The next eight policies are useful for enforcing payroll-related controls. The first five policies are targeted at employees in general, enforcing various rules that reduce the amount of data entry and tracking work by the payroll staff. They are:
Hourly employees must submit an approved time sheet by the designated date and time in order to [...]
Many companies do not process their payrolls at all. Instead, they send timekeeping and pay rate information to a third party, who processes the payroll, sends back paychecks to the company for distribution, and remits taxes on behalf of the company. Generally speaking, the use of payroll suppliers reduces the level of control needed over [...]
In addition to issuing electronic payments to employees, it is also possible to issue electronic remittance advices and W-2 forms to them. The most common approach is to post this information in PDF format in secure accounts on the Internet. There is no asset control problem with these best practices, since there is no potential [...]
Self-service is becoming relatively common for employees, who can directly access the payroll system and change their address, tax deductions, benefits deductions, and related information. In addition, some companies have separate self-service systems for managers that allow them to enter pay rate changes, termination and hire dates, and similar types of information. Because these systems [...]
Though many companies still use manual time sheets or punch cards, a variety of other computerized timekeeping devices are available, such as clocks equipped with scanners to accommodate employee badges equipped with magnetic, radio frequency identification (RFID), or bar-coded identification tags, Web-based time reporting, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones with timekeeping features, and even [...]