Companies with fewer than 100 participants in their pension plans will need to get crackin’.

Make sure your finance staff is depositing employee contributions as soon as your company either receives or withholds them. The Department of Labor (DOL) just slashed the amount of time smaller businesses have to deposit that money.

Employers with plans with fewer than 100 participants will now have just seven business days to get that money in under the safe harbor period. That’s compared to the 15 days your business used to get for the task.

It seems that even with more than two weeks, many companies couldn’t make the deadline. A full 90% of plans were considered out of compliance, says DOL.

No time like the present to comply!

No choice, either. The final rule was effective the date it was published in the Federal Register: Jan. 14.