Page 43 - Essentials of Payroll: Management and Accounting

ESSENTIALS of Payr oll: Management and Accounting
in-house system, since some monitoring of check stock and signature
plates must be maintained. However, some of the reviews for fake
employees at the end of the process, such as comparing addresses on
checks, can probably be discarded, since this type of process is typically

used for companies so small that the payroll staff knows everyone who
works for the company.

Setting Up the New Employee
When a new employee is hired, the human resources staff will go over a
variety of paperwork with the person,and forward to the payroll depart-

ment any items required by the payroll staff to calculate the person’s
wages, taxes, and other deductions. However, in a smaller firm with no
human resources staff, it is common for the payroll department to per-
form this function,in which case the payroll staff should be aware of the
variety of forms that are typically included in the new employee packet.
Though some forms may be specific to an individual business, the fol-
lowing forms will be found in most cases:
• Check-off sheet. At the front of each new employee packet
should be a check-off list that itemizes all documents con-
tained in the packet. By using it to verify that a package is
complete, there is minimal risk that new employees will not
be issued critical information. It is also useful to include the
latest form release date on this sheet, to verify the document
dates contained in the packet.
• Company go-to list. A new employee has no idea whom to
approach regarding basic daily issues, such as phone and net-
work problems, pension plan enrollments, expense reports, and
so on. This list should itemize which people he or she should
approach about each type of problem; it’s also a good idea to
include a backup person for each item.
• Company phone list. For a smaller company, this list should

itemize not only the work number for each employee, but also

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