Inflation Fears Fuel Small Business Pessimism
CHICAGO, IL (ContentDesk) June 19, 2006 -- Small business confidence appears to be waning because of inflation fears, according to a survey by SurePayroll, the nations largest online payroll service provider for small businesses.Small Business Owner Optimism PlummetsFrom May to June, small business confidence, based on the number of small business owners describing themselves as optimistic about the economy, dropped a surprising 24%. Weve seen slow hiring and rising salary costs in recent months, leading indicators of an inflationary environment, says Michael Alter, president of SurePayroll. But we had no idea how radical the effect would be on the spirit of the small business owners. Many have quickly gone from the height of optimism to believing the bottoms falling out and thats scary. Based on the June survey, 59% of respondents indicated they are optimistic about the economy, whereas the balance of respondents (41%) declared that they are pessimistic about the economy. Thats a significant drop in optimism relative to SurePayrolls May survey, in which 78% responded that they felt optimistic about the small business economy, with the remainder, 22%, indicating that they were pessimistic.Inflation Fears RisingNearly two-thirds (63%) of surveyed small business owners believe inflation will have a negative impact on their business in 2006.Many of the comments received during the survey process suggest that the fear of inflation may be dampening optimism even more than actual inflation: -???One coffee shop owner noted that the less disposable cash that our customers feel they have, due to rising interest rates and higher mortgage rates, the less they spend on entertainment-coffee. -???A musical products e-retailer commented that I am somewhat concerned that increased shipping costs will decrease what customers have to spend on our products and increase our costs to obtain them. Other small business owners are clearly suffering from the effects of actual inflation, not just the prospect of future inflations: -???A provider of driver education courses was quite blunt on the topic: Fuel costs are killing me. -??? It's not good right now. I'm hoping it will get better soon so I'm not out of business. The majority of surveyed small businesses (53%) have seen their costs of doing business rise over the last several months.
Despite rising costs, many have been hesitant to pass along cost increases to their customers. Of those businesses that have incurred increasing supply costs, the vast majority (79%) have not raised their prices to pass along their increasing expenses to their customers. However, 35% of those respondents are contemplating raising their prices in the future. In contrast, only 9% of those who have not experienced supply cost increases are contemplating raising prices.No Cure, Thank You Very MuchThe de facto cure for inflation is raising interest rates, which can have a cooling effect on the economy. However, despite their concerns about inflation, 78% of respondents believe the Fed should not raise interests in late June.One survey respondent noted that While I am concerned about inflation, I am more concerned that climbing interest rates will make it more difficult to secure affordable loans. About SurePayrolls Economic CommentaryEvery month, SurePayroll publishes its small business economic indicators via the SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard.
Based on employee and contractor paychecks for over 16,000 small businesses, SurePayrolls indices give insights on small business hiring, salary levels and reliance on contractors. SurePayroll regularly augments its data indices with surveys on a variety of topics of interest to small business owners.About SurePayroll:Privately held SurePayroll is America's fifth largest full-service payroll provider and the nation's largest online full-service payroll provider. Catering exclusively to the needs of small businesses, SurePayroll provides a simple, reliable and economical way to process payroll in minutes via the Internet. In addition to providing payroll services directly to small business, SurePayroll also provides a private-label payroll service that allows SurePayroll's numerous partners to offer payroll processing to their small business clients. Business partners include ABN AMRO, Pitney Bowes, and MasterCard.
SurePayroll will process nearly $3 billion in employee and contractor payroll payments in 2006. For more information, visit www.surepayroll.com.For Media Inquiries Contact: Ken Gaebler Walker Sands Communicationswww.walkersands.comPhone: (312) 267-0060.
PerfectSoftware and ClearSight Solutions Establish OEM Relationship
Stamford, CT (ContentDesk) August 6, 2004 -- ClearSight Solutions forms Strategic Partnership with PerfectSoftware. ClearSight Solutions, a leading provider of Human Resources Outsourcing and Consulting Services for small and medium-size organizations, announced today that it has formed a strategic OEM partnership with PerfectSoftware, a provider of Human Resource Software Systems, to incorporate PerfectSoftware's HR and Payroll technologies as an integral part of ClearSight's HR Technology Solutions Suite. ClearSight's Technology Solutions Suite includes ClearSight EMS (Event Management System), ClearSight HRMS (Human Resource Management System) and ClearSight Payroll (Payroll Management System).ClearSight EMS is a comrehensive add-on workflow application that can be used with any Human Resource Information System.
EMS lets users define process rules then commands the system to deliver documents, files, forms, reports, notifications and other time sensitive information anywhere,...
Payroll > PerfectSoftware and ClearSight Solutions Establish OEM Relationship
PerfectSoftware and NetBase Establish Stragetic Relationship
Perfect Software, a leading provider of Human Resource Management Systems, today announced it has formed a strategic relationship with NetBase Corporation., a leader in Time & Attendance software and services.
Under the new association, each company will offer its software products to the other's customer base as additional applications to complement their existing solutions.The intuitive and flexible design of NetBase products will enable Perfect Software's clients to easily and seamlessly integrate a Time and Attendance solution that will enable them to boost productivity across their entire enterprise."easyTIMESHEET is the most intuitive and user friendly web based timesheet we've seen, said Michael Schindel, vice- president of marketing at Perfect Software. The partnership between Perfect Software and NetBase offers our clients a very comprehensive and cost effective solution that will simplify the process of collecting time and attendance information.""PerfectPayroll is...
Payroll > PerfectSoftware and NetBase Establish Stragetic Relationship
Popular symposium returns to help businesses examine latest time and attendance system technologies
BOISE, ID (ContentDesk) December 3 2003-- The Trillium Consulting Group, a Boise-based payroll and human resource consulting services firm, has announced the second annual Time and Attendance Symposium. The event will help Payroll/HR professionals, directors and IT staff research solutions and examine the roadmap for updating existing time and attendance systems, highlighting the key technical and process points in this crucial area."When I was a payroll director, I didn't have a lot of extra time to research and locate the best solutions", said Gwendolyn K. Hannah, president of The Trillium Consulting Group. "And when you have demos scheduled so far apart, the products seem to blend together. The Time and Attendance Symposium is designed to streamline this product review process, saving businesses time and money.
We also map the route from product selection to roll-out over the course of the event. Attendees should come prepared for an intensive three days."In addition to product...
Popular symposium returns to help businesses examine latest time and attendance system technologies
Payroll > Popular symposium returns to help businesses examine latest time and attendance system technologies
New Prepaid Credit Card Features from USA Paycard, Inc.
(ContentDesk) September 29, 2005 -- USA Paycard, Inc. (www.usapaycard.com), a leading provider of payroll disbursement products, today announced several new applications for its "PayCard," a prepaid credit card that takes the place of the traditional payroll check. USA Paycard, Inc. provides the lowest cost, easy to implement, turnkey payroll card program with end-to-end support in the market today."Our clients have continuously looked for new uses for prepaid credit cards to benefit their businesses and we have delivered," said Jason Wacker, President of USA Paycard. "The USA Paycard now facilitates a variety of business needs in addition to its outstanding performance as a payroll card."The payroll card traditionally allowed employers to use direct deposit for employees who lack a traditional banking relationship, translating into lower payroll check processing costs ? an average of $48 per employee, per year according to a 1999...
New Prepaid Credit Card Features from USA Paycard, Inc.
Payroll > New Prepaid Credit Card Features from USA Paycard, Inc.
The Payroll Company to Attend 2006 Tavern League of Wisconsin Spring Conference
Madison (ContentDesk) February 23, 2006 -- The Payroll Company will focus on tavern and restaurant owners when it attends the Tavern League of Wisconsins spring conference March 13 16, 2006. The venue is the Kalahari Resort & Convention Center in Wisconsin Dells, where company representatives will present information and demonstrations in booth 51. ??? The Payroll Company has served tavern and restaurant owners from our beginning, so we truly understand the ins and outs of their payroll needs, said Eric Schroeder, CEO of The Payroll Company. As a Wisconsin company ourselves, we thought it important to attend this event not only to showcase our services, but also to listen to the needs of these business owners. ???Erika Young, a Payroll Company specialist who focuses exclusively on this segment of the customer base, will demonstrate tools and answer questions. Shell also hand out stadium chairs for those attendees who fill out an online payroll evaluation form before March 13.?...
The Payroll Company to Attend 2006 Tavern League of Wisconsin Spring Conference
Payroll > The Payroll Company to Attend 2006 Tavern League of Wisconsin Spring Conference
Textual Integrates With NetSuite As Part of the NetFlex Applications Program
Cambridge, Mass., and San Mateo, Calif. (ContentDesk) January 12, 2006 -- Textual today announced that it has become one of the inaugural partners of NetSuites NetFlex Applications Program. Textual has extended NetSuites One System Architecture with its own Anagram" Technology to automate capture of common data into NetSuite for businesses in all industries. Anagram" for NetSuite can capture new contacts, leads, customers, and appointments instantly from any source of text on the users screen, eliminating time and error due to retyping, cutting and pasting. For more information about the NetFlex Applications Program, please visit www.netsuite.com/NetFlexapps.Because NetSuite holds the most important data of a company -- orders, invoices, website transactions, shipping records, time tracking, and payroll data -- the applications that are built on it using NetFlex are much more powerful...
Textual Integrates With NetSuite As Part of the NetFlex Applications Program
Payroll > Textual Integrates With NetSuite As Part of the NetFlex Applications Program