Payroll audits are increasing at both the state and federal levels. Unfortunately, many employers are simply unprepared for a payroll audit, which can occur for many reasons.

Whether from an employee making a claim of unfair pay practices, the government randomly selecting your organization, or you simply decide to review your own procedures, an audit can help find and cure problems.

Benefits Of A Payroll Audit

Generally speaking, the processing of payroll can produce errors in several places, which calls for a detailed process flow that also incorporates several controls. This procedure can be used to ensure that payroll is handled consistently on a repetitive basis.

A payroll audit offers several benefits for organizations, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and efficiency in managing payroll processes. Here are some key advantages:

• Accuracy Verification:
  Payroll audits help verify the accuracy of payroll calculations, ensuring that employees are paid correctly for the hours they've worked, their benefits, and any other compensation owed to them. This helps prevent errors such as overpayments, underpayments, or miscalculations of taxes.
• Compliance Assurance:
  Compliance with local, state, and federal laws and regulations regarding payroll is crucial for businesses. A payroll audit helps ensure that the organization is compliant with relevant laws such as minimum wage requirements, overtime regulations, tax withholding requirements, and reporting obligations.
• Risk Mitigation:
  By identifying and rectifying errors or discrepancies in payroll processes, audits can help mitigate the risk of legal penalties, fines, or lawsuits resulting from non-compliance with labor laws or inaccurate payroll practices.
• Detection of Fraudulent Activities:
  Payroll audits can uncover fraudulent activities such as ghost employees (non-existent employees added to the payroll), unauthorized changes to employee data, or falsification of hours worked. Detecting and addressing such fraudulent activities can prevent financial losses for the organization.
• Process Improvement:
  Conducting regular payroll audits provides an opportunity to evaluate existing payroll processes and identify areas for improvement. Streamlining processes, implementing automation, or enhancing controls can help make payroll operations more efficient and cost-effective.
• Employee Trust and Morale:
  Accurate and timely payroll processing enhances employee trust and morale. When employees are confident that they are being paid correctly and on time, it fosters a positive work environment and improves overall employee satisfaction.
• Financial Reporting Accuracy:
  Payroll expenses are a significant component of a company's financial statements. Ensuring the accuracy of payroll data through audits contributes to the reliability of financial reporting, providing stakeholders with confidence in the organization's financial health.
• Cost Savings:
  Identifying and rectifying errors in payroll processes can result in cost savings for the organization by reducing unnecessary expenditures on incorrect payments, penalties, or legal fees associated with non-compliance.

What You'll Learn:

Get ahead of potential trouble with this training session from Mark Schwartz, a former payroll tax auditor who will give you a proactive review of how your payroll department can catch some potential mistakes - and save your organization from fines or penalties!

This training session will teach you where to start, what to look for, common mistakes, and what you should do once you find a mistake! By attending, Mark will help you evaluate and adjust you payroll operations to minimize exposure in an audit. Among other things, you will learn:

• The IRS' directives to auditors on what to focus on during payroll audits
• How the IRS determines issues for your company
• How to conduct yourself if you are audited
• Responsible parties
• Common areas that you can fix in advance where mistakes or issues are normally found during an audit
• How an independent internal review can help you detect internal control issues
• How to identify any areas of concern prior to an external audit or an audit by another group within your company
• Where to go to for assistance so you are not re-creating the wheel
• How to devise a game plan for what you want to review, and how to divide and conquer

...and as always, this session will be interactive, so we'll be able to answer your questions on this topic throughout the presentation!

Bottom line, payroll audits are good in that they can help fix problems before they are discovered by the government, can help re-assign tasks as needed, and can help determine if an outside source by used to provide payroll services. Act now by ordering today!