employment and actually call their references. Make notes about those calls with dates, times, and contact names and titles, or print out email threads, and attach all that verification information to the application.

Employment Eligibility Form I-9

Employees must provide proof of their eligibility to work in the United States. First, you’ll get them to complete an I-9 and provide the necessary documents, which you’ll copy and keep on file with their paperwork. Then, you’ll verify that the documents the employee provided are acceptable proof of employment eligibility. File it away with the rest of the paperwork as proof that you’ve done your due diligence when hiring.

Check the employee SSN on Form W-4

An updated Employee Withholding Certificate is required for new hires and any existing employees who want to change their federal income tax withholding rate. As the employer, it’s your job to make sure you have the W-4 on file, that paychecks reflect the rate the employee has indicated, and that you’ve verified that the Social Security Number the employee provided is correct.

State-Specific Income Tax Registration

Check your state’s taxing agency information using this link to make sure you’ve covered all your bases for state employment tax paperwork.

What to do with all that paperwork

Keep it on file for as long as your accountant says you should keep it. Think of it this way: it might be a pain to keep all those records on past employees for years after they’ve moved on, but if you need access to the documents in case of an audit or lawsuit, you’ll be glad you did. Filing cabinets or digital cloud storage accounts are cheap insurance, and we know that it’s important to document everything!

Contact Bsquared to learn more about employer responsibilities, and what paperwork and other business records you need to keep to make regular reporting, tax payments, and end-of-year tax filing a bit easier to manage. We’re here to answer your questions anytime!