Page 40 - Essentials of Payroll: Management and Accounting
P. 40

EXHIBIT 1.5 Cr eating a Payr oll System
                                                   Controls for the

                                 In-House Computerized Payroll Process


                                          Obtain
                                                                               Control
                                         approval of
                                                                              check stock.
                                         pay changes.
                                 Investigate   Transfer   Process   Print and          Compare
                                                                               Create
                                 missing time   timekeeping   payroll on   review   OK?  paychecks.  addresses on
                                 card scans.  file to payroll   in-house   preliminary   employee
                                          system.  software.  payroll reports.         paychecks.
                                                            No
                                          Obtain                                        Issue
                                                                               Control
                                         approval of                          signature   paychecks list
                                          negative                                    to department
                                         deductions.                           plates.  supervisors.
                                                                                       Send direct
                                                                                       deposit
                                                                                      instructions
                                                                                       to bank.
                                                                                       Deposit
                                                              Perform   Review   Issue checks   withheld and
                                                               bank   uncashed   directly to
                                                             reconciliations.  checks.  recipients.  matching taxes
                                                                                       at bank.


                              Overview of the In-House Manual Payroll Process
                              An increasingly rarely used payroll system is the completely manual
                              approach that precludes all use of payroll suppliers or in-house computer
                              systems. This type of system is most commonly found in very small
                              organizations where the additional labor required to calculate wages
                              and taxes is not too onerous for the small accounting staff.
                                  The manual process requires extra labor in three key areas. First,
                              employees are filling out time cards by hand or using a punch clock, so

                              the payroll staff must use a calculator to add up the hours worked, verify
                              the calculations (since this task is highly subject to errors), notify
                              employees about missing time entries, and have supervisors approve any
                              overtime hours worked. Second, the payroll staff must multiply hours
                              worked by hourly pay rates to determine wages for the nonexempt


                                                             13
   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45