How can Blueprint CPAs help you with your businesses compensation strategy?

We can help you design compensation that matches your business strategy and your cost structure. If that's a little abstract, let's take a second so we can show you what that looks like. Your firm's total compensation is made up of base compensation, incentive comp and other rewards.

Your base comp is a fixed cost to your business, and it increases your operating risk. So, you should ask yourself some very important questions. Like can you outsource, or do you need an employee? Should the base be determined on a market basis, a job basis or for the individual you're hiring? What percentage of total comp should the base represent? Does the employee qualify for any employment expenses or sales and marketing expenses? When you're looking at incentive comp, you can ask yourself whether or not stock options should form part of the mix and if they will, how will employees cash them in? If bonuses are paid, do they go straight to an RRSP plan? Will they impact employee behavior? What percentage of your total compensation does your incentive comp make up. Are commissions a rational structure? Are there performance tiers to earn commissions and finally can deferred profit sharing plans be used? Other rewards allow you to fill the gap between what your business needs and what makes your workforce happy.

You might consider sabbaticals during seasonality periods. What percentage do your other rewards make up of your total compensation. These are just a few examples and I’m grateful that you took the time to listen because it's pretty technical and we can help in much more detail if this has you thinking about how to recruit and retain the best personnel. Once your compensation strategy is finalized, then we can help you tax structure the plan so that it meets your business goals.

Your business goals might include goals for your shareholder returns as well as your employment and recruitment goals. Here are some very basic examples. There are many innovative ways you can tax structure compensation, but a few of the most obvious ones are bonuses paid into RRSP plans, stock options and other share based compensation. Perks such as mileage and expense accounts and retirement allowances and pensions that are particularly useful in specific scenarios. Thank you for paying attention to this video and we hope we've got you thinking about your overall compensation strategy and how to align it with your business needs.

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