Wagepoint has launched unified Québec payroll compliance, letting businesses with employees in the province run their entire payroll through one platform instead of maintaining a separate system.
The Canadian payroll software provider says the update ends a long-standing workaround for small businesses with staff in Québec, where employers must remit separately to Revenu Québec in addition to the Canada Revenue Agency. Québec is the only province that administers its own income tax.
“Québec has some of the most complex payroll requirements in the country, and for small businesses, that complexity can mean more time spent managing payroll and more workaround to get it right,” said Ben Richmond, CEO of Wagepoint. “A business in Montréal or Rimouski should have the same simple payroll experience as a business in Calgary. We built Wagepoint’s new platform so businesses can manage unified payroll the way they need to, without having to maintain a separate process for their Québec employees and clients.”
The platform now handles Revenu Québec remittances, along with calculations and remittances for the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST), the Health Services Fund, the Québec Pension Plan and its second additional component, and the Québec Parental Insurance Plan. It also supports RL-1 reporting, statutory holiday pay calculated using the province’s 1/20 rule, and Québec-specific income, deduction and benefit codes, including custom codes.
The full platform is available in English or French, set at the user level. Wagepoint said there are no add-on fees for accounting software integrations, reporting, timesheets or multi-province support.
Allan Guindi of Guindi & Associates, a Montréal accounting firm, worked with Wagepoint during development of the update.
“Québec payroll has always required extra steps, so having it integrated into the same platform we already use creates a more seamless experience,” said Guindi. “We were pleased to help Wagepoint validate its approach to Québec’s unique payroll requirements. The result makes payroll easier to manage, giving us more time to focus on providing advice and support to our clients.”
Québec is home to more than 228,000 small employer businesses with one to 99 employees, according to the latest Key Small Business Statistics report from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. Wagepoint said the change is aimed at business owners who run payroll themselves in sectors such as retail, food service, health services and professional services, as well as multi-province accounting and bookkeeping firms that want to bring Québec clients onto the same system as the rest of their book of business.
Payroll errors remain common across the country. Three-quarters of Canadian employees experience a payroll error in a given year, according to a report from Deloitte and the National Payroll Institute.
Wagepoint was founded in 2012 and says more than 30,000 businesses, accountants and bookkeepers use its platform. Québec payroll functionality is included at no additional cost.
