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streamlining wotc

Streamlining WOTC – Find Out With Quentelle!

The employment landscape in the United States is extremely complex, and not everyone has the same opportunity or capacity to find work that they’re happy with. According to Trading Economics, the US unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent in December 2022, matching the figures reported in September and July, which were the lowest since February 2020 — falling short of market estimates of 3.7 percent.

The most recent jobs report followed a sharp drop in weekly jobless claims to three-month lows and a smaller-than-expected drop in the number of job openings in November 2022, both of which indicated a still-tight and strong labor market and suggested that the US central bank would likely continue raising interest rates for some time. In December 2022, there were 717 thousand more people working, or 159.2 million people overall.

The unfortunate fact is that many people continue to face significant barriers to getting jobs. However, this is where the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) comes into play, which is federal tax credit the government provides to companies in exchange for hiring individuals from specifically targeted groups who have encountered barriers to secure employment.

What is WOTC?

WOTC stands for Work Opportunity Tax Credit. As defined by the U.S. Department of Labor, “the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) is a federal tax credit available to employers who invest in American job seekers who have consistently faced barriers to employment.”

In other words, employers can use the WOTC as a tax incentive to recruit and hire long-term unemployed candidates that are members of a WOTC target group. The WOTC program aims to support these people in becoming financially independent and reward employers who give them a chance to work and earn a living. Employers who recruit someone from a WOTC-specific population may do so in order to satisfy their business needs and receive a tax credit. Employers who hire WOTC-eligible people not only give them a chance to work but also get a grateful and loyal employee that tends stays longer. As a result, this creates a win-win situation for employers and, of course, for employees.

Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC)

The Work Opportunity Tax Credit, also commonly known as the WOTC tax credit, is a federal business credit generally available to private, for-profit companies that hire individuals from certain categories who have trouble finding employment.

There are 10 WOTC target groups in total. Some of those include:

  • Select Veterans
  • Ex-felons
  • Long-term unemployed individuals
  • Members of households that receive select public assistance
  • SSI Recipients

How Does WOTC Work for Employers?

Employers must administer a number of moving parts that are critical to claiming and earning the tax credit. At a high-level, employers must apply for and obtain a certification from the State Workforce Agency which confirms the new recruit is in fact a member of a WOTC target group. After obtaining the required certification, the credit is calculated based on the target group, hours worked and wages earned within their first year of employment. Taxable employers can deduct the WOTC credits from their income taxes as a general business credit, while tax-exempt businesses can deduct it from payroll taxes.

How Can Employers Find Job Candidates in WOTC Targeted Groups?

Employers can connect with qualified job seekers who could be in a WOTC target group with the aid of the American Job Centers and its partner organizations and initiatives. American Job Centers (AJCs) may help companies find qualified candidates, organize job fairs, carry out skills assessments, and support employees who are changing careers.

If a job seeker is a member of a WOTC targeted group, a state workforce agency (SWA) or collaborating source agency can make that determination. In some cases, the job-ready candidate is issued this pre-certification by the state agency to utilize in their employment pursuit. By notifying potential employers of the tax credit’s availability should they hire the person, the conditional certification acts as a public record of WOTC pre-certification. It also gives businesses a way to obtain a WOTC certification for the prospective employee.

Who is Qualified for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit?

Employers can hire individuals thanks to WOTC, but only from a select pool target group of applicants that the government permits. According to the Internal Revenue Service, here are the targeted groups that are qualified to be hired for WOTC:

  • Qualified IV-A recipient: This is a member of a household that is getting assistance from a state program financed by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Part A of Title IV of the Social Security Act (TANF).
  • Qualified Veterans: Veterans who have had periods of unemployment totaling at least four weeks but fewer than six months within the 12-month period beginning on the date of employment. Veterans who were discharged or freed from active duty in the United States within one year of being eligible for benefits for a disability related to their service. Or veterans entitled to benefits for a handicap resulting from service, and have been jobless for at least six months.
  • Qualified ex-felons: A candidate who was recruited within a year after either being found guilty or being released from jail for a crime.
  • Designated Community Resident (DCR): A person who, as of the date of employment, is at least 18 years old, under 40, and whose primary home is in either a rural renewal county (RRC) or an empowerment zone (EZ).
  • Vocational Rehabilitation Referral: An individual with a physical or mental disability who has been referred to the employer while getting or after completing treatment programs under a state plan authorized under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
  • Qualified Summer Youth Employee: A person who lives in an empowerment zone and is at least 16 years old but under 18, and only works for the employer between May 1 and September 15.
  • Qualified Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Benefits Recipient: A person who, as of the date of employment, is at least 18 years old, under 40, and a member of a family that received SNAP or other state assistance programs for at least three of the preceding five months or at least six months prior to the date of employment.
  • Qualified Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Recipient: A person who received SSI benefits for any month that ended within the 60 days prior to the employment date.
  • Long-Term Family Assistance Recipient: A person who, at the start of employment, was a part of a family that had received IV-A assistance for at least the previous 18 months in a row, or did receive it for at least 18 months starting after 8/5/1997 and it had not more than two years since the start of the earliest of those 18 months or had stopped receiving it because a federal or state law had limited the maximum credit amount of time they could receive it.
  • Qualified Long-Term Unemployment Recipient: A person who, at the start of employment, had not worked for at least 27 weeks in a row but had also gotten unemployment benefits for some or all of that time.

The Amount of Credit

The WOTC amount varies by target group, but the bulk of the credit is comprised of 25 to 40 percent of the first $6,000 in earnings that are paid to within their first year of employment and works for the employer for at least 120 hours. They must also be certified as a member of a targeted group under the WOTC program. In this example, employers can earn a tax credit up to $2,400.

Those who work less than 400 hours or at least 120 hours for the company are paid at a rate of 25 percent. For select target groups, such as long-term unemployed and disabled veterans; the WOTC qualified wages increase from $6,000 to $24,000. Therefore, a company could get up to $9,600 in federal tax credits for such employees. As a result, the exact amount of tax credit will depend on the certification, hours worked and qualified wages earned.

How Do Employers Claim the Work Opportunity Tax Credit?

As a federal tax credit, the WOTC is constrained by the amount of Social Security taxes payable by the business or its income tax burden. Utilizing IRS Form 5884 and/or Form 3800, the employer can submit a claim for the credit as part of the yearly tax filing process. However, before the credit is earned, employers must file a Pre-Screening Notice, known as IRS Form 8850 within the employees first 28-days of employment with the state’s Workforce Agency. In response, the State Workforce Agency determines WOTC eligibility and will issue a certification to the employer for employees that meet WOTC eligibility. This is used to confirm that the employee actually belongs to one of the WOTC targeted categories and is also known as IRS Form 8850.

How Can Quentelle LLC Help?

Quentelle, a top-ranked HR service provider, offers a range of HR solutions supported by an award-winning technical platform. We deliver a streamlined solution proven to automate the administration of Work Opportunity Tax Credits, other point-of-hire credits, as well as verification of employment and unemployment insurance claims. If your company is looking to streamline WOTC, Quentelle has you covered — our WOTC solution will maximize your profitability and reduce your Federal tax liability with ease.

Here is how Quentelle LLC can help you with WOTC.

Tax Credits

The experts at Quentelle can assist you in maximizing and streamlining your point-of-hire tax credits by utilizing our integrated technological solutions. Any sort of employer can be eligible to claim the WOTC tax credit, regardless of the number of eligible employees in their workforce. This extends to certain tax-exempt employer claims made in the US in addition to taxable employer claims. Tax-exempt employers may only use the tax credit for payroll taxes, but taxable businesses may use it to offset income taxes (incurred on the wages paid to specifically targeted group employees).

Both the company and the job seeker are needed to complete two forms throughout the hiring procedure (IRS Pre-screening Form 8850 and DOLF Form 9061). This is to be done the day before or the day the employee’s job begins. If this form completion criterion is not met, you will not be qualified to receive the WOTC tax credit.

Quentelle provides you with a range of cutting-edge solutions, including process automation for WOTC tax credits. Automating all the intricate calculations allows us to maximize your tax benefits. We submit and track the necessary paperwork to make sure all important deadlines are met.

WOTC Reporting

As mentioned above, several key elements must be taken into account when deciding whether a new recruit qualifies for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC). Among the many steps, employers must ensure that WOTC certified employees have in fact worked a minimum of 120 hours or 400 hours before earning and claiming the respective credit. Employers that use our solution, take advantage of our advanced reporting platform to automate the calculation as well as the quarterly and annual reporting of their WOTC credits.

Our platform not only helps employers to recruit people from specific target groups and categories, such as veterans, convicted felons, and food stamp beneficiaries who are eligible for the credit but also figures out the precise amount of tax credit you earn for each employee. Additionally, our platform leverages our proprietary algorithms to help you forecast your tax credits accurately and efficiently.

Verification of Employment

It goes without saying that the government and IRS have particular requirements and qualifications for who a company may hire in order to benefit maximum tax credit from the WOTC. Employers should be aware of their WOTC eligibility and ensure they hire a qualified candidate. Hiring the wrong so-called eligible employee may result in a bad investment and zero total tax credit and tax savings.

For these reasons, Quentelle will assist you in ensuring that your company hires the best applicant for each job post in order to maximize business performance and guarantee that the applicant is genuinely WOTC eligible. Quentelle offers a simplified solution that easily screens for Work Opportunity Tax Credits (WOTC) for new hires thanks to a relationship with Walton, a top supplier of employment tax credits.

By utilizing a quick, easy-to-use questionnaire during the recruiting or onboarding process at your business, Walton is able to ascertain your eligibility for tax credits and seek them on your behalf. We provide the best and most robust employment selections and Verification Processes in order to thoroughly assess a potential candidate’s employment history and determine if they fulfill the stringent requirements for WOTC employee qualification.

HR Analytics and Metrics

After making sure that the applicant is a qualified employee for the WOTC program, you want to ensure that they can operate in a way that will support the goals of the company. Employers must remain focused on selecting excellent employees instead of only focusing on WOTC-qualified candidates.

Quentelle provides an HR Analytics engine as a by-product of the multi-dimensional data collected and managed by our technological platform. We allow businesses that struggle to get access to important data in the realm of HR and workforce management in order to manage their hiring process efficiently and guarantee hiring with the best possible employee performance. Our platform makes use of artificial intelligence (AI) to gather, question, and examine vast volumes of data from applicants in order to find trends and patterns that enable businesses to hire employees that can operate efficiently — AI enables us to swiftly analyze enormous volumes of data and helps us find patterns that ordinary human intelligence is unable to recognize.

Contact Us!

Working with a trustworthy partner is extremely crucial given how essential WOTC is to both the company and the applicants — you will need a reliable and trusted partner that can help you meet the needs of your company, retain individuals, and help you achieve the company’s goals.

Quentelle is a leading HR services provider; we are aware that any successful firm has to have strong human resources. As a result, we provide a variety of HR solutions that are supported by a cutting-edge technological foundation. We offer a range of services, such as assessing candidates for Work Opportunity Tax Credits and other point-of-hire hiring tax credits, verifying employment and income, processing unemployment benefit claims, counseling on unemployment tax, and more. We also provide a partner-focused strategy that gives our customers the greatest experience possible.

If you’re looking for the finest HR solution available, look no further than Quentelle. You will have peace of mind knowing that you’re getting the most complete and user-friendly possible solution for your HR needs. Schedule a demo today and learn more about how our world-class solutions and services can help in recruiting the most qualified WOTC workers, which will help your business achieve greater success.

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foresite technology

Everything You Should Know About ForeSite!

Working in Human Resources (HR) entails a drowning amount of paperwork and multiple active projects.

With so much on your plate, keeping track of everything feels impossible. Because of this, many HR employees are prompted to multitask, which makes them prone to commit more mistakes or forget essential steps.

Thankfully, many menial, everyday tasks are eliminated with the help of technology. Today, HR employees rely on automation software to streamline their processes, reduce errors, and centralize everything.

HR-specific platforms, such as ForeSite, provide comprehensive solutions and help reduce manual labor. So if you’re looking to boost the efficiency of your HR department and make your team member’s jobs easier, ForeSite might be the perfect solution for you.

This blog post will explore everything you need to know about ForeSite to help you decide if this is the ideal platform for your company.

What is ForeSite?

ForeSite Technology, or simply ForeSite, is a comprehensive automation platform specifically designed to meet the needs of HR professionals.

This platform automates many tedious and time-consuming processes, including claims management, employee verification, tax planning, and credit management.

ForeSite uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to collect and analyze data from different sources, automates critical processes, and provides accurate insights with minimal effort. As a result, it helps HR departments save time and money while ensuring accuracy, efficiency, and consistency.

This flagship product was developed by the genius minds of Walton Management Services, software engineers, and seasoned HR professionals, who strive to provide the best platform in terms of usability, scalability, and performance.

How Do You Use ForeSite?

ForeSite is a highly customizable solution that can be adapted to your organization’s needs. Foresite allows users to access preconfigured content-based solutions, which standardize and automate the routine HR process by recognizing work patterns. ForeSite is rapidly driving process optimization and making the lives of HR professionals easier.

Multi-Operational Automation

ForeSite leverages AI technology to streamline multiple HR operations. This innovative technology is driving efficiencies and reducing inefficiencies by automating HR and taxation tasks, such as employee verification, unemployment claims management, tax credit and planning, and many more.

Real-Time Data Analytics

ForeSite provides your team with foresight. Its advanced analytics capabilities are designed to help HR departments get a real-time snapshot of the workforce, which allows organizations to project profitability and make quicker and more informed decisions.

Data is critical in any HR operation, and with ForeSite, you can capture data from multiple sources in one single platform. This comprehensive automation solution enables users to make data-driven decisions faster, boosting productivity and performance.

Fortified Cybersecurity

In a workplace where data is integral, security is a top priority. ForeSite leverages the latest technologies, such as advanced encryption and two-factor authentication, to ensure that all information is secure and protected from unauthorized access or malicious attacks. Keeping your company’s data safe is one of the main features offered by this platform.

Manage Regulatory Compliance Directly

HR employees not only work on administrative tasks, but they’re also responsible for a few tasks related to law and taxes. ForeSite ensures you meet all your compliance requirements, including industry regulations, labor laws, and tax filings. This platform keeps you updated with the changing regulations and ensures that your operations remain compliant.

Close Quality Control

ForeSite works to make your life easier through process automation and provides quality control for HR departments. It helps you minimize errors and mistakes as it scans documents for accuracy and completeness, verifies data, and ensures that all information is correct before submitting the final report or filing taxes. With ForeSite, you can prevent unprecedented control from ruining your reports and filings.

Customizable Solutions

ForeSite is designed to be tailored to your organization’s specific needs. It allows you to configure the platform according to the requirements of your HR department and customize it as you like.

You can add or remove modules, adjust the user interface to make it easier to use, and customize reports according to your needs.

ForeSite is an advanced automation platform designed for HR professionals who want to save time and money while optimizing their processes and ensuring accuracy.

With its powerful features, such as customizable solutions, data analytics capabilities, cyber security infrastructure, and close quality control, ForeSite is the ideal choice for any HR department.

Why Should You Use ForeSite?

As you can see, ForeSite is the jackknife of HR automation solutions, offering a comprehensive suite of features for all your HR needs. In addition, it provides an efficient, secure, cost-effective platform to optimize processes and streamline operations.

So why should you use ForeSite? The answer is simple: it saves you time, money, and resources while ensuring that your HR department runs smoothly and efficiently. Here are some benefits you can gain from using ForeSite:

Keeps All Your Documents Safe

ForeSite is a cloud-based platform that stores all your documents in a safe and secure environment. All the data is encrypted and protected from malicious attacks, so you can rest assured that your records are always safe.

Moreover, since all your files are stored in a cloud-based platform, you can access them from anywhere at any time and with different devices. If you suddenly lose your work laptop, you can install ForeSite on your personal computer, enter your credentials, and continue working without interruption.

Integrates With Other Software and Applications

ForeSite is compatible with other popular applications and software, such as Microsoft Office, Outlook, Salesforce, SAP ERP systems, and many more. This makes it easier to manage your data across multiple platforms and streamline operations.

With ForeSite, you don’t have to give up your favorite applications and switch to a new platform; you can easily integrate your existing solutions into our platform.

Lets You Focus on More Important Things

Just because it’s part of the process doesn’t mean it needs your full, undivided attention. On the contrary, learning to focus your energy on more important tasks is the key to success in any organization.

With ForeSite’s innovative push notification features, you can free up more time for the more important things and focus on tasks that require more attention.

ForeSite will notify you when a task is completed and tell you where to go next. You can easily personalize your notifications according to the specific tasks you want to be notified about.

Secure and Easy Single Sign-On Process

ForeSite provides a secure and easy single sign-on process, so you don’t have to remember multiple usernames and passwords.

All your data is securely stored in the system, giving you one-click access to all the features of ForeSite. In addition, you can rest easy as ForeSite’s single sign-on feature is powered by Microsoft Azure Active Directory.

Microsoft Azure Active Directory utilizes an intricate security system that ensures your data is heavily encrypted and can’t be accessed by anyone else. This technology also promises digital defense from 99.9% of cybersecurity attacks.

Find Everything You Need in One Place

When working with multiple active projects, centralization of data is key. ForeSite helps you keep all your documents and files in one place to find what you need on a single screen.

You can easily store, search, and share documents with the other members of your team. This makes it easier to collaborate and get work done faster. Plus, with its advanced analytics capabilities, you can create detailed reports to analyze your data more efficiently.

Access Your Data Wherever You Are

Another advantage of switching to a cloud-based platform is that you can access your data wherever you are.

ForeSite is available for desktop and mobile devices, so you don’t have to be at the office to manage your tasks. You can easily monitor progress and update documents from anywhere in the world.

When using ForeSite, you can efficiently switch to a hybrid or completely remote working model. With its secure and accessible cloud-based platform, you can stay connected with your team wherever they are.

Elevate Workforce Efficiency

When you compound all the benefits you can reap from maximizing the potential of ForeSite, you’ll end up with a highly efficient team of go-getters who accomplishes all their tasks promptly. In addition, you can free up more time and resources for other essential projects by automating routine tasks.

ForeSite’s automation platform streamlines HR operations and elevates workforce efficiency, allowing your team to reach its true potential with minimal effort. Plus, it makes the onboarding process easier for new employees as they can quickly get up to speed on the processes and procedures of your organization.

Many workers make the mistake of going against technological development and see AI as a medium that will replace them. However, this is not only false, but it’s also misguided. AI can never replace human intellect and judgment, but you can use this technology to achieve more significant milestones with less effort.

How Does ForeSite Technology Leverage HR Solutions?

ForeSite is a powerful business platform that helps HR professionals manage their tasks and resources efficiently. When used correctly, you can significantly reduce your time and energy on repetitive HR-related tasks.

ForeSite’s automation platform allows you to automate recurrent processes, thus reducing human effort and error. Here’s how you can take advantage of ForeSite and use it to elevate your HR department:

Automates Verification of Employee Processes

Employee verification is a process through which an employer conducts in-depth background checks to verify the identity and credentials of potential new hires.

The goal is to protect employers from hiring individuals with criminal records, limited education, or other issues that could harm their company. This process typically involves collecting information such as employment history, references, education, and relevant certificates.

ForeSite automates the employee verification process, allowing employers to easily check for discrepancies or inconsistencies in candidate information. This saves time and reduces the risk of hiring individuals with suspicious backgrounds.

Automates Work Opportunity Tax Credit Process

Employers can receive a federal tax credit known as the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) for hiring people from specific target groups who have historically encountered severe job hurdles.

The WOTC program encourages businesses to hire economically disadvantaged people, such as veterans, ex-felons, disabled workers, and others who have difficulty finding a job.

ForeSite automates the WOTC process, enabling employers to quickly and accurately determine their eligibility for the program. This helps employers gain access to tax credits while providing more employment opportunities to individuals from underserved communities.

Streamline Unemployment Claims Management

Unemployment Claims Management is the process of managing and processing benefits for those individuals who are unemployed and have filed for unemployment insurance.

The process typically involves reviewing applications, determining eligibility, verifying identity, and authorizing payments to eligible claimants. It can be time-consuming and complex for employers, as there is often a large volume of claims to review and process.

ForeSite simplifies unemployment claims management, allowing employers to review and authorize payments effortlessly. This ensures eligible claimants receive their benefits on time while relieving employers of tedious administrative tasks.

More Control Over Critical Operational Processes

Essential HR processes, such as employee onboarding, payroll management, and performance appraisal, can be challenging for HR professionals to manage simultaneously. In addition, this routine process takes up most of an employee’s time and energy, leaving them less time to focus on strategic initiatives.

ForeSite eliminates this burden by providing employers with a streamlined platform for managing all HR operations in one place. This gives employers more control over their critical operational processes and allows them to allocate resources more efficiently.

With ForeSite, you can efficiently go through hundreds of applications in no time, quickly review and approve unemployment claims, and manage all of your HR processes in one central platform.

Intelligent Profitability Management for Various Sectors

When our team conceptualized ForeSite, our mission was to provide comprehensive HR and profitability solutions for various industries, from construction to healthcare. Our goal is to equip employers with the tools they need for intelligent profitability management.

ForeSite achieves this through its sophisticated algorithms that enable employers to make smarter decisions based on their company’s current workforce, fiscal objectives, and desired outcomes. This helps them better understand their organization’s financial health and allows them to adjust their strategies accordingly.

ForeSite provides employers with the resources they need to manage their operations efficiently and maximize productivity, whether it’s serving builders, trade contractors, or healthcare professionals.

Enhances Collaboration and Communication Between Teams

Collaboration and communication between teams are paramount to success when working on a significant project. However, with multiple factors and varying tasks, it can be difficult for employers to ensure everyone is on the same page.

ForeSite addresses this challenge by simplifying project collaboration and communications. This enables employers to quickly and easily assign tasks, monitor progress, share documents, and message team members in real-time.

Protect Critical Information With Vast Data Storage

As repeatedly reiterated in this blog post, data is critical in HR functions. Losing an essential document or a report with key insights can damage your organization’s systems and processes.

ForeSite provides employers with secure and extensive data storage and backup solutions to protect vital information. This allows them to store vast amounts of data in a secure cloud so important documents are always accessible when needed, no matter where they’re located.

Want to Find Out More About ForeSite? Contact Quentelle LLC Today!

Quentelle’s ForeSite is truly an innovation in automation for HR professionals. With its countless features and practical benefits, you can quickly turn a busy and mundane HR process into a breezy and efficient one.

Since its founding, Quentelle has provided businesses of all sizes with comprehensive HR and automation solutions to make their operations easier, faster, and smarter. It’s always been our initiative to help business owners and HR departments with modern and innovative solutions to their everyday problems.

If you’re looking for a way to boost your HR operations, you can contact Quentelle LLC today for a demo. Our team will show you how you can supercharge your HR processes with ForeSite and improve profitability for your organization.

Call us at (888) 565-5515 or fill out our contact form and get ready to revolutionize the way you manage your HR operations!

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cloud computing

The Advantages of a Cloud-Based Technology Platform for Your Business: Cloud Computing Benefits and More!

With the ever-changing landscape of digital space, it’s no wonder that many companies have chosen to move their services and operations onto a cloud-based platform. But, for someone that doesn’t have any first-hand experience with cloud computing, the concept can seem a bit daunting.

Cloud computing services or cloud services are gaining popularity as the go-to option for businesses looking to streamline their operations and improve their bottom line. If you’re planning to build a business and are considering a cloud-based technology platform, stay and read until the end to learn how ForeSite can help.

What is the Cloud?

In layman’s terms, cloud infrastructure is a space where you can store, process, and share data. It is housed on a remote server with multiple computers connected to the internet. Businesses can access this space through their network. Through a cloud provider, business owners can lease space on a remote server that they otherwise would not have access to. These services allow companies to store, manage, and efficiently retrieve large amounts of data. In addition, businesses take advantage of many benefits and savings through operating systems, application programs, and other services run via the cloud.

Different Types of Cloud Computing

In general, there are four different types of cloud computing. These four types are private, public, hybrid, and multi-clouds. Here are some quick definitions of each type:

  • Private Cloud: A private cloud is a cloud-hosted within the confines of an organization’s network. It provides users a secure environment to access their data and applications while allowing greater flexibility. This cloud computing demands a company or an organization build and maintain its underlying cloud infrastructure.
  • Public Cloud: Public cloud services are accessible to the public, allowing anyone with an internet connection and a subscription to access these services. This cloud computing service is standard for businesses looking to save money on hardware costs and storage fees.
  • Hybrid Cloud: A hybrid cloud is where the components of a private cloud are integrated with public cloud services, allowing businesses to take advantage of both types of clouds at once. This type of cloud computing can enable organizations to choose what services they need from each cloud service provider and how these services will be used.
  • Multi-cloud: A multi-cloud combines multiple cloud computing solutions from different cloud providers. This type of cloud computing allows businesses to access various kinds of public and private clouds and various hardware and software configurations. Due to its complexity, a multi-cloud is commonly used by organizations and businesses that require a high level of customization to get the most out of their cloud solutions.

Why is it Used for High-Tech Companies?

High-tech companies today are taking advantage of ForeSite because of its many benefits. The ForeSite platform is designed for maximum security and on-demand data retrieval. That means it is the safest online data storage and is also easy to use. Additionally, the cloud platform provides businesses with a comprehensive suite of services that can be used for various tasks in one place. These services include cloud storage, computing power, application development, software installation, testing, analytics, and more.

Benefits of Cloud Computing

To give you a better idea of what cloud computing and ForeSite can do for businesses, here are some of the benefits high-tech companies can expect:

  • Security for Sensitive Data: Businesses tend to hold sensitive data. This can be anything from customers’ credit card information to employee records. Through ForeSite’s cloud-based technology, companies can keep their data safe from malicious actors and cyber criminals while allowing authorized users access. In addition, most cloud service providers offer additional security features such as encryption, two-factor authentication, and data logging.
  • Operational Efficiency: With cloud computing, businesses can eliminate the need for physical servers and hardware. This allows them to reduce operating costs and saves space in their offices. ForeSite’s cloud platform also provides on-demand access to data and applications, which increases efficiency for employees who need to access information quickly or run routine tasks. This results in businesses being able to scale up or down as needed.
  • Improved Collaboration Between Teams: If your business operates with multiple teams and departments, cloud computing can help improve collaboration. ForeSite’s cloud platform allows for the easy sharing of data, files, and applications across different platforms. This makes it easier for employees to work together on projects while keeping all data secure.
  • Data Storage: One of the many reasons why businesses use cloud computing is for data storage. Cloud resources include an extensive array of storage solutions. As a result, companies can keep their data securely and retrieve it quickly without worrying whether it is secure, from storing different types of data on the cloud infrastructure to using a combination of cloud and on-premises data centers.
  • Mobile Data Compatible: The data center solutions offered by ForeSite are mobile-compatible. This means businesses can access their data and applications from any device with an internet connection, including smartphones and tablets. In addition, unlike traditional data centers, cloud-based solutions allow for remote access to data and applications. This increases productivity for employees who are often on the go.

ForeSite Cyber Security

Aside from the benefits mentioned above, there is also the advantage of accessing ForeSite’s cyber security solutions. Due to the popularity of cloud computing resources and services, threats and attacks are rising. And with a serverless computing environment, businesses need the security of ForeSite to protect their data from unauthorized access and malicious actors.

Different Cyber Threats Where ForeSite Can Help

  • Cyber Attacks: Arguably the most common type of threat, this attack is an intentional, malicious attempt to gain unauthorized access to a system’s data or disrupt its operations. This attack can be aimed at any system, from a single individual’s laptop to an entire company’s computer network. ForeSite’s cyber security solutions can provide businesses with the necessary tools and technologies to detect and protect against such threats.
  • Illegal Data Breaches: Data breaches are when malicious actors gain access to an organization’s confidential data. This attack can steal customer information, financial details, or other sensitive information. Not only would this cost the organization in terms of reputational damage but also financially, as they may be liable and face legal action.
  • Accidental Data Loss: Human error is one of the most common forms of data loss. Unintentional deletion or mishandling of a system’s data can lead to expensive losses for an organization. With the nature of cloud computing, where teams are working on different projects and using other applications, accidental data loss is a real threat. ForeSite’s cloud solutions can provide businesses with the necessary tools to ensure that data is backed up regularly and securely in case of an accidental data loss. In data loss, retrieval is possible with minimal disruption to business operations.

How Cloud Computing Works

The processes of working with the cloud can be broken down into five main steps:

  1. Set up a cloud account and create users.
  2. Set up access policies to control who has access to files stored in the cloud.
  3. Please configure security settings to protect your data from unauthorized access.
  4. Migrate data to the cloud.
  5. Monitor and maintain your cloud environment regularly.

Set Up a Cloud Account and Create Users

First, you’ll need to sign up for a cloud service provider (CSP) and set up a cloud account. Some popular CSPs include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Once you have an account, you can create user accounts for your team members or employees using the cloud. This will allow them to access the cloud and any resources or files.

Set Up Access Policies

It’s essential to set up access policies to control who has access to your cloud resources. For example, you can set permissions at the user or group level and specify precisely what actions each user or group can perform (e.g., read, write, execute). This helps prevent unauthorized access to your data and ensures that only authorized users can change your cloud environment.

Configure Security Settings

To protect your data from unauthorized access, you’ll need to configure cloud security settings for your cloud environment. This can include setting up firewall rules, implementing secure authentication methods (e.g., two-factor authentication), and encrypting data at rest and in transit.

Migrate Data to the Cloud

Once you have your cloud account set up and your security and access policies in place, you can begin migrating your data to the cloud. This can involve transferring files and databases from your on-premises servers or another cloud provider to your new cloud environment. Various tools and techniques can be used to migrate data to the cloud, such as data migration services or software.

Monitor and Maintain Your Cloud Environment

After your data has been migrated to the cloud, it’s important to monitor and maintain your cloud environment to ensure that it runs smoothly and efficiently. This can include checking for software updates, monitoring resource usage, and troubleshooting any issues that may arise.

Different Cloud Computing Services

From now on, it is important to know the types of cloud computing services that are up for grabs. Here’s the overview of each:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

IaaS is a cloud service that enables you to access and manage resources such as servers, networking equipment, storage, and more. This eliminates the need for businesses to invest in physical hardware for their IT infrastructure resulting in cost savings. Some of the most notable IaaS engines are DigitalOcean, Amazon EC2, and Google Compute Engine.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

PaaS enables developers to create and run applications on the cloud without having to worry about managing the underlying infrastructure. This is a cloud environment that supports web application and deployment. Throughout the application’s lifecycle from the building, testing, and deployment, PaaS takes away the need to maintain hardware and software. Some of the most notable PaaS vendors include Windows Azure, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and Google App Engine.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

The most common cloud service type, SaaS, is used by many organizations daily. SaaS allows the application to be accessible on the web. This can be anything from an app or web browser. There are some programs that offer free SaaS, such as Google Drive and Dropbox, so make sure to explore them.

Quentelle LLC Uses the Cloud—Why?

Fast Application Deployment

One reason organizations utilize cloud computing services is the ability to deploy applications without scaling and maintaining physical hardware quickly. This helps to reduce the turnaround time of new projects, allowing you to focus on more important tasks.

Communication and Collaboration

Another use of the cloud is to facilitate communication and collaboration between teams. With cloud services, you can easily share documents, media, and other business-related information with your colleagues in real-time. This makes it easier for teams to stay connected and be productive even when they are working remotely. Some of the popular cloud-based apps are Zoom and WhatsApp.

Entertainment

Ever wonder how Spotify can handle daily uploads from thousands of artists? It’s all thanks to the cloud — the same technology that is used to store and stream music, videos, and other digital assets. Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming services also utilize cloud technology to store, transmit, and deliver content to their users.

Data Analytics

Quentelle LLC has been utilizing the cloud for the purpose of data analysis. By storing vast amounts of data in the cloud, we can quickly identify patterns and trends essential for making decisions. With the help of cloud computing, you can gain insights into customer behavior and precisely target specific markets. This will give you an advantage in how you must allocate your resources.

Streamline Business Processes

Salesforce, Slack, and other business applications are designed to streamline the process of running a business. With the help of cloud services, you can manage your pipelines and tasks more efficiently, allowing you to react quickly and increase productivity.

Store Backups

Again, data loss is one of the major issues that organizations face. Not only is it costly and can compromise your company’s revenue and reputation, but it is also time-consuming to recover the data after a system crash. Unfortunately, there are also times when recovery is impossible. That is why you should always have backups of your critical data stored in the cloud so that if a system crash occurs, you can quickly restore the lost information.

Contact Quentelle LLC Today

With the advancing technology, increasing online security threats, and the demand for better solutions, it’s essential to have a trusted provider to help you manage your day-to-day operations and provide you with comprehensive cyber security. Not only will this help you with your bottom line, but it will also give you peace of mind that your data is safe.

As a business owner, knowing your options is essential, rather than going with what is popular. You have to consider many things, such as the features, costs, and other essential factors, to ensure that you get the best solution. For example, the type of business you have, your budget, the technology you will be using, and if your current technologies can be integrated into the cloud should all be considered.

If you need assistance with your cloud computing needs, contact Quentelle LLC today! Our experienced and dedicated team can provide you with the expertise to help you decide which type of solution best suits your business. You can contact us by calling (888) 565-5515 or emailing us at info@quentelle.com. You can also fill out the contact form on the website, and our team will be more than happy to answer any questions you might have.

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Employee Verification

What is an Employee Verification?

The employees are the backbone of any business — the ones who keep the company running on a day-to-day basis. That’s why it’s crucial to have a system that can verify their identity, credentials and employment status before you hire them.

In today’s competitive job market, many applicants make creative changes to their resumes to make themselves more qualified for the job they’re applying for. Research shows that 40% of job seekers have admitted to lying on their resumes, and 46% of resumes are inconsistent with the background check. As a result, this can lead employers to hire individuals different from who they say they are.

You can only afford to hire someone qualified as an employer or human resources manager. That’s where employee verifications come in. Read more about employee verifications and how employment verification services can benefit your business.

If you have any questions or would like more information about employment verifications, Quentelle LLC is here to help. We are a leading provider of employment verification services with a wide range of employment verification solutions tailored to your specific verification needs.

What is a VOE?

A Verification of Employment (VOE) is verifying an individual’s identity and employment status a the time of hiring and also verifying they information if/when current or former employees apply for a loan of some sort.

Employee verifications usually look into the following employment information.

Previous and Current Job Titles

Job titles are necessary to verify because they give you an idea of an applicant’s level of experience and expertise. By confirming an applicant’s previous job titles, you can be sure they are qualified for the position they are applying for.

Employment Timeline

The employment timeline can help you catch any inconsistencies or red flags on an applicant’s resume. For example, if an applicant has listed multiple short-term jobs in a row, it may be worth doing a deeper dive to see why that is.

Education History

The education history can determine whether the applicant is qualified for the job. For example, if a job requires a bachelor’s degree, you would want to verify that the applicant did graduate from college with a degree.

Salaries and Responsibilities

It is important to verify an applicant’s previous job responsibilities and how much they were paid for those positions. This can help you determine if the applicant is truthful about their qualifications and experience.

Cause of Termination

In some cases, verifying why an applicant was terminated from their previous job may be worth verifying. This can help you avoid hiring an employee terminated for a grievous reason.

How Do Employee/Employment Verifications Work?

Employment verifications must comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The FCRA is a federal law that governs how consumer reports — including employment background checks — can be used by consumer reporting agencies.

The FCRA protects information by requiring companies that use consumer reports to follow specific guidelines. The company must have a permissible purpose for the data to run a background check. For employment purposes, the company must have a good reason to believe that the information in the background check will be relevant to the job.

The employer or HR manager needs to request only legally permissible information from the previous employer. The FCRA has strict guidelines about what can and cannot be included in an employment verification report.

Manual verifications can be challenging and time-consuming. Because of this, many businesses turn to third-party employment verification service providers — like Quentelle VOE Solutions — for their verification needs.

Here is how the employment verification process works.

The Employer or Third-party Verifiers Sends a Request to the Previous Employer

The employer or third-party verifiers will send a request letter to the previous employer for verification. This request will generally include the following important information:

  • The applicant’s basic information and payroll data.
  • The dates and timeline of employment.
  • The job title(s) and responsibilities during employment.
  • The applicant’s skills and qualifications.
  • The applicant’s income data during employment.
  • The applicant’s professional demeanor.
  • The reason for leaving employment.

It’s important to note that the previous employer is generally only obliged to respond to this request if it came from government agencies, such as the Social Security Administration (SSA). Nevertheless, most companies will still respond to these requests out of courtesy.

The Former Employer Gathers the Necessary Information

The previous employer will then obtain the requested information and send it back to the employer. They will confirm or deny the applicant’s employment status and provide any relevant information about the applicant’s job performance, skills, and qualifications.

The Employer Reviews the Information and Makes a Decision

After reviewing the information, the employer or HR manager will decide whether to hire the applicant. Sometimes, the employer may conduct additional background checks before making a final decision.

Why is it Important to Receive?

Receiving accurate and up-to-date information about an applicant’s employment history is crucial to making informed hiring decisions. These decisions influence which employees to hire and can make or break a company, so it’s essential to get it right.

The employee verification process has many key benefits, including the following.

Helps Prevent Hiring High-risk Employees

Employment verifications can help prevent businesses from hiring high-risk employees. This is because background checks provide employers with information about an applicant’s past employment, which you can use to screen out individuals with a history of job-related problems.

For example, if an applicant has disciplinary action or a history of being fired from previous jobs, this may be a red flag that indicates they are not a good fit for the position.

Similarly, if an applicant has a history of job-hopping, this may also indicate poor job performance or personal problems. Either way, you can utilize this information to make informed hiring decisions.

Intellectual Property Concerns

Sometimes, an applicant must sign a non-compete agreement or other necessary contracts that protect the employer’s intellectual property. In these cases, verifying that the applicant does not have a history of violating such agreements is critical.

If an applicant has a history of breaching contracts or sharing confidential information, this could be a significant concern for the business.

Ensure the Safety of the Workplace

Another vital benefit of employee verifications is that this process can help ensure workplace safety. This is because criminal record checks can reveal an applicant’s criminal history.

If an applicant has a history of violence or other criminal activity, this may be a warning sign that indicates they are not suitable for the position. In some cases, an applicant with a criminal record may be legally barred from being hired for specific jobs.

In other cases, an employer may decide not to hire an applicant with a criminal record out of concern for the safety of their employees. Either way, this information can be vital in making informed hiring decisions.

Eliminates Bad Hiring Decisions or Practices

Employee verifications eliminate or mitigate the chance of making bad hiring decisions or practices. This is because pre-employment screening can provide employers with information about applicants’ qualifications, work history, and character.

You can use this information to screen applicants who are not a good fit for the position or may pose a risk to the company. For example, if an applicant has a history of frequent absences, tardiness, and poor performance, these may be indications that they are not a good fit for the position.

Ensures Hiring a Qualified Candidate

One of the most important benefits of employment verifications is that they can help businesses hire qualified candidates. Employment verification checks provide employers with information and insights about an applicant’s education, experience, performance, and qualifications.

Your company can use this information to confirm that an applicant is qualified for the position and has the necessary skills and experience. This will decrease the time it takes to train an employee in your business processes.

Sometimes, employers may even require applicants to submit references or letters of recommendation to verify their qualifications.

For More Information, Contact Quentelle LLC for Support and Guidance

Employment verifications are essential tools companies can use to screen applicants and ensure that businesses hire qualified individuals who will contribute to the company’s success story.

Third-party credentialed verifiers can provide a reliable employment verification service, help reduce risk and eliminate many manual verifications. They also provide cost-effective solutions that can save businesses time and money by enabling streamlined employment verifications and hiring processes.

We provide fast, accurate, and affordable employment verification services. Our expert team is available 24/7 to help you with all your employment verification needs. You can count on us to help you with all your HR needs, including unemployment cost management, contributing payroll data, income verifications, and more!

With Quentelle LLC, you can be sure that you are saving time and money and getting the most accurate and up-to-date information about your prospective employees. Contact us today for more information about our services.

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FCRA Privacy Law

What Do We Need to Understand About FCRA Privacy Law?

One way you can verify a potential candidate’s identity is with a background check. A background check reveals crucial information about the potential employee, including the candidate’s credit report.

A credit report will comprehensively depict a potential candidate’s credit history. Credit reports are useful indicators of financial standing, containing information on loans, debts, and mortgages.

Most of the time, credit reports requested by an HR department will reveal accurate information. However, there are times when the financial information on the report will be wrong. The inaccurate information can be damaging to a candidate or employee.

Luckily, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) protects consumers from inaccurate information in their credit reports. By governing the information use and assembly of consumer reporting agencies (CRA), the FCRA promotes the accurate recording of credit information. As a result, consumers retain the right to dispute inaccurate information on credit reports.

However, what exactly is the FCRA? What rights do you have under this law? We answer these questions and more below. Learn everything you need to know about the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

What is the FCRA law?

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) was the first law passed to govern how credit reporting agencies and credit furnishers use and publish credit report information. The act was passed in 1970 by congress in response to the growing credit report industry.

In its first iteration, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) contained stipulations geared toward promoting the private and accurate release of credit information. Between 1996 and 2018, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) included protection rights for specific populations, namely veterans and students with student loans.

FCRA law helps ensure that credit reporting remains transparent, accurate, and private only to parties that require credit information, like employment screening companies. For this reason, the law outlines several rights for consumers. More specifically, the Fair Credit Reporting Act contains consumers’ rights to credit information and for disputing inaccurate credit reports issued by furnishers or credit bureaus.

Besides consumer rights, also contained within the Fair Credit Reporting Act are the types of information credit bureaus can gather on a consumer. According to the Federal Trade Commission, a credit bureau or consumer reporting agency can collect only the following to assemble a consumer report:

  • Bill payment history
  • Loans
  • Outstanding credit card balances
  • Any debt
  • Addresses (present and former address)
  • A history of bankruptcy
  • Health data
  • Personal characteristics and lifestyle

The Fair Credit Reporting Act also stipulates who can access consumer reports and when credit bureaus or creditors can do this. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, employers can get a free credit report about a candidate for employment purposes.

What Are My Rights Under the FCRA?

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is a law that protects consumers. As a result, most of its provisions favor consumers whose information may be susceptible to exploitation or identity theft. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumers have the following rights:

The Right to One’s Credit Information

The law gives consumers the right to free access to their credit information. Access to information can occur in one of two ways. A consumer can either request it from a credit report bureau or do so after disputing an inaccurate report.

The Right to Know How Sensitive Information in a Credit Report is Being Used

In particular, consumers have the right to know whether lenders or creditors use any financial information to deny a loan application. Under FCRA law, consumers are also entitled to know whether or not any data in their credit reports is being invoked to deny employment or insurance.

The Right to Information Privacy Except in Situations Where the Information is Necessary

FCRA law makes credit reporting safer for consumers. The law achieves this by making credit reports confidential and guarding consumer information against theft or unlawful access by third parties.

Of course, there are exceptions. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a credit reporting agency may release information in certain situations. The context wherein the publication of consumer credit information is lawful varies. These situations involve parties needing the information for a “legally permissible purpose” like credit, insurance, or employment.

The Right to Refuse Pre-Approved Procedures That Require a Credit Report

Sometimes, insurance companies or credit card companies will pre-approve consumers for their creditworthiness. Often, these pre-approval procedures require companies to look into credit reports. In such a situation, a consumer has the right to opt-out of such screening procedures under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Under the FCRA law, consumer credit data is private until consumers give written consent to a party to access credit reports. As a result, during pre-approval credit screening procedures, an individual can submit to the screening process or lawfully refuse it.

The Right to “Freeze” Credit Reports

Credit reports are a valuable source of information for insurance companies, employers, and credit agencies. However, sometimes, the information contained within the reports can compromise consumers.

Under federal law, consumers who do not want third parties to access their credit reports can place their records in a “security freeze.” A security freeze prevents third parties from accessing information in a consumer report. The only time the freeze can be lifted is when a consumer consents to access. Individuals can grant access to their consumer reports by giving consent and one-time pins that enable credit report access.

The Right to Dispute Incorrect Credit Scores

One of the primary obligations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act is the accurate reporting and collection of credit data. For this reason, consumers can dispute any inaccuracies in credit reporting. If the negative information prevents a consumer from acquiring credit or employment, a consumer can file a lawsuit against credit furnishers or credit reporting agencies. Consumers can file a lawsuit to recover damages resulting from disseminating harmful and inaccurate credit data.

Under the FCRA, a consumer can file a lawsuit within the statute of limitations set by the Federal Trade Commission. The statute of limitations is two years from the date of the inaccuracy’s discovery. The statute of limitations can increase to five years, depending on the circumstances.

What is a Violation of the FCRA?

Violations of the FCRA can take different forms. Some of the most common include inaccurate credit reporting, failure to handle disputes, negligence in consumer reporting, and using data for impermissible purposes.

A credit reporting agency can inaccurately report information in several ways. For example, a credit reporting agency might report an individual paying child support when that individual has no children. Also, a furnisher may be incorrect in reporting the time and date of a credit card transaction to credit inspection bureaus.

In such scenarios, the parties liable would be the furnisher and the CRAs. This is because credit reporting agencies and furnishers must ensure maximum accuracy in reporting credit information under 1681 e(b) of the FCRA law.

Another violation of the FCRA happens when CRAs fail to investigate disputes. When a consumer files a dispute for inaccurate data, a CRA must investigate the credit history to determine where an error exists. Besides conducting an investigation, a CRA must notify a consumer of the investigation’s findings. If a CRA does not do both, the CRA will directly violate 1681 of the FCRA.

Negligence is another way to violate the FCRA. CRAs or credit collection agencies can violate the FCRA if they are negligent in consumer reporting. CRAs must notify consumers of anything involving credit information collection, use, and publication. CRAs must also inform individuals of parties obtaining credit reports.

Lastly, another common violation of the FCRA is using consumer credit information for legally impermissible purposes. As mentioned earlier, data privacy is one of the provisions of the FCRA. A CRA can only release or publish credit information when a consumer gives consent or if the situation makes data publication “legally permissible.”

One example of a legally permissible purpose is when an employer performs background checks on a potential candidate. Another example of a permissible situation is when an insurance company asks for a credit report.

Contact Quentelle LLC for More Information

As a business looking to perform background checks on employees, the FCRA law is a federal law you need to be familiar with. By knowing the ins and outs of this consumer protection law, you can prevent liabilities arising from FCRA violations.

It’s a complex law that is easy to misunderstand. If you need more information about FCRA law and how it can affect your hiring processes, do not hesitate to reach out.

Get in touch with us at Quentelle if you have questions about the FCRA law and other laws that can affect your business. If you need an all-in-one HR platform that takes the guesswork out of your staffing processes, schedule your free demo.

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WOTC Calculator

What is a WOTC Calculator? And Where to Find One!

Did you know that a federal tax credit is available to businesses that hire certain workers? It is known as the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, or WOTC. If you’re looking to hire new employees, it is worth taking the time to see if you are eligible for this tax credit. Both taxable and certain tax-exempt employers can be eligible for the WOTC program.

The WOTC is one of the more significant tax credits and can be worth up to $9,600 per hire of certain qualified veterans! The average tax credit is about $1,200 for workers from other qualified groups.

In order to claim the credit, the employer and potential employee will need to fill out the Pre-Screening Notice and Certification Request for the Work Opportunity Credit (IRS Form 8850) and submit it when the job is first offered. Once the designated local agency determines the employee belongs to one of the targeted groups, the employer, not the employee, will have to file more paperwork.

If this sounds complicated and like a lot of paperwork, don’t worry, there is help available. There are WOTC screening and certification solutions to help streamline this process, like the excellent example from Quentelle.

In this blog post, we will give an overview of a WOTC calculator and how to use a calculator to help you determine if you are eligible for the credit.

What is a WOTC Calculator?

A WOTC calculator is a simple online tool that can help you determine if your business is eligible for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC). The WOTC is a federal tax credit that businesses can claim after hiring workers belonging to certain groups of workers who historically have a difficult time finding employment, such as veterans, ex-felons, or individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.

To use a WOTC calculator, you will need to input some basic information about your business and the workers you are considering hiring. The calculator will then generate an estimate of the tax credit your business could claim.

There are a number of different WOTC calculators available online. Quentelle conveniently includes a calculator directly on our WOTC webpage.

You can also find a WOTC calculator on the IRS website. The IRS calculator is slightly more complex to use than some of the other options, but it can be a helpful tool if you’re trying to determine your exact tax liability.

If you want a more reliable estimate of the tax credit, you should consult professionals. Companies like Quentelle offer services to help businesses maximize their general business credit and tax benefits. Taxable employers and some tax-exempt employers might discover they can claim a significant amount by using a WOTC calculator.

While a WOTC calculator can give you a good idea of whether your business is eligible for the tax credit, it’s important to keep in mind that the final decision will be made by the IRS. As a federal tax credit calculator, businesses can use this tool to help expand their scope successfully. If you have any questions about the WOTC or how to claim it, be sure to speak with your tax advisor or a WOTC solution specialist.

What Are the Fundamentals of Using a WOTC Calculator?

When determining if a business is eligible for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), a few key factors come into play. First and foremost, businesses must ensure that the employees they are claiming have worked a minimum of 120 hours (400 hours for a larger claim).

Additionally, the credit is only available for the first year of employment; meaning any qualified wages beyond the first year do not count. The WOTC is designed to incentivize businesses to hire individuals from specific target groups who often face significant barriers to gaining employment.

Finally, the credit amount varies depending on how many hours the employee works; 25% of qualified first-year wages (up to $6,000) for those employed and worked at least 120 hours, but fewer than 400 hours, and 40% of wages for those employed and worked 400 hours or more.

By considering all of these factors, businesses can better determine if they are eligible for the WOTC and how much they may be able to claim it. Although these might seem like complicated conditions, they are worth it, especially when it comes to computing overall income taxes and payroll taxes.

The WOTC can greatly help businesses looking to hire from specific target groups. With the right tools and guidance, any business can take advantage of this tax credit to save money on taxes and offset the cost of employment. Eligible employees will also benefit from WOTC tax credits as they can encourage businesses to consider hiring from different workforce groups.

How is it Calculated?

The WOTC amount is calculated based on the number of hours that an employee works and wages they earn.

To calculate the WOTC, businesses will need to input some basic information about their business and the workers they are considering hiring or recently hired. The calculator will then generate an estimate of the tax credit your business could claim.

These estimates are based on the current tax laws and are subject to change. For the most accurate estimate, businesses should speak to a tax professional.

What Are the Benefits of Using a WOTC Calculator?

There are a number of benefits to using a WOTC calculator. Let’s explore them below:

1. A WOTC Calculator Can Help Businesses Determine If They Are Eligible for the Tax Credit

One of the benefits of using a WOTC calculator is that it can help businesses determine if they are eligible for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit. The credit is available to employers who hire individuals from certain target groups, such as veterans, ex-felons, and food stamp recipients.

If your business hires someone from one of these groups, you may be eligible for a tax credit of up to $9,600 per qualified employee. To find out if you are eligible, you can use the WOTC calculator on the IRS website or on Quentelle.

2. A WOTC Calculator Can Help Businesses Calculate the Amount of the Tax Credit They Could Receive

Calculating the amount of tax credit you are eligible for can be complicated. The WOTC calculator can help you determine the amount of tax credit you may be able to claim.

To use the calculator, you will need to know the number of employees you have hired, their start date, and their target group.

The calculator will then give you an estimate of the tax credit you may be able to claim. It’s important to calculate this ahead of time so that you can budget for it. Calculating the amount of tax credit ahead will also help you avoid any surprises come tax time.

3. A WOTC Calculator Can Help Businesses Plan for the Future

If your business is eligible for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, you may be able to claim it for up to two years. This means that you can use the WOTC calculator to plan for the future and budget accordingly.

You can also use the calculator to estimate how many employees you will need to hire to maximize your tax credit. You can save money and time in the long run while focusing on other aspects of your business.

The WOTC calculator is a valuable tool for businesses. It can help you determine if you are eligible for the tax credit, calculate the amount of the tax credit, and plan for the future. By using a WOTC calculator, you will be able to save money and time. So, what are you waiting for? Start using a WOTC calculator today!

Contact Quentelle

If you are looking for a reliable and user-friendly WOTC calculator, look no further than Quentelle. We offer a free online WOTC calculator that can help you determine your tax credit eligibility and possible amount. Simply enter your information, and our calculator will do the rest!

As part of our partnership with Walton, we can guarantee that our WOTC calculator is one of the most comprehensive and easy-to-use tools on the market. What’s more, we provide a streamlined solution to screen potential employees for WOTC eligibility. Plus, our team of experts is always available to answer any questions you may have!

Our goal is to help you take advantage of opportunities that can help your business succeed.

Why Choose Us?

At Quentelle, we understand that Human Resources is a vital part of any successful organization. That’s why we offer a suite of HR solutions powered by an award-winning technology platform.

Our solutions include screening for Work Work Opportunity Tax Credits and other point-of-hire credits, verification of employment and income, administration of unemployment benefits claims, unemployment tax consulting services, and more. We also offer a partner-focused approach that delivers the best possible experience for our clients.

If you’re looking for the best HR solution on the market, look no further than Quentelle. You can be confident that you’re getting the most comprehensive and user-friendly solution available. Contact us today to learn more!

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digital verification of employment

What Do We Mean by “Turnkey, Easy-to-Use, Human Resource Suite”?

Many businesses might find navigating the murky waters of employee relations challenges. If your company wants to grow and thrive, you must ensure the right people are on board at the right moment. On the other hand, a few key elements must come together for this to work. The good news is that there are now turnkey solutions that can make the process so much easier.

Turnkey solutions are ready-to-use technologies that can be quickly implemented in a business, requiring the end user to merely “turn the key” to get going. It’s a lightweight approach to a digital strategy that helps companies get the features they need immediately and at a low cost. Quentelle’s turnkey, easy-to-use human resources suite is intuitive and ready to go when you are, freeing up your time for more strategic initiatives. Let’s take a closer look.

What is a Digital Verification of Employment?

Verification of Employment (VOE) refers to the official process companies follow to check prospective hires’ employment status and background. All or some of the listed references from a candidate’s previous jobs will be contacted to provide details on the applicant’s time at the company. Most companies will comply with the requested information even though they are not required to do so by law. In addition, federal government agencies do not limit the information that former employers might give to potential employers about an applicant. However, there may be restrictions on the kinds of data that can be disclosed for background checks under the laws of your state. When making employment verification inquiries, businesses typically ask for the following pieces of employment data regarding an applicant:

  • Job titles
  • Timeframe and length of employment
  • Types of duties performed on the job
  • Performance in the workplace
  • Salary history and contributing payroll data
  • Competence, proficiency, and expertise
  • Workplace professionalism and attitude
  • Any history of disciplinary action
  • The reason they left the company

Employers who need to verify a candidate’s job history must do so by applicable state and federal rules, limiting the types of employment data used in hiring decisions. However, it’s common knowledge that verifying employment can be a trying experience. What ought to be straightforward turns out to be complex. If your company’s human resources team is in charge of checking references and employment records, the procedure can be lengthy and prone to mistakes. The amount of time needed to deal with this task varies according to:

  • The number of candidates that need to have their credentials checked with many manual verifications
  • Employees dedicated to the VOE procedure within the HR department
  • The number of references from the candidates’ previous jobs
  • How up to date the former employers’ contact details are
  • How long it takes previous employers to respond to your employment requests for a VOE

Due to the time it takes to complete employment verifications and the information gaps that may arise, it is typically a waste of time and money for businesses to devote their resources to the task and then wait for a response, which may take weeks. If the hiring process takes too long, it could harm the business in terms of lost sales and risk losing a qualified candidate who decides not to wait for confirmation of employment and instead accepts an offer from a competitor. This leads to companies increasingly turning to digital platforms and automation tools like Quentelle’s VOE solutions to complete the Verification of Employment process promptly without sacrificing accuracy or unemployment cost management. With Quentelle, you can rest assured that the process of verifying previous employment is being handled correctly and by all applicable laws.

Quentelle’s VOE technology features a system designed with you in mind. It’s an easy-to-use system that verifies employees in their work environment that helps companies and employers secure the documents they need. Since we live in a digital age, using Quentelle’s VOE technology makes the verification process a breeze.

Why Are Employment Verifications Needed?

Investing time and effort into finding and hiring the best person for each open position can profoundly impact your company’s success. When making hiring decisions, one of the most critical factors is researching the applicant’s previous work experience. Verifying a candidate’s employment history is essential for making informed hiring and business decisions, like extending credit. Ideally, companies will check the applicant’s career history to ensure it matches their claims before extending a job offer. A business should be allowed to inquire about a potential employee’s previous work history whenever necessary and have complete confidence in their decision to recruit them.

Without such a system, the time and money spent on training new employees could be for naught if unfavorable information about them was uncovered after they were brought on board. The background check is an essential part of the hiring process. Still, many companies have not kept up with the technological innovations that have permeated the HR department in recent years. However, it is still crucial to do a thorough screening. Businesses need to safeguard their reputation by hiring only those who meet their qualifications and requirements. Unfortunately, discrepancies can be found in over half of all resumes submitted worldwide, highlighting the importance of verification. When comparing address, education, and employment verification among the group of resumes with discrepancies, it is clear that employment verifications have the highest rate of inconsistencies (almost 80%).

Using a cutting-edge and reliable platform like Quentelle, employers can review a candidate’s career history with greater certainty, knowing that the applicant has provided truthful information and that their claimed professional credentials are accurate. As a bonus, this will guarantee they have the right work experience to carry out the new position they are applying for. Additional benefits include:

  • Checking applicants’ income before granting loans.
  • Documentation of past employment in qualifying for state and federal benefits.
  • Protection from identity theft and improved data privacy.
  • Better hiring practices lead to a higher-quality workforce in the long run.
  • Improved cohesiveness and morale among team members because of new personnel who quickly adapt to the established norms and values of the company.
  • Employee theft and violence are less likely to occur if negligent recruiting practices are reduced.
  • Increased safety and increased output in the workplace.
  • Reduction in the prevalence of drug and alcohol abuse.
  • Better employee retention and less attrition.
  • Improved compliance with laws and regulations.

Not only do digital verification solutions benefit employers, but employees can also reap the rewards, too. As a first and most visible advantage, candidates can demonstrate the authenticity of their digital credentials and choose which employers view their employment data. This can verify your previous employment and help you get a new job. In addition, this can help your resume stand out to potential employers by verifying your years of service at your previous job. The secondary advantages are particularly intriguing, though.

While verification helps establish work experience for prospective employers, it can also be used in other contexts. For instance, digital verification of employment is evidence of a proven track record. Financial institutions or insurance service providers, who rely on alternate data to back up their decisions, can use this as a reliable source of information compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. If you want insurance for yourself and your family or get approved for loan applications, this digital credential could be the deciding factor. These indirect benefits can be monumental for specific people and their loved ones.

Why is Employment Verification a Difficult Process?

Employment histories are notoriously difficult to verify. Considering the number of potential factors, it is easy to see why this is the case. Several of the reasons why are listed below:

Many Businesses Rebrand Themselves Every Few Years

Companies of any size can legally change their names in the event of a merger, acquisition, rebranding, or another significant event. For instance, if an applicant has previously worked for YYY Consulting, but the firm was acquired by ZZZ Consulting and moved offices, verifying their employment history with the previous company can be challenging.

Corporations Fail and Disappear

If your candidate’s previous employer has closed down, no one will vouch for their employment history. That’s why it can be hard to manually contact them to provide sensitive income data.

Employees Quit and Leave

There is no assurance that any of your candidate’s former coworkers will still be employed by the company, even if it is still operational. Getting a simple confirmation of employment would be possible, but that’s about it. Another issue is that your candidate’s colleagues may be laid off if their positions are duplicated, which can happen if businesses consolidate. After a merger, the combined company’s human resources department likely won’t have complete or up-to-date employment data dating back to when both firms operated independently.

How Can the Process Be Made Easier?

Employment verifications can be simplified by integrating a turnkey, easy-to-use Human Resource Suite like Quentelle with your existing background screening system. Using their proprietary VeriSafeJobs platform, Quentelle can provide cutting-edge featured solutions for VOE. Quentelle’s VOE solution will take your business to new heights by guaranteeing the safety of your data, streamlining and improving the user experience, providing detailed reports and comprehensive metrics, and providing first-rate service and support. By conducting a thorough digital verification of employment through Quentelle, your company can avoid the following pitfalls:

  • Distrust within the company: Employing reliable employees is crucial to the success of any business. If you don’t feel confident in the qualifications of your staff, this may not be easy to accomplish.
  • Cybercrime and fraud: According to a 2014 Association of Certified Fraud Examiners study, fraud accounts for annual losses of $3.7 trillion. Verizon also reported that internal misconduct accounted for 20% of recent cybersecurity breaches. This highlights the importance of comprehensive background checks for all prospective employees for data security.
  • Consumers are put in danger: When an employee who deals directly with customers is caught engaging in wrongdoing, the first thing that will be raised is whether an employment verification was conducted.
  • Safety risks in the workplace: The employer must ensure that their workplace is safe and conducive to employee health. Violent incidents in the workplace can have devastating emotional and psychological effects on workers.

The results of an employment verification can shed light on whether or not the candidate is telling the truth about their work history, provide context for any employment gaps, and indicate whether or not they would be a good fit for the company. Avoiding these steps before hiring a new employee could be deemed negligent. Supporting your HR team with an employment verification solution can help them go through the process swiftly and efficiently.

Conclusion

Verifying a candidate’s employment history can be a tedious and time-consuming task. However, it’s a necessary part of the hiring process to confirm that a candidate is qualified based on their resume’s claims and is a suitable cultural match for the business.

Humans are at the heart of what we do in HR here at Quentelle. We have compiled several HR processes that are crucial but often require manual attention into a streamlined software package. Using our turnkey, easy-to-use human resource suite, you won’t have to worry about the hassles and intricacies of keeping up with the latest HR trends and regulation compliance for your business and even save time.

Quentelle is here to help with all your employment verification needs, regardless of your field. We are an industry leader in providing employment and income verification solutions for businesses like yours in a timely, secure, and hassle-free manner.

Do you want to see a demonstration of our additional solutions and learn how they can help your business? Feel free to call us anytime at (888) 565-5515 or fill out our contact form.

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Unemployment Insurance Claim Audits: Strategies For Employers

No matter what industry you’re in, if you have employees, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll have to deal with unemployment claims at some point.

If you’ve ever dealt with an unemployment, claim you know that the process has many steps, takes up a lot of time, and can get complicated very quickly. You have to formally respond in very specific ways, and if you make a single mistake it can cost you large sums of money in unemployment costs.

There are definitely legitimate claims that are paid out each year, but sadly there are also many erroneous unemployment claims that are also paid out as well. There are various reasons for this, but it’s often because companies make mistakes or don’t know how to properly respond to a claim.

Have you been handling your unemployment insurance claims properly? Do you have a strategy in place when it comes to auditing your own process?

In this guide, we’ll give you a clearer, better understanding of how you should be handling your unemployment claims, and some sound strategies to protect your business moving forward.

Unemployment Claims Management

When you think of unemployment claims, you might not think of insurance right away. However, unemployment insurance (commonly abbreviated at UI), is a program that is handled through a joint effort between the state and federal government.

This program has been around since the Great Depression, but unemployment laws and regulations have had to shift and evolve as the years have passed. With the passing of The Social Security Act of 1935, all for-profit employers were required to provide as much as 26 weeks of unemployment benefits and compensation to qualifying employees.

There are state-run unemployment programs that have a pool of funds and distribute these benefits to those employees who are eligible. The funds come from collecting payroll tax from employers.

The employer payroll tax rate is unique to each business. It takes into account things like how many layoffs have previously occurred and other factors that have to do with the economy at a state and national level.

Basically, when an employee is laid off from working for a company, they might be eligible to collect unemployment benefits. It’s important to note that every employee who separates from a company has a right to claim unemployment, but not every claim automatically qualifies for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits.

Unemployment claims are handled at a state level – employees who have separated from your business submit their claim to the state in which they were employed. Once this claim is filed, it’s your responsibility to manage it – and this is the tough part for most businesses.

Your options are typically to accept the unemployment claim or contest it. Importantly, if you don’t reply, the state considers a failure to respond as “acceptance”.

You can see that handling unemployment claims in an organized, correct, and efficient manner has a direct effect on your company’s bottom line. Mismanaged claims can be a source of needlessly lost revenue.

The cost of each claim is unique because it’s based on how many weeks the former employee qualified to collect benefits, however, most claims cost (on average) between $4,000 and $10,000 dollars or more. As you can see, this can cause your unemployment costs to jump up quickly if you’re dealing with multiple claims.

Plus, when you accept unemployment claims, it will cause a rise in your company’s unemployment tax rate in the future.

There are many laws, procedural rules, guidelines, and best practices when it comes to handling your unemployment insurance claims and unemployment taxes.

Furthermore, consider that there might be times where these claims can pile up and create a backlog that can be difficult to reasonably manage. For example, if you’re forced into sizable layoffs due to outside factors (as we saw with the COVID-19 pandemic).

Many companies choose to handle their unemployment insurance claims using spreadsheets, paper files, and other dated methods that are not only tedious, but also ripe for human error. Additionally, if this data isn’t stored properly it can be lost or compromised and become essentially useless.

Other companies use more modern platforms and unemployment claims management services (such as Quentelle) to manage their unemployment insurance claims. This saves companies money and time, and is much more secure.

We’ll go into more detail later in this article about how to manage your unemployment claims, but for now, let’s walk through the steps of how unemployment claims work for businesses like yours.

How Unemployment Insurance Claims Work for Businesses

Use this guide to help your company navigate unemployment claims. It will walk you through what to expect step by step, and give you advice on how to best proceed.

Step 1: You’ll Get a Notification from the State

For many companies, the moment they begin to educate themselves on how to handle an unemployment claim is right after the moment they receive a notice that someone has made claim. That may be you and that’s okay – as long as you act quickly.

When an employee who is no longer with you files an unemployment claim, you’ll receive a formal notification from the state. When you receive the notification it will have all of the information that the employee who filed included when they filled out the application to receive benefits.

Note that if you see something inaccurate on the report at this phase, that doesn’t mean the state has accepted it as fact – it just means this is what the employee is claiming what happened.

In many cases, this notification will include forms (such as a questionnaire) that requests information from your company. The information you provide is what the state uses to decide if a former employee is eligible or not and if their claim will be accepted. (The combined information you provide is sometimes known as a separation report.)

There are some situations where the state’s unemployment commission will invite a representative from your company to take part in an unemployment hearing. These are typically scheduled as conference calls that allow the commissioner who is handling your case to gather more details and decide if a claim should be accepted or denied.

Step 2: The Unemployment Claim Needs to Be Verified

As we mentioned earlier, the state doesn’t immediately take the details that your former employee provided as facts. When you’re filling out your separation repot, you’ll have the opportunity to verify any details or provide any alternate details needed to bring clarity to the situation. Your goal here is to be fair, but also accurate.

When you’re going over your notice, the first thing you’ll want to do is make sure that this person was actually an employee of your company. It may sound basic, but formally verify that the person who is filing the unemployment claim was actually employed at your organization. Remember that people who work for you as contractors or staffing agencies don’t count in this verification – they can’t claim unemployment.

The next thing you’ll want to do is verify all of the factual details and data. Specifically, verify everything that isn’t open to interpretation or is subjective. This includes things like:

  • Date range of the person’s employment
  • Wages
  • Severance or vacation payouts
  • Any other factual details

Once you’ve verified the non-negotiable “data”, now it’s time to verify the claimant’s report of the situation. What did they say happened? And how  are they saying it happened? On the notification you received, the claimant provided their account of how and why they left the company.

If you disagree with anything that was claimed, remain professional and do your best to gather facts that prove your side of the story. Things like timecard reports, emails, incident reports, and other records can be key when supporting the details of how you claim things occurred.

Step 3: Decide If You Will Appeal

After you’ve read the details, if you feel that the claim is unjustly being filed, you have the opportunity to appeal it. This will typically result in a fact-finding hearing that will be conduced by your state’s unemployment commission.

In what instances should you appeal? Well, bear in mind that your employee may not be eligible for unemployment benefits for various reasons. Here some questions to ask yourself as you make the decision to appeal a claim or not:

Did this employee leave his or her job voluntarily? 

Did this person abandon their job? If so, they may not be eligible for unemployment benefits. There are some nuances here, however. For example, you can’t give your employee an ultimatum to “leave or be fired.” That’s considered a forced resignation. Additionally, if the employee was subjected to illegal acts (like discrimination) that isn’t treated as leaving voluntarily. There are some situations where an employee might resign because they’re relocating or due to a disability – depending on the circumstances that might be considered them having “quit with good cause.”

Did this employee show “willful misconduct” that caused them to lose their job?

There are certain unsavory behaviors that are considered as willful misconduct. Here are some examples of when this might be the case.

  • Being late or missing work excessively. Also called “excessive tardiness” and “excessive absenteeism”. Essentially, being late for work or missing work on a regular basis can be considered misconduct. Your company rules must have a clear attendance policy for this to make sense. Another key factor to this is that there can’t be good causes for the absences (such as disability and illness).
  • Violation of company rules. Every company has policies and rules. If you can prove that a policy formally exists, and that this employee knew about it and willfully disobeyed it, you might have a case for denial. The key is that they must have broken the rule intentionally while having knowledge of it.
  • Failure to follow instructions. If you can prove that you provided specific instructions to an employee and that they didn’t follow them, it could be considered misconduct. This won’t work if the unemployment commission deems that the employee’s decision was justified or if it deems that your instructions were “unreasonable”.
  • Poor professional behavior. Some behaviors are considered to be unprofessional whether they’re in your company policies or not. This includes behavior such as physical fighting, lying, stealing, sleeping on the job, using discriminatory or offensive language, being intoxicated at work, testing positive for illegal substances, etc. Even if these things aren’t in you company policy, many unemployment commissions will automatically deem them misconduct.

When should you accept a claim without an appeal?

As a general rule of thumb, if your employee either lost their job or had their work hours restricted, limited, or reduced for any reason that isn’t their fault, you should accept the claim. For example, if you laid someone off or cut their hours drastically because there was not enough work available for them, you generally shouldn’t appeal the claim unless there are other circumstances that would deem it fair and reasonable.

Step 4: Support Your Viewpoint with Evidence

If you have followed the above guidelines and you feel that the employee doesn’t have a fair right to receive unemployment benefits, you need to prove it with evidence. You must present any data, details, and facts that show the unemployment commission that the claim shouldn’t be accepted.

For this evidence to be sound and admissible, the best options are written documents or consensual recordings from company phones systems, security cameras, etc.

For written proof, things like signed disciplinary slips addressing attendance or policy violations, email correspondence or letters asking for a reduction of hours, and formal attendance records can help greatly.

When it comes to audio or video proof, any recordings of misconduct or knowingly breaking company policy, or recordings of customer complaints about an employee might work. In some cases, security camera footage of an employee engaging in misconduct might also help your case.

Copies of anything you believe will help give a better picture of your side of the occurrence needs to be provided to your case’s assigned unemployment officer. They will need to review this information prior to your unemployment hearing.

NOTE: If you do decide to appeal, your separation report, evidence, and confirmation you will be attending your hearing should be submitted to your state’s unemployment office.

Step 5: The Unemployment Hearing

The unemployment hearing will be a meeting between a representative from your company, the assigned unemployment officer, and former employee who filed the unemployment claim. Many states have a specific format for these meetings and there are rigorous guidelines of who can speak and when.

Your unemployment officer is in charge of the hearing so it’s best that whoever attends on behalf of your organization listens to them carefully and follows all instructions. Remember that there is a specific amount of time allotted for these hearings, so don’t be late and be ready.

You should also prepare for this hearing and show up with your own copies of your evidence. Look over the details of the unemployment claim and the data you have gathered just before the hearing so it is fresh in your mind.

It can be easy to get emotional during these hearings – especially if you believe your former employee to be misrepresenting the truth or being unfair. Remember that your former employee may be emotional as well – this is potential income of theirs on the line. Don’t fall into the trap of making personal attacks, arguing, or being unprofessional. State facts, and be fair, professional, and cordial.

If you’re honest, reasonable, and conduct yourself well, it won’t be lost on most unemployment officers. Remember that whoever is in the hearing is representing your entire company and should conduct themselves accordingly.

Step 6: What Happens After the Hearing?

Once your hearing is over, you’ll typically be given a timeline by your unemployment officer of when you should expect to hear the outcome of the case. Then, you wait until you receive the verdict of your hearing.

If you receive the outcome of the hearing and the unemployment agency has ruled in favor of your former employee who filed the claim, that isn’t the end of it. There will also be instructions on how you can formally appeal the decision.

In most cases, if the unemployment office of your state ends up granting your former employee benefits, they’ll let you know the reasons. It’s wise to review these reasons to help you decide if an appeal is worth your time, effort, and resources.

As you can see, the process of denying a claim is not a quick or an easy one, which is why so many organizations now opt to use other solutions. Let’s talk more about how unemployment claims management services can help you and your business.

Unemployment Claims Compliance and Record-Keeping

If it wasn’t challenging enough to have to manage unemployment claims yourself, there are two other layers – compliance and bookkeeping. You’ll see how proper record-keeping and adherence to the rules go hand in hand when it comes to having a sound unemployment claims process that works.

Unemployment Claims Bookkeeping

The proper keeping of records and details about all of your current and past employees is critical to protecting your business. We’re sorry to report that there are unemployment insurance benefits that are paid out in error – these are known as improper benefits.

Can you guess what the #1 cause for improper benefits being paid out is? If you guessed inaccurate information from an employer or claimant, you’re right. When it comes to the claimant submitting inaccurate information (whether maliciously or accidental) you don’t have any control over it. However, you do have control over the information you submit in response to claims filed against you.

When it comes to record-keeping, here’s one simple – but invaluable – piece of advice that can save your company untold sums of money: document everything.

If you have to submit information due to an unemployment claim dispute, having the proper details documented can be the single thing that causes the state unemployment agency to rule in your favor. This is a game changer when it comes to optimal unemployment claims management.

What should you document, specifically? Here are some guidelines:

Your company’s policies. Many companies don’t have all of their policies written out clearly in one document. It is important to put them together in an accessible and easy-to-understand way.

Any changes to your company’s policies. You may be surprised to learn that many companies have a set of written policies that don’t match the way they actually operate. This can cause issues when it comes to unemployment claims. Take the time to update your company policies so they reflect the way you truly operate.

Disciplinary actions taken against employees. It’s important to document any disciplinary action taken against your employees and have them sign it. Often called “write-ups”, these documented cases of an employee breaking company policies can go a long way in an unemployment dispute.

Job descriptions, offer letters, contracts, etc. Each employee should have a properly documented job description that clearly states what their primary duties are. Offer letters should also be used when hiring employees so their exact salary and position is clearly defined in writing.

Termination and resignation letters. If someone resigns, you should consider requiring a written notice from them that clearly states they are leaving (and if possible the reasons why, if any). You should also type your own termination letters when letting someone go. The letter should document the date they left and the reasons why.

Any other work-related statements or job changes. When possible, have anything pertaining to a change in an employee’s job responsibilities put in writing. For example, if an employee requests a reduction of hours, don’t accept this request verbally – instead require them to send an email or give you a letter. This is to protect yourself and give you proof if they file an unemployment claim because you reduced their hours.

Be Proactive with Your Record-Keeping

In addition to all of the above bookkeeping, there are also a handful of other clerical duties you can perform to get optimal results from any unemployment insurance claims.

For example, be sure to report every new person hired to the State Directory of New Hires, a required part of your hiring process. By reporting each person you hire accurately and quickly, it can help prevent the payment of ineligible unemployment claims once a person has returned to the workforce. (Remember that this date should reflect the date the person actually began working, not the date they were formally hired.)

Unemployment Claims Compliance

You share the responsibility with the state to ensure that the unemployment insurance program works effectively and functions as it should. Think of it like this: it’s the state’s job to be certain that each individual who files a claim is truly eligible for unemployment benefits, but it is your company’s job to provide them with as much information as possible to make the best decision.

To be compliant with the state as they attempt to administer unemployment benefits to deserving individuals, you must communicate quickly and accurately with them (and in the bookkeeping section below, we’ll talk about how proactive communication can help save you from improper paying of unemployment claims).

In the past, employers were only required to to respond to unemployment claims they were contesting or that they felt weren’t accurate. Things have changed with unemployment claims management, however, and now every employer is required to respond to all claims. If you fail to reply to all claims, you are not considered to be compliant with state regulations (and you can also cost your company unnecessary expenses in unemployment costs due to claims that shouldn’t have been paid).

While employers used to respond only to those unemployment claims that were considered inaccurate, they are now required to respond to all claims in order to remain com­pliant with state regulations and minimize financial exposure.

How to Be Proactive With Your Unemployment Claims Management compliance

1) Train your employees properly. It’s important that anyone in your organization who handles hiring or termination is aware of the unemployment system words, and what is required of them. If you educate your team, managing unemployment claims will be more efficient and successful.

2) Have all employees sign off on your company rules and regulations. Don’t just assume people know what is expected of them. Be certain to provide all employees with a written copy of your company’s regulations and rules, with a signed copy added to their personnel file as proof they agreed to abide by them.

3) Try not to terminate employees suddenly or without warning. Sometimes you’ll need to fire someone quickly due to a serious violation of your policies, but unless it’s absolutely necessary, we don’t reccommend doing this. If possible, issue a written warning that the employee signs so there is evidence that they are aware continued behavior like this will result in fair termination.

4) Stick to the SIDES. SIDES is an abbreviation for the State Information Data Exchange System, and is an electronic tool that was developed by state unemployment agencies and the U.S. Department of Labor. By using this tool you can react to unemployment insurance matters accurately, quickly, and securely.

5) Don’t go it alone. Many companies eventually realize that by processing unemployment claims themselves, they’re actually spending far too many hours and countless internal resources. Speaking frankly, the very best way to be proactive with your unemployment claims management compliance is to partner with an industry leader like Quentelle to handle it for you.

Remember, if your company is non-compliant you can suffer from payouts for erroneous claims, increases in your unemployment tax rates, and in some cases, even penalties and fines. Taking the time to be proactive, compliant, and keep great records is a strong strategy to overcome any unemployment claim challenges you may encounter.

Quentelle Is the Industry Leader in Unemployment Claims Management Services

When it comes to handling unemployment claims and unemployment cost management, there’s compliance, and then there’s optimization.

Unemployment claims management is a complex, time-consuming processv– which is why having a partner like Quentelle can help your company keep unemployment costs as low as possible. If all of this seems like a lot, that’s because it is. Managing unemployment claims can feel like an endless, time-draining treadmill with no end in sight.

Not only is it time-consuming and tedious, but when an organization handles their own unemployment insurance claims management, it’s often a very reactionary process. When you work with us here at Quentelle, we strive for proactive management solutions for your UI claims.

This includes things like acceptance and denial of claims, a consistent auditing and tracking of your UI claims history, and actively working to keep the overall number of unemployment insurance claims and benefit charges as low as possible.

Let us interact with the multiple state unemployment agencies so you don’t have to use your valuable in-house talent and resources. This gives your team the freedom to increase their productivity and focus on their core business functions.

Additionally, we’ll take the time to vigilantly perform tax rate verification to be sure that your state tax rate calculations are correct and that you meet all of the rigid timelines that are imposed by state agencies.

Another major benefit of using Quentelle and our partners for your unemployment claims management is that you’re reducing your chances of making a costly mistake. Don’t risk human error. You can rest assured that our team of experienced professionals are highly trained and specialize in handling these responsibilities.

You don’t have to try to navigate the maze of unemployment laws and procedures by yourself. Let our team of experienced professionals focus on unemployment cost control so you can focus on running your business.

What many companies don’t consider is that their in-house solution very typically results in frequent errors – which causes higher tax rates and increased unemployment costs.

If you’re ready to experience lower tax costs and a greater potential for tax savings, Quentelle is here to help.

Give us a call at 888-565-5515 or schedule a demo online, and we’ll show you why we’re the smart and simple way to handle all of your unemployment claims easily and optimally.

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An Introduction to Workflow Automation in HR Applications

Workflow management is one of the most misunderstood and underutilized tools when it comes to any part of your business – but especially the human resources department of any company, in our experience.

In fact, we often hear clients use the words “project” and “workflow” as though they’re synonyms. Sometimes you’ll also hear the term “process management” thrown around as well. While workflows, process management, and projects have certain aspects in common, these words are not all as interchangeable as some might think.

You may be wondering why we’re being so particular, and that’s a fair question. However, while it might not seem important on the surface, defining the difference between your HR projects, processes, and workflows might be one of the most important things you can do for accuracy and efficiency.

In this article, we’re going to walk you through the necessary steps to get handle on your human resources workflow, and how to automate them properly – resulting in fewer mistakes, more money saved annually, and a happy workforce.

Remember: to automate anything, we must first understand its function and its parts, so that’s where we’ll begin.

Human Resources Workflow, Projects, and Process Management

So what is the difference between a workflow, a project, and process management?

Workflow: Very simply, your HR workflow is the series of necessary steps that need to happen in a specific sequence in order to finish a task.

When it comes to your human resource (HR) workflow, we’re referring to any number of distinct steps that your team must take to complete necessary tasks. A workflow is used, for example, when a new employee is hired. This workflow ensures that all required HR tasks related to onboarding a new person are completed in an efficient and timely manner.

Projects: Consider a project to be a planned effort to achieve a specific goal or outcome. It can be done by an individual or a team, but in the end, there’s the desired result.

Projects are different than workflows because they are less rigid in their structure as long as the end goal is achieved. Projects are more fluid and can include workflows, but workflows by their nature rarely include projects.

Some examples of human resources projects are things like:

  • Ensuring all employee job descriptions are accurate and current.
  • Updating the company policy document and having all employees sign.
  • Checking all employee contact info is correct.

Process Management: Process management is considered the discipline of using various methods to try to improve, optimize, and even automate processes within a business.

For example, you’re very likely engaging in process management right now as you read this article. As you search for an automated workflow for your HR team, you’re attempting to discover, improve, optimize, and automate – all earmarks of process management.

Now that you have a clearer understanding of these different aspects, you can see how when they’re not clearly defined, can result in tangled, inefficient HR departments.

Before we automate anything we need to understand how it works within our company. Let’s take a deeper look at the goal of human resources management.

What Is Human Resources Management?

Human resources management is the overall approach to managing your corporate culture, business operations, and employees. When you have strong human resources management in place your employees will feel taken care of, motivated to work harder, and excited to contribute toward company initiatives and goals.

As a company you should have a purposeful idea of what you want your human resources management to be. If this is under-managed or mismanaged, it can be damaging to employee morale, and make your company a place where people don’t enjoy working.

What Is Human Resources Workflow Management?

Once you’ve decided the kind of workplace you want to provide for your employees, you need to define the repetitive, necessary tasks that will be implemented so that your human resources managers can make them a reality.

By managing your human resources workflow you’re empowering your HR team to streamline their day-to-day tasks, eliminate needlessly time-wasting tasks, and ultimately keep you and your employees happy, protected, and compliant.

Once you have the ideal human resource workflow in place for your company, the next step to improving your company’s efficiency, profitability, and morale is to introduce human resources workflow automation.

What Is Human Resources Workflow Automation?

Human resources workflow automation is taking your existing HR workflow and using software to streamline the process and make it occur digitally. This means taking the operations that are being handled on paper or using spreadsheets that are local to a single person’s computer and putting them all into one easy-to-use platform.

Human resources workflow automation takes time-consuming, tedious, and mundane tasks and automates them as much as possible. Your human resources team will see a marked improvement when it comes to efficiency – not to mention a reduction of errors.

When a human resources team takes advantage of workflow automation, it frees them up to focus on other duties within your company. Rather than spending the majority of their time focused on menial tasks, they’re able to implement initiatives and projects to improve the overall state of your company’s human resources management we discussed above.

In addition, by using a trusted digital platform (like Quentelle) for your human resources workflow, you’re immediately improving the level of security your HR workflow. No more printed forms and paper file folders. Instead, you’ll be able to take advantage of digital safeguards and security, as well as customizable privacy controls that will help you meet regulatory and compliance requirements.

Benefits of Human Resources Automations in Today’s Enterprise

There are many advantages to automating your HR workflow, but here are a handful of some of the most advantageous to virtually any business.

Tax Credit Opportunities

There are few things that can immediately help a company’s bottom line like taking advantage of the proper tax credits available to them. When you use an automated HR workflow, you’re able to automatically identify things like the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) at the point of hire, and that’s just for starters.

Streamlined Unemployment Claims Management

Managing unemployment claims can be a full-time job for a company’s human resources department. The challenge is that if unemployment cost management doesn’t get the attention it deserves, it can cost your company substantial amounts of money in erroneous claims (or claims that were automatically accepted because there was no response).

Automating your HR workflow is a huge step toward unemployment cost control – and you can also rely on the platform to help you with tax rate verification specific to your state agencies so that you’re not over or underpaying when it comes to unemployment insurance.

Reduced Errors

No matter how excellent your human resources team is, the odds are they will eventually make a mistake somewhere in their HR workflow. When your team is responsible for manually handling onboarding forms, payroll, time sheets, employment verification, unemployment claims management, and other aspects of human resources (usually across multiple platforms), costly and serious mistakes are bound to occur.

When you automate your human resources workflow (and do so with an all-in-one platform like Quentelle), you reduce errors drastically – and in many cases can eliminate them entirely.

Unmatched Reporting Options

When you use human resources automation, you’re unlocking quick access to data-driven reports that would otherwise take a substantial amount of time and effort to put together. Additionally, when your HR workflow is hosted on one platform like Quentelle, you’re allowing for the simple and powerful cross-referencing of multiple human resource data points. (We’ll talk about this a bit more in-depth later in the article.)

Give Your Human Resources Team the Tools to Strategize

Let’s put those robust reporting options to good use. When you use a strong platform like Quentelle to automate your HR workflow your human resources team will have a robust set of tools to optimize and strategize the best way to operate. When your team can make data-driven decisions quickly and accurately, you’re giving them the ability to be proactive instead of reactive.

Repetitive (But Important) Tasks Are Automated

There are necessary tasks that any HR department will tell you are critical to operations – but also time-consuming and tedious. Why have a human do what a computer can do more quickly and accurately?

By automating the repetitive portions of certain tasks, you’re giving your team the ability to focus on the parts of those tasks that only a human can do best through intuition and experience.

When you automate your HR workflow, you’re optimizing the workflow of your human resources team and managers – saving valuable time and effort.

Emphasis Can Be Put on the Human Element of “Human Resources”

When your employees and HR team are spending time performing tedious human resources tasks to stay current and compliant, they’re not spending time with clients.

By automating the repetition parts of new employee or contractor onboarding, it gives your team the free bandwidth to interact with these people and begin to cultivate meaningful relationships quickly and naturally.

Acquire and Keep Stronger Talent 

By automating your company’s hiring process, you can greatly improve candidate selection. Rather than shuffling through paper resumes or countless online submissions you can quickly and easily identify qualified applicants that possess the skillsets the position requires.

These tools can make your talent acquisition process quicker and less reactive, allowing you to build an acquisition pipeline.

Additionally, with less “paper pushing”, your HR team can focus on true employee relations and keeping current employee moral high.

Support Various Work Styles

As working remotely becomes more popular and accepted by many companies, HR departments are having to navigate working with employees who are located in various places geographically. With some employees living in different states (or even countries), an automated workflow allows for the quick and secure transmission of any documentation electronically. This is faster and less expensive than other options such as fax and postal mail.

Unparalleled Organization

When your entire team is working from the same platform, there are no issues with data that’s not up to date or different versions of documents and spreadsheets. Working from a single platform like Quentelle will give you a level of organization – and a reduction of errors – that you can’t achieve any other way.

Many, Many More Benefits

As you can see, the benefits that come from using human resources workflow automation are numerous. Another thing to mention is that we understand every business is unique, and each will enjoy the unique benefits when automating their HR workflow. Every company not only has its own “pain points” that can be eliminated by HR workflow automation, but also the things that will bring them distinct benefits.

So how do you begin your enterprise workflow automation for human resources? Let us show you how it works.

Enterprise Workflow Automation for HR – How It Works

Enterprise-level workflow automation for HR can sound like a big, scary topic. Many managers, executives, and owners think that automating HR processes will be an expensive and almost insurmountable task. In some cases, they’re also skeptical that if they use automated HR workforce solutions that they’ll be putting their team out of a job.

The fact is that for most companies, none of this is accurate.

When you understand what enterprise-level workflow automation truly is at its core, you’ll probably find yourself wondering why you didn’t implement it sooner. Enterprise workflow automation is a powerful tool that will allow your employees to increase meaningful output and overall value to your company.

Here are some powerful ways that workflow automation for HR can work for you.

Automating the Identification of Opportunities for Tax Credits

The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) is a federal tax credit that your company can take advantage of at the point of hire of a new employee. The credit is designed to incentivize companies like yours to provide jobs to individuals from certain groups that often face challenges finding gainful employment.

The key is that this tax credit must be identified at the point of hire. If a candidate is eligible there are forms that need to be filled out (IRS pre-screening Form 8850 and DOLF Form 9061) prior to or on the day the employee begins work.

If you don’t follow this process your company will be ineligible to claim the WOTC tax credit.

There’s still more – once the individual begins work, you’re required to submit the properly filled out forms to the state employment workforce agency before the 28th calendar day after the employee started their job.

As you can see, this process is layered and specific. If you handle your Work Opportunity Tax Credit process manually, there are many places the process can go awry, causing you to miss out on your credit.

When you use the workflow automation from Quentelle to handle your WOTC process, you can leverage our partnership with Walton – a trusted, industry leader. We’ll deliver a streamlined solution that lets you screen for Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) easily and accurately.

By using our simple and short process during your company’s onboarding process, Walton will determine eligibility and then pursue the tax credits for you.

You’ll benefit from:

  • A simplified screening process: Our screening process is simple, but powerful, and gets the job done.
  • Wellknown integrations: Walton has a number of integrations with the most reputable and largest applicant tracking, onboarding, and payroll providers.
  • Unmatched results: By using an automated process that turns over every stone, you’ll be able to rest assured that you’re not missing any opportunities for tax credits.

Other Credit Opportunities

The WOTC credit is only the beginning if you’re using the proper automated HR platform. Our partners at Walton will also pursue any other local, state, federal, and point-of-hire tax credits that your company might qualify for. This also includes Federal Empowerment Zone and the Indian Employment Credit programs, just to name a few.

With Quentelle’s HR workflow automation, the only thing you need to focus on is hiring great applicants, and we’ll take care of the rest.

Automating Unemployment Claims Management

Unemployment claims management is a necessary part of running any business. As you are probably well aware, there are many moving parts when it comes to handling unemployment claims properly.

Managing unemployment claims and navigating the unemployment system yourself is a time-consuming, complex, and ongoing process. Sadly, it often results in unemployment costs going up for your company. Not only that, but any single mistake during the process, and erroneous unemployment claims can be paid out, costing your company dearly. It will also increase your overall unemployment costs since a higher number of accepted claims will increase your unemployment tax rates.

By automating your unemployment claims management using a solution from Quentelle, the managing unemployment claims will be simple and cost-effective.

Our primary goal is to proactively examine all of your unemployment claims and decide whether they should be accepted or denied. As you may be aware, any unemployment claims that aren’t responded to in a timely manner are automatically accepted. Having our watchful team on the job typically lowers unemployment costs.

We don’t stop there. We also audit and track your unemployment claims history, and do all that we can to keep down the number of ongoing claims and improve your unemployment cost control.

The calculation of your unemployment tax rates is a complicated, multi-layered process. Our team will also review your claims history alongside tax records to be sure that you’re paying the proper unemployment tax rates. If your tax rate is incorrect, you could be overpaying or underpaying.

We will use the State Information Data Exchange System (SIDES) to electronically transfer all of the necessary unemployment claims documents. This means that you’ll no longer have to use postal mail or other less reliable methods. By using these electronic methods, we’re able to improve claim response times, which secures future appeal rights for your company.

Your team will never have to spend their time on an unemployment claims hearing again. If any unemployment claims do result in an unemployment hearing, one of our highly-experienced staff will attend as hearing representatives on your behalf. Our team members have an average of 20 years of unemployment claims proceedings experience and are familiar with unemployment laws and regulations.

We’ll prepare every witness prior to each unemployment hearing, and we’ll be sure that all documents and decisions are reviewed thoroughly. If the unemployment hearing does result in an appeal, we’ll handle the appeal process for you in its entirety.

You’ll benefit from:

  • All unemployment claims will be answered on a case by case basis – no more automatic acceptance.
  • Lower unemployment benefit charges overall.
  • Not having to use your valuable in-house talent on unemployment claims management.

As you can see, when you use workflow automation to handle your unemployment claims management, there are many benefits that will save your company time and money, and will ensure the most optimal and fair outcome for everyone involved.

The Highest Standards of Compliance

No matter what industry you’re in, your company is going to be subject to adhering to the compliance of federal, state, and local laws and regulations. If you fail to comply with any of these laws and regulations, it can trigger any number of consequences – none of which are good for your business. Your company can experience such things as investigations by various administering agencies, and sometimes the eventual assessment of fines and penalties.

One of the worst parts is that any errors in adherence to compliance and regulations are often the result of a mistake made by a member of your company’s staff. When all of your primary human resource workflows are handled in-house by human employees, the chances of finding your company in non-compliance at some point increases greatly.

How can HR automation help with compliance and reporting? By automating as much of the regulatory minutiae and compliance data as you can, you’re not relying on your team to stay up-to-the-minute on every regulation, rule, and guideline in an ever-shifting landscape.

As we stated earlier, we believe in letting computers do the job of computers, and letting people do the job of people. Even your most experienced and skilled human resources team member won’t have every state, federal, and local regulation or rule memorized. However, by leveraging an automated human resources workflow platform and taking advantages of the solutions offered from Quentelle, you can rest assured that your entire process is current with all regulatory information available.

Powerful and Easy-To-Use Reporting

We mentioned this earlier, but when you automate your human resources workflow, one of the major benefits you’ll experience is powerful, easy-to-use reporting. By having all of your human resource functionality in one platform (like Quentelle’s HR Analytics solution), you’re also giving yourself a method of collecting invaluable data about your organization. You’ll be able to look at cross-referenced data that wouldn’t otherwise be possible and make data-driven decisions confidently.

Take an in-depth look at things like:

  • Staff retention and attrition
  • Job statistics
  • Separation analysis
  • Turnover rate
  • Retention rate
  • Separation reasons vs. job titles
  • Correlations between separation and other data

And that’s only the beginning. As more and more data is gathered, our platform is able to leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to not only show you existing data trends, but also to compile, query, and analyze large amounts of data. The AI can then identify certain patterns and trends that would be much harder to spot otherwise.

When you’re empowered by useful insights you can count on, you can make meaningful decisions with a minimal investment of research time and resources.

Integrating with Your Existing Tech Stack

Here at Quentelle, we wrote the book on tomorrow’s technology delivered today. We understand that you have an existing technology stack that you’ll need to consider before deciding on which workflow automation and HR applications can work for your business.

You’ll want to take a close look at any solution to make sure that it integrates smoothly with your pre-existing accounting and financial reporting software. We’re happy to report that our platform is at the cutting edge of what is available, and integrates seamlessly with many commonly used software services.

If you’re using a well-known provider, chances are that our flexible integrations will connect simply and securely to deliver an all-in-one, convenient solution.

You may be asking yourself: “But what if I don’t use a well-known provider?” Or “What if my business has a specific requirement?” The simple answer is that no matter what, we’ve got you covered. We offer customized solutions to any of our clients who need it.

We understand that there are some industries that rely heavily on managing data that is complex, and that’s no problem.

Are you in one of the following industries?

  • Healthcare
  • Transportation
  • Employer services
  • Agriculture
  • Something else?

No problem. We’ve worked with companies across many industries to develop custom software that helps them solve any challenge they’re facing. Everything we custom-make is designed to work seamlessly with our platform for an incredible experience.

In addition to seamless and flexible integrations, our platform also uses ForeSite, and leverages the power of what cloud computing can do today. This means that you’ll be able to manage and retrieve your data on demand with the utmost security.

Couple all of those benefits with our simple, single sign-on and our customizable push alerts, and you’ll see that Quentelle offers award-winning, easy-to-use solutions that you’ll love.

What Workflow Automation Means for Your Organization’s Bottom Line

As you can see, there are quite a few tangible benefits to automating your HR workflow. At the end of the day, you’re a business and you have to take a look at optimizing your income and doing all that you can to improve profit margins.

For businesses that take the switch to an automated HR workflow seriously, they often see a substantial amount of increased revenue and cost-saving opportunities open up.

Imagine the opportunity you have if every employee you hire is not only screened for WOTC tax credit – but all tax credits available. We see some of our clients get immense tax savings by allowing us to add a simple step to their hiring process.

Having all of your unemployment claims and unemployment taxes information in one place and being handled expertly can also drastically reduce your unemployment costs and keep your tax rates as low as possible.

You can imagine how the amount of tedious, repetitive work being handled by an automated system can free your team up to provide even more value, and in many cases, reduce HR labor expenses overall. Plus, reductions in efficiencies, initiatives, and projects can occur due to your team having more time available to be truly productive.

As you continue to capture data and use powerful reporting and AI-driven HR analytics, you can also participate in more accurate and meaningful long-term business planning and forecasting.

Another major opportunity for improving your bottom line is using HR automation and reporting to identify trends and patterns that your competitors have no way of learning. Seeing patterns that improve talent acquisition and offer other insights can help you beat competitors in ways they’re not expecting.

Quentelle Is the Industry Standard for Workflow Automation in HR Applications

Quentelle is the industry leader when it comes to workflow automation in HR applications. We’re smart and simple redefined through the power of our solutions.

If you’re looking for the most advanced technology available – that’s also simple to use and will integrate with your existing software – then you’ve come to the right place.

We’d love to talk to you about how we can help you streamline your HR workflow like never before, empower your team with the tools they deserve, and improve your company’s bottom line.

To learn more about our solutions, call us at (888) 565-5515 or contact us online.

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Employee Retention Credit

An Introduction to COVID-19 Employee Retention Credit (ERC)

Things have been extremely challenging for many businesses in the last few years, to say the least. The corporate landscape has shifted drastically, and in some cases, these changes are here to stay when it comes to the way of doing business.

One of the biggest changes to navigate was the introduction of the Employee Retention Credit. For eligible employers that have suffered revenue losses during the pandemic or have had business partially shut down due to a government order, the Employee Retention Credit could be the thing you need to help your business find its footing on shifting sands.

If you’re not taking advantage of this powerful tax credit, your business could be missing out on thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars. We’ve seen the Employee Retention Credit save businesses on the brink of shutting down.

It’s time to learn about the details of the Employee Retention Credit landscape so you don’t miss out on one of the most important tax credits in recent history.

Look Again at Your COVID-19 Employee Retention Credit- You Won’t Regret it!

When we bring up the topic of the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) to potential clients, many of them say that they got it during the pandemic. However, when we get deeper into the conversation it becomes clear that they actually only applied for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which is not the same as the Employee Retention Credit.

Other clients we speak to who did hear about the Employee Retention Credit, but think that they’re not an eligible employer because they are unaware how many updates, addendums, and changes have been made to it.

The COVID-19 Employee Retention Credit has gone through various shifts and changes. Trust us when we say that this topic is absolutely worth your time and effort, and we implore you to look again– even if you think you’ve got all of your bases covered.

COVID-19 Employee Retention Tax Credits Defined

Simply put, the Employee Retention Credit is a temporary program in the United States began in response to the economic impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It originally was part of the Coronavirus Aid Relief Economic Stimulus Security Act (also known as CARES).

Even though the disaster tax relief act was temporary, it’s still in effect due to the prolonged impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is still having on the economy today.

When an economic downturn occurs, some companies are forced to lay off workers. This can lead to a vicious downward economic spiral that can critically damage the economy. The Employee Retention Tax Credit is a broad-based refundable tax credit that is currently in place to encourage companies to keep employees on their payroll and avoid that spiral.

At the moment, the credit is 50% (capping at $10,000) of qualified wages paid by an eligible employer whose business was suspended (in full or in part) due to COVID-19, or whose gross receipts decline by more than 50%.

A Brief History of the COVID-19 Employee Retention Credit

As the Employee Retention Credit is fairly new, here is a timeline of when it was introduced, and some details about how it has evolved – even in such a short time.

March 2020

Employee Retention Credit is introduced to encourage companies to keep their workers on payroll during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. At the time of its introduction, employers were eligible to take advantage of the credit until the end of 2020 unless any new legislation would end it earlier.

Note that when the ERC was introduced, it was not available for anyone who was already receiving funds from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). It also couldn’t be calculated using any wages paid for medical leave or family leave, or any wages already used for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) in the same calendar quarter.

December 2020

A new act known as the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) came into play and had a few major effects on the Employee Retention Credit. Making things even more complicated, some of the changes were retroactive, though most took effect on January 1, 2021.

The most drastic changes were that now the credit would be extended through June 30, 2021, and the way that gross receipts were calculated would change.

Additionally, the threshold of what was considered a “small employer” and a “large employer” changed. “Small Employer” was now anyone with 500 employees or less, and “large employer” was now anyone with more than 500 full-time employees.

The CAA also allowed many of those who were taking advantage of any Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to participate, and they could claim their Employee Retention Credits using wages they didn’t use for PPP forgiveness.

March and April 2021

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sent out notices that gave formal answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ) that were previously only available on the IRS website. They also provided more formal written guidance regarding the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) updates to the credit.

Later in March the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) was introduced. This made some changes to the Employee Retention Credit that were effective as of July 1, 2021.

Some of the notable changes were an extension of the ERC through December 31, 2021, and new credit opportunities for certain recovery startup businesses that began after February 15, 2020 and that had an average of $1 million dollars or less in gross receipts.

The ARPA also identified “severely financially distressed employers” (SFDEs) as businesses that had gross receipts drop at least 90%. These companies would not be bound by the “larger employer” limitations.

August 2021

The IRS sent out another formal FAQ document that answered some questions regarding definitions of full-time and part-time employees, whether owners and spouses were eligible for wages, and if it was advised to amend returns if they wanted to use wages toward the ERC.

Later in August, the IRS also introduced a “safe harbor” that gave the opportunity for employers to exclude any PPP loans that were forgiven from their gross receipts when they were determining if they were eligible.

More Changes May Be On the Horizon

As you can see, the Employee Retention Credit and the other acts that altered it were all in an effort to react to the unfolding aftermath of the global pandemic. The long-term effects of the pandemic are far from over, and as this uncertain situation continues to evolve, we may also see an evolution of the Employee Retention Credit beyond what it currently is today.

Quentelle has been at the forefront of every change affecting the Employee Retention Credit, and we’ve helped our clients navigate the situation quickly and efficiently. With an ever-shifting economy and government regulations, if you’re not current on your information it can cost your company a substantial amount. For some of the companies we’ve helped, it would have meant millions lost.

Remember that Quentelle is here to assist as the Employee Retention Credit continues to unfold. Speaking of which, let’s talk about how it may affect other credits your company is qualified to receive.

Who Can Qualify for the COVID-19 Employee Retention Tax Credit?

A common misconception is that this is just for “big companies”, but that isn’t true. The credit is actually available to any employer regardless of size, and is also available to tax-exempt organizations as well. There are two exceptions, however. Small businesses that take Small Business Loans and state and local governments and their agencies are not considered eligible employers.

Here are some other things to consider when verifying if your company is eligible. To qualify as an eligible employer, your company needs to meet one of two alternative “tests” (which is essentially just checking to see if you meet the criteria). These tests are calculated each calendar quarter.

Each calendar quarter’s test will ask:

  • Was your business fully or partially suspended by government order due to COVID-19?
  • Were your gross receipts below 50% of a comparable quarter in 2019?

Note that once your company’s gross receipts rise above 80% of a comparable quarter in 2019, you will no longer qualify (at the end of that specific quarter).

COVID-19 ERC Use Cases for Your Business

Now we want to show you some practical, hands-on examples and use cases of how the COVID-19 Employee Retention Credit can be used in your business.

As you’ve learned so far, accurately tracking all of your relief and tax credit opportunities is complex and challenging. Not only do you need to figure out your eligibility, but also the order in which to use your options so you don’t miss out on the maximum credit available to you.

If your company tries to track all of these details yourself in-house, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll miss an opportunity, miscalculate some wages paid, or even make a glaring mistake. The results aren’t optimal and can cost you big.

Here at Quentelle, we are the industry leader when it comes to accurately automating your Employee Retention Credit, as well as your other tax credit and relief opportunities.

Our platform doesn’t replace your HR team, it equips them with a powerful tool to automate repetitive, time-consuming tasks – including navigating your Employee Retention Credit. In addition, it can help your company easily get through the complex, layered maze of optimizing your Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), and your Employee Retention Credit (ERC).

You can rest assured that your team will have all of the information and resources available to make the best decision for your business so that you get the maximum credit and don’t leave a single cent on the table.

Tax Credits and Financial Relief at the Speed of Information

As you’ve seen, the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) has changed multiple times, and as we’ve mentioned, it may change again. Here at Quentelle, our software team is hyper-aware of any upcoming changes and we update our software quickly so that you can stay 100% current no matter what shifts may occur.

When it comes to your bottom line, don’t rely on paper flyers or emails from the IRS to keep you informed. Instead, let your software update automatically, keeping you as current as possible at all times.

Technology Backed By the Best People in the Industry

When you work with us here at Quentelle, you’re not just getting the industry-standard platform when it comes to automating your human resources processes – you also get the support of our full team to help guide you.

Our team is made of the very best in the business and we are passionate about helping companies like yours navigate Employee Retention Credit situations and anywhere else we assist.

If you want a team of experts and the most powerful software tools available, you’ve come to the right place.

Streamline Your Workflow

When you automate your Employee Retention Credit and other relief and credit opportunities, you’re making it easy on your entire team. By removing cumbersome paper forms and multiple pieces of software, your team can work simply and efficiently.

By using our platform, your human resources team will have a single, clear place to work within, which will increase efficiency and accuracy.

In addition, with all of the mindless, repetitive tasks automated, your team can focus on the aspect of their role that is most valuable to your company. Let our platform do the work that’s best suited for computers while your team does the job that only a person can do.

The Power of Employee Retention Credit Analytics

When you use our platform, you’ll gain access to an incredible amount of data that can help you see the whole picture. Imagine a world where your team gets easy access to data-driven insights that can help you maximize opportunities to retain your workforce.

Every company has a different definition of what they would consider a large sum of money. And no matter what that sum is, you risk missing out on it unless you properly claim your Employee Retention Credit.

Use the data on Employee Retention Credit to make sound business decisions that your competitors haven’t figured out. When you use our platform, you can get a clear, easy-to-understand picture of your current tax credit situation. This will give you the power to make business decisions that would otherwise not be possible.

Don’t guess when it comes to Employee Retention Credits. The analytics within the Quentelle platform are easy to use, powerful at-a-glance, and are built from the ground up to help save you time, empowering you to make the best decisions for your business.

Using Employee Retention Credits Data to Plan Your Future

The role of machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and artificial intelligence (AI) is more important than ever. If you and your team are still relying on spreadsheets, basic reporting from CRMs, or worse – guessing – you are falling behind the curve when it comes to human resources solutions.

Quentelle’s innovative platform is designed to enable data access and people data analysis from a single source. This means that it’s easier than ever for your HR team to make sound forecasts with a minimal investment of time and effort.

Additionally, this data won’t just help you with your Employee Retention Credit situation, it will also allow you to maximize your other available tax credits, lower the cost of your unemployment insurance claims, and improve your hiring process.

By having a deeper understanding of the revenue opportunities regarding your Employee Retention Credit, you’ll be able to make financial decisions that reflect the AI-generated projections. This can be invaluable when it comes to expanding your business, moving into new markets, or increasing your overall return on investment (ROI).

Qualified Wages: How the COVID-19 Employee Retention Tax Credit is Calculated

As we mentioned, the amount of your employee retention tax credit is 50% of the qualifying wages paid up to $10,000 dollars.

This is specifically effective for wages paid after March 13th and before December 31, 2020.

So what wages are considered “qualifying wages”? Well, it depends. The U.S. government defines qualifying wages differently depending on whether an employer had an average of more than 100 employees or fewer than 100 employees in 2019.

If an employer had fewer than 100 employees on average in 2019, then they are considered a “small employer”, and the credit is based on the wages that were paid to all of their employees. This still applies whether the employees worked or not. Meaning, even if the employees did work full time and were paid for that full-time work, the employer would still get the credit.

If an employer had more than 100 employees on average in 2019, then they are considered a “large employer” and the credit is only allowed for wages that were paid to any employees who did not work during that calendar quarter.

Something else to consider is that no matter what the average employee count was, all companies (both over and under 100 employees) could claim “wages” that went beyond cash payments. These companies could also include some of the cost of healthcare that they provided to employees.

How the COVID-19 Employee Retention Credit Works Today

Firstly, in regard to the Employee Retention Credit, many business owners did not keep up with the fluid and shifting condition of the credit. As you read in the brief history, many things were amended and the qualifications shifted more than once.

With that said, many companies looked into the Employee Retention Credit once in the past, and then wrote it off if they were ineligible. It’s important to take a closer look to be sure that you don’t miss out on an incredible opportunity.

There was no guidebook for the pandemic, and many businesses were doing the best they could to stay afloat. A lot of them took advantage of other relief opportunities such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), but then also took advantage of the Employee Retention Credit (ERC).

How do all of these things interact with each other? Here is a quick primer on how to navigate this situation.

What About ERC, PPP, and WOTC?

At the moment, there aren’t any specific rules that prohibit a company from using the same calendar quarter pay period for multiple credit and relief options. The only catch is making sure you separate and “earmark” what dollars are being used for which program. The basic rule of thumb is that you can’t “double dip.”

You have to tag each of your payroll dollars for any program you want to use it for. So let’s say that you wanted to use 50% of your period’s payroll on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). That would mean that you’re left with the other 50% that is available for other programs (if you meet the qualifying criteria).

There are quite a few companies who will qualify for Employee Retention Credit (ERC), Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), so they need to decide what the optimal split of that period’s payroll would be.

There are no two ways about it: doing this on your own can be very challenging because you’ll not only need to decide which program your dollars should go toward – but also the order it should be applied to get maximum credit.

This is a general, generic order to consider as you’re starting the process of deciding what credit and relief options are best for your business.

1) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)

Speaking generally, consider that you’ll most often want to make your Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness your top priority. After exhausting those credits, use your wages paid towards the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) since a smaller percentage of those payments are actually allowed as a tax credit.

2) Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC)

Next up, consider your Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) payroll (and of course, this is if you have any use for a Federal Income Tax credit this year and if you qualify at all). Also note that the maximum percentage of wages for the WOTC credit is 40%.

3) Employer Credit for Paid Family and Medical Leave

Finally, check to see if your company qualifies for the Employer Credit for Paid Family and Medical Leave. This should be applied after WOTC wages because of the lower percentage of the credit – it ranges between 12.5% and 25%.

4) Remember, There is No Cookie-Cutter Approach

It’s important to explicitly state that there is not a single, cookie-cutter method for any company and that this is just a high-level strategy of how to get started. There are many details that each company needs to take into consideration, and careful planning and research is definitely in order.

Sample COVID-19 ERC Case Study

It’s no secret that many companies were asked to shut down their operations during the COVID-19 pandemic– and for many this resulted in reduced revenue. We want to give you some specific examples of some businesses that experienced a loss of revenue and how their COVID-19 Employee Retention Credit came into play.

Additionally, we’ll include some eye-opening statistics that pertain to the COVID-19 Employee Retention Credit.

Eye-Opening Facts and Statistics About COVID-19 ERC

  • $9.3 million dollars is the largest ERC award to date
  • $140,000 is the overall average ERC receives per business
  • You can still submit a claim for 2020 and 2021
  • Businesses that qualify as being “severely distressed” have no cap to their total funds eligibility
  • As we’ve mentioned, even if you’ve gotten Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loans, you can still qualify.

Industry-Specific Statistics and Amounts for COVID-19 ERC

  • $4.6 million – in COVID-19 ERC was awarded to a TV and radio company that had 400 employees
  • $1.5 million – in COVID-19 ERC was awarded to a brewery and restaurant that had 100 employees
  • $1.1 million – in COVID-19 ERC was awarded to a nonprofit that focuses on leadership skills with 60 employees
  • $500 thousand – in COVID-19 ERC was awarded to a professional services firm that has 60 employees

As you can see, while some of these examples are larger companies, not all of them are. Don’t assume that just because you have a smaller staff you might not qualify.

A More Detailed Case-Study of COVID-19 ERC

Let’s look at an assisted living community that was mandated to stop giving tours to potential new residents and as a result suffered lost revenue. Here is a look at their eligible wages along with their ERC claim amount for the 2020 tax year. Let’s break it down by quarter.

Quarter 1

Eligible Wages: $123,764

Q1 ERC Credit: $61,631

 

Quarter 2

Eligible Wages: $233,771

Q2 ERC Credit: $116,885

 

Quarter 3:

Eligible Wages: $112,974

Q3 ERC Credit: $56,489

 

Quarter 4:

Eligible Wages: $49,126

Q4 ERC Credit: $24,563

 

Total Eligible Wages: $519,635

Total ERC Credits: $259,567

As you can see, this assisted living facility was eligible for a staggering amount of tax credit compared to their eligible wages. This is just one case study of the importance of having an organization like Quentelle determine what eligibility you might have so you don’t miss out. And remember, don’t rely on a typical CPA– you could be costing your company a fortune if an expert doesn’t take a close look at your company.

How Employee Retention Tax Credits Help Your Business

As a business owner, the most obvious benefit of the Employee Retention Tax Credit is that it can help your business survive in challenging times. And while that’s absolutely true, let’s take a look outward.

Not only are you protecting your company, but the credit encourages you to keep employees on your payroll. Knowing that their job is secure can give a palpable measure of peace when times are uncertain.

By taking advantage of this credit, you’re avoiding layoffs and helping your company – it’s a win-win for you and your employees. We’ve also seen employee morale skyrocket when they hear from their employer that come what may, their job is secure.

A welcome side-effect of the Employee Retention Credit is that you can announce that your company is keeping its employees while others are resorting to layoffs. While this isn’t the primary reason for taking advantage of the credit, it’s certainly a welcome piece of positive public relations.

Does Claiming ERC Credits Cause Audits?

No, it will not. Now, that’s not to say that you are guaranteed not to be audited, it just means that your company accepting any relief or tax credits doesn’t have any sort of effect on whether you’re selected by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for an audit.

There are some rumblings that there are more audits than usual, but there’s more to this. It’s simple: if fewer businesses file for the tax credits due to them, there is a smaller pool for audits. When you take advantage of these tax credits, you’re increasing the pool of overall filers. So the more people who use the ERC, the less likely they are to be audited.

Remember that having an opportunity to get thousands of dollars worth of tax credits definitely outweighs the slight risk of being audited. The other thing to keep in mind is this: as long as you keep clear, accurate records of everything and have supporting documentation, you don’t have anything to be worried about.

The Bottom Line on the Employee Retention Credit

The simple fact of the matter is that many businesses are leaving thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars behind as you read this because they’re not taking advantage of the Employee Retention Credit.

This may be for any number of reasons. Perhaps these businesses are misinformed, confused, or under-educated on the matter. For some, they simply don’t even know that this tax credit is even an option.

If you haven’t looked into this opportunity recently, we urge you to take a closer look today. Don’t be one of the businesses in the United States leaving large sums of money on the table. Even better – don’t be one of the businesses that is needlessly resorting to layoffs when there’s another path right in front of them.

And don’t go it alone. Truly, this is an opportunity worth a quick phone call to our team here at Quentelle. A quick conversation could be worth several thousand dollars or more.

Quentelle is Your Best Choice for Maximizing Retention Credit

As you’ve learned, the world of disaster tax relief and credits – especially the Employee Retention Credit – is a complex and nuanced one that has shifted frequently and has the potential to change yet again.

When it comes to navigating that complex and nuanced world, Quentelle is the industry leader. We specialize in helping businesses like yours get back on track by recovering the maximum credit when it comes to COVID-19 ERC benefits.

Here are just a few of the ways that we’ve helped companies thrive in uncertain times:

  • We worked with an automobile dealership to save $2,000,000+
  • We saved a Fortune 500 manufacturer $1,000,000+
  • We help a janitorial services company save $800,000+

That’s just for starters. We’re experts when it comes to tracking qualified wages, making certain you get the most when it comes to year-over-year gross receipt deductions, and ensuring your ability to claim PPP Loans and ERC. We’ll make sure that you get the absolute most credit when it comes to each qualified employee. This is more important than ever now that credits have increased from $5,000 per qualified employee to $28,000 per qualified employee.

Start Saving Today and Prepare for Your Future

At Quentelle, our solutions are smart and simple, redefined. We help companies like yours with what we call the “power of one.” That means one contract, one platform, and one data source so that you can easily take advantage of the tools that we offer.

Our award-winning technology is delivered to you through a simple user experience that anyone in your company can get used to quickly, and will save you time and money.

Employee retention credits are just the beginning. We also offer best-in-class options for verification of employment, point-of-hire tax credits, unemployment claims, unemployment tax planning and much, much more.

Quentelle is far more than just advanced technology. Our best-in-class HR solutions are backed by a caring team of experienced people who will be here whenever you need us.

If you’re ready to see how you can start saving now when it comes to employee retention credits, let’s talk today.

Give us a call at 888-565-5515, or you can schedule a demo so we can show you the power of our software firsthand. We look forward to connecting with you soon.

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