Advantage Payroll and Alcott HR join forces

Advantage Payroll Services Long Island and Alcott HR said they have formed a formal alliance, a move they said will provide expanded options for their small- to medium-size customers grappling with increasingly complicated regulations.

For years, Freeport-based Advantage Payroll Services Long Island and Farmingdale-based Alcott HR have been informally referring clients to each other. Advantage Payroll offers payroll and tax-filing services. Alcott HR serves as a human resource department for its clients, offering 401(k) plans, health benefits, training and safety expertise.

The two companies provide services that are "complementary," said Rob Basso, president of Advantage Payroll Services. The alliance "helps my company compete with multibillion-dollar nonlocal companies, and it gives the clients what they need."

Regulations for small- and medium-size businesses have become more challenging, but the Affordable Care Act was the tipping point, said Lou Basso president of Alcott HR. "Without sounding too white-knightish here, we like the idea of keeping businesses serviced by Long Islanders," he said.