[Wade_Rogers_Forum_Moderator]

Hi Mary Ellen

I feel your pain as well! While QBO certainly solved connectivity issues for so many organizations that went remote in 2020 a lot of folks are having the same reaction as you are. I really like Desktop payroll for its ability to allocate costs between classes and customers which eases our task of not only functional allocations but also allocation to grants. The enhancements certainly seem few and far between in this area. Hope to hear from others on this and perhaps what they have done to adapt to the change. Thanks for posting!

[Wade_Rogers_Forum_Moderator]

Hi Gwen…you’re right, there doesn’t appear to be anything I can easily get my hands on either. I have been through a closure in years past and these are the items that come to mind, though I’m sure there are more that others may name: legal fees to dissolve the corporation and settle any other claims, preparation fees for the final Form 990, return of unspent grant funds, settlement of lease liabilities (office space, copiers, etc), storage fees for documents to be retained, any software subscriptions (e.g. accounting software) that may need to be maintained during the wind-down, bookkeeping fees during the wind-down.

Hope this remains hypothetical for you!

[Wade_Rogers_Forum_Moderator]

Hi Michael and Mark…I have been through this – twice! – and we followed the same retention periods that were in place when the organization was in operation, maxing out at 7 years. I was surprised by how often we did need to access records in the years following dissolution. In regards to storage, that was the hard part and we were able to rely on Board members to keep things (these were smaller organizations) but it may make sense to determine if there are funds available for a storage facility or, even better, (Mark!) get things digitized.

[Wade_Rogers_Forum_Moderator]

Hi Holly…you ask a good question and just happen to be stumbling upon a fellow North Carolinian! I have generally seen more organizations opt to pay into the fund rather than to self insure simply to reduce the potential for large payments when claims are filed by terminated employees.

In North Carolina, the annual cost to pay into the fund (rather than self insuring) would be (to start) 1% of the first ~$30K (increased annually) of earnings per employee, so around $300 per employee annually to start. The cost would increase or decrease based on your experience with unemployment claims.

Opting to self insure would mean that you would be required to reimburse the unemployment trust fund for any unemployment benefits claimed from terminated employees as well as maintaining an escrow account with the state totaling 1% of annual payroll.

Hope this helps in your decision!

[Wade_Rogers_Forum_Moderator]

Thanks so much for your post, Sage. Great feedback about avoiding the siloing effect! Looking forward to hearing others’ perspectives.