When you're starting to hire employees as an entrepreneur or small business owner, you may be uncertain how to compensate your employees. Most likely, you've done your research and decided on a ballpark figure of what you'd like to pay each employee, but you may be getting bogged down in different employee classifications. You can make your employees non-exempt or exempt. We'll define each of these terms for you, and how it impacts employee payment.

Nonexempt Employees
These employees are classified as nonexempt because they aren't exempt from the Fair Standards Labor Act. In all states, this means your employee is entitled to overtime pay at 1 1/2 times their hourly wage if they work over 40 hours a week. Additional rules apply in certain states, and generally speaking these employees are entitled to a break after a certain number of hours working.

If you hire non-exempt employees, be certain to carefully calculate their overtime pay to avoid running into legal difficulties. You'll also need to keep in mind that it's usually illegal to compensate for overtime with comp time instead of additional pay.

When you're a new company or a small business, it's tempting to want to try to cut costs by not offering certain employee compensation. Since small businesses with under 50 employees aren't required to offer their employees health coverage, many simply forgo the additional expense. In reality, though, it can save you money in the long run to provide employee health insurance.

Here are three reasons why providing health insurance can save you in the long run: 

It's closing time on the last day of a long string of seemingly endless busy days. The last customer walks out the door. As the lock clicks behind them, there is a collective sigh of relief. Another great holiday season is wrapped up (pun intended) and high-fives abound!

As wonderful as that is, the work for an owner/manager is far from done. Now is the time to begin planning how to make next season just as spectacular. With so many things yet to be done, there are certain priority items that need to be checked off the list before you start right in on the next go 'round. Listed below are 3 top items to invest in after the busy season.

Finding and retaining great people is something all small business owners spend a lot of time doing, so staying on top of ever-changing labor regulations is important, both for employee retention as well as for labor law compliance.  Xero and TSheets have amped up our partnership to help small business owners avoid the regulatory challenges associated with changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Under the FLSA employers are required to keep accurate timesheets for overtime-eligible employees for at least two years. Without easily accessible records, it’s very hard to defend against wage and hours disputes in a court of law. The integration of TSheets and Xero can lessen the burden that this puts on small business owners by guaranteeing fewer data entry inaccuracies and offering increased transparency to employees throughout the process.

Managing payroll is a time-consuming task and if not done correctly, it can result in a loss of precious time and money.  For instance, late or inaccurate payroll could cause delayed paychecks and late penalties from the IRS.  But, do not despair, we've compiled a list of 10 tips to make payroll management simpler.

Here are our 10 tips to streamline payroll management:
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1.  Select a good payroll system
Identify a cloud-based, payroll system that records and documents data, tracks health care insurance contributions, 401K plans and wage garnishments.