Protect your company and your payroll system

You might think your company isn’t susceptible to payroll fraud or your team is too small for people to cheat the system, but it’s actually more likely for a small company to fall victim to payroll fraud than a larger one. Payroll fraud is an umbrella term but it can include any of the following scenarios: a false employee is created and receives paychecks, timecards are defrauded by bogus clock-ins or outs, bonuses which were never earned are paid out or employees request to be reimbursed for expenses which ever never incurred. Our company works to help businesses thrive by taking on administrative tasks like payroll, human resources, time and attendance and more. Our value lies in our ability to efficiently and accurately take care of these tasks so the business owner can focus on building their company. When it comes to our payroll services, we have several safeguards in place in order to prevent fraud. Today we will look at a few ways we do this, and hopefully provide some insight you can apply to your company’s payroll process. While you might not think of simple time card manipulation as embezzlement, claiming unworked hours is among the most common forms of payroll fraud and even an hour or two here and there can add up quickly if it goes unchecked. In order to limit the chances of time card manipulation, it’s important to have a system in place where each time card is reviewed by a supervisor before being sent to payroll processing. For companies with more resources, consider a more sophisticated timekeeping system which requires a fingerprint or face scan in order to clock in or out. With the rise of smart tech, this can be done more easily than you might think with smartphones. Payroll records should also be reviewed each pay period, and the person signing the checks should never be the same one who submits the payroll data. No employees should exist in the system with the same address, social security number or bank account information. If you are reviewing this data regularly it reduces the likelihood for a false employee to be created and paid to someone already on staff. Another tricky area of payroll comes in the form of reimbursements. If your employees travel and submit receipts for hotels, rental cars, food, etc. then those documents should be checked for accuracy. We have seen clients with employees who used Photoshop or a comparable software to create fake receipts, so calling to verify the expense if there is any doubt is a good idea. Any supplemental income like a bonus also should require documentation with a direct link to what the bonus is for and how it was earned. More than just one direct supervisor should approve and review bonus pay to ensure the payment is legitimate. These are just a few ways to limit payroll fraud within your organization, but if you feel you need a professional team to help with your entire payroll process then we would love to partner with you. Our team limits fraud, ensures tax compliance and gives you back time to focus on what’s important. Give us a call today and we will go over different ways we can help your business thrive!