Are You Making These 5 Common Payroll Mistakes? Plus Best Practices You Need to Know

If you do not use a software program to track hours, double-check your math when adding up employee hours. This means that if you’re a new homeowner in a higher-tax state like California or New York, you might be paying a lot of money for property taxes for the first time. But don’t count on being able to deduct property taxes from your federal taxable income. It might be okay to hold off on the correction payroll until your next scheduled run. It pays to double-check that your correction complies with the labor laws.

As a company, you must withhold an amount from your employee’s wages. Income taxes are typically due on April 15th every year for U.S. companies. If part of your job is  processing payroll for your organization, it goes without saying that you won’t only process it once or twice, you’ll process it hundreds of times. Take the time to write down step-by-step instructions of how to follow the payroll process. You can add  screenshots and even sections of “if you encounter this error, do this” to remind your future self what to do if you encounter a problem while you’re processing. While this may not be foolproof and you might still run into errors, you can add those to the process as you figure them out, making your document more and more comprehensive.

• When you’re processing payroll, it’s nice to take a step back and see the end result while you’re still able to fix any mistakes, and that’s just what these reports provide.
• If you are tasked with payroll for your company, be ready to take ownership for your payroll mistakes.
• This can also lead to trust issues with employees, even when the matter is unintentional.
• HR trends, Productivity, Performance and topics related to Employee Engagement garner most of her writing interest here.
• Employers should also look into the reason for the payroll problem and make any required changes to avoid future wage payment errors.

Regularly reviewing and updating deduction amounts is also crucial to maintain accuracy. Tax laws and benefit rates can change over time, and it’s important to stay up to date to ensure compliance. By staying proactive and conducting periodic reviews of deduction amounts, you can prevent payroll related errors and ensure that employees are being deducted the correct amounts. One common payroll posting in accounting mistake is treating freelancers as regular employees, which can lead to underpayment or failure to provide appropriate benefits. To avoid this payroll error, it is important to understand the legal definitions and criteria for classifying workers in your jurisdiction. Having a strong backup plan for your payroll data is crucial to safeguard your business from potential disasters.

Missing out on Labor Compliance

Many employers entrust their payroll to a competent provider, reducing the likelihood of errors even more. However, make sure you are going with a payroll provider with strong financials and one that has been in the business for at least 10 years. The Internal Revenue Service typically requires biweekly or monthly deposits of withholding taxes and the employer’s share of taxes. In addition, most employers must file W-2s along with quarterly and annual returns.

You pay your staff a salary or an hourly rate since they are what make your company run. While the UK’s gender pay gap has been slowly narrowing over time, the latest employee earnings figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that millions of UK workers… Moreover, you must ensure salary data confidentiality to avoid unnecessary comparisons among employees within the organization and outside. Per the Deloitte Global payroll survey, 2020, only 56% of organizations with 5000+ employees have a standardized payroll across the enterprise.

Common Payroll Mistakes and How to Fix Them

To add to the confusion, your company may not be required to pay every tax. Failing to submit the proper taxes results in fines to your business. Accounting inaccuracies can lead to under or overpaying employee wages for the work they perform. These mistakes can go unnoticed, leading to financial issues down the road. The FLSA, the federal law that mandates a minimum wage and overtime pay, only applies to employees and not contractors, which is an important distinction. Evaluating the long-term costs of keeping payroll in-house can shed light on the possible efficiencies of using a payroll service provider.

What Is the Impact of Payroll Processing Errors?

Accurately classifying workers is essential to avoid misclassification errors that can result in legal and financial complications. It is crucial to differentiate between full-time employees and freelancers or independent contractors, as each category has distinct rights and obligations. These reports allow you to see if the employee deductions look correct. It will also give you a comprehensive summary of the full payroll so you can double check that nothing is missing. When you’re processing payroll, it’s nice to take a step back and see the end result while you’re still able to fix any mistakes, and that’s just what these reports provide. Most payroll mistakes are very common, which means you can look out for them and fix them before they get out of hand.

Most Common Payroll Mistakes (And How To Avoid Them)

Potentially the easiest error to avoid is missing a payroll deadline. The deadline can range to a tax payment, submission to a specific state entity, or even submitting payroll as a whole. FICA TaxesOtherwise known as Social Security and Medicare taxes, these taxes are withheld from employee pay AND matched by employers.

Thus, it offloads the burden of remembering tax deadlines from your shoulder and helps you adhere to a consistent schedule. Alternatively, you may also hire payroll tax filing service providers to stop struggling with payroll tax due dates. Using payroll software helps with accuracy, as it keeps detailed records and also eliminates human error.

It’s Been a Long Road Since 1963

The absence of a reliable backup can leave you vulnerable to data loss in the event of a PC crash or the sudden departure of your payroll manager. Without a backup, you risk facing significant disruptions in your payroll processes, which can result in delayed payments, unhappy employees, and potential legal complications. You have a payroll company for a reason, and if you’re still using them, you must believe in them on some level, so lean on them to ensure you’re avoiding payroll mistakes.

Not Keeping Payroll Records

But today, 42 states have gone above and beyond the federal law to safeguard women in the workforce. One-third of small U.S. firms spend $1,000 to $5,000 annually to do their own payroll. More than another third of companies spend more than $5,000 a year, with some companies reaching expenses as high as $40,000 or more. In addition, the IRS has many formatting rules for the W-2, including that it cannot be handwritten and must have the correct font size and ink color.

For some extra peace of mind, you can also contact your state and local governments to check on rates or do a quick Google search. And for complete peace of mind, go ahead and use reliable cloud payroll that automatically updates tax changes. If your payroll records have errors, it can throw off all your numbers.