When you think of a nonprofit organization, you might picture an army of volunteers graciously donating their time without pay. In reality, nonprofits run much like corporations with paid employees and regularly scheduled paydays. They face challenges similar to for-profit businesses like accurately withholding payroll taxes while also facing obstacles unique to nonprofits such as staying within a tightly limited budget, using grant money for certain payroll expenses, and determining reasonable executive compensation. While all this may sound overwhelming, proactive research and preparation can help make understanding and implementing nonprofit payroll easier. Here’s a look at what leaders of nonprofit organizations need to know.

Owning a restaurant comes with responsibilities to both patrons and employees. For patrons, food quality, a clean environment, and friendly customer service top the list. When it comes to employees, a safe working environment, proper training and equipment, and friendly managers and coworkers are key to keeping them engaged and happy. But one thing outweighs all other worker benefits: meeting expectations on payday. If you don't provide employees with the right amount of wages at the right time, everything else becomes irrelevant.

If you’ve been putting up with a payroll and HR system that no longer works for you and your employees, it’s likely time to take the leap and move to a new system. Switching systems can mean fewer manual processes and streamlined data flows, giving your team more time to focus on more strategic and people-oriented tasks within your department. If you’ve determined switching is the best option, you’re likely concerned about the work involved in moving to a new system. Working with unfamiliar technology and people, loading and mapping employee data and history, conducting user training on the new system…it can seem overwhelming. However, you can minimize the stress and workload by following a few essential guidelines for a successful payroll implementation.

If you prioritized business owners' favorite responsibilities, payroll taxes would likely fall towards the bottom of the list. Unless you have a deep history in payroll processing, it can be difficult to stay on top of all the ins and outs of tax obligations—from Social Security and Medicare to federal and state unemployment taxes and beyond.

But it doesn’t have to be a burden. Here are essential elements to managing one type of employer tax, unemployment insurance, from filing the correct form to being proactive in controlling your tax rate.