Payroll: When Things Go Wrong

Payroll: When Things Go Wrong

Completing the monthly payroll for your company is generally a straightforward process. However, when something goes wrong, it can be difficult to know what to do for the best. Whether you are new to completing payroll or an experienced member of the payroll team with years of payroll processing behind you, there is always something you have not seen before. 

If you are using payroll software to submit your payroll, it will generally keep you on the right track. However, a paystub generator will not always complete a check before creating the paystub. We have gathered some information about what you can do when payroll goes wrong and some common errors to avoid before you generate a pay stub. 

Common Errors

Common payroll errors include: 

• Not paying the correct number of hours

• Using the incorrect hourly rate of pay

• Not making relevant deductions

• Including the incorrect employee identifier

How to Fix Them

Resolving a lot of these errors is as simple as completing an assurance check on the data you are submitting through payroll. If you use payroll software or paystub creator that saves your employee's data within its internal system, you are unlikely to repeat an error with the employee identifier once corrected. 

When entering the correct number of hours to pay your employee, this could be incorrect if the employee has incorrectly completed their timesheet or because of a keying error. Again, an assurance check on the number of hours being entered is an easy way to avoid a keying error. However, if the error is due to an employee mistake, you will have to run the payroll again to pay the additional hours. 

When running payroll again to correct an error in hours, you should reach an agreement with the employee about when this will be paid. It may not be possible to correct in-month, and the employee should be made aware of this as soon as possible. It is a great business practice to allow your employees to see their payslips ahead of their payment date and ask them to check all of the information included. This will mean that any errors can be rectified before the pay date and also gives some of the responsibility to the employee to check their details too. 

Using software that saves pay information can remove errors in the hourly rate. However, if you do not, then it is important to always check that the correct rate of pay is entered and that this amount complies with minimum wage laws. 

You should always store the relevant deductions for an employee in their payroll file. If the incorrect deductions are taken, this could cause financial issues for employees with tax, student finance or student loans, or other financial bodies. All employees should check their payslip each month, so this can help to avoid this error too. Completing this in advance allows employees the time to complete their assurance checks too. 

You can find more information about payroll and how to make paystubs at https://www.thepaystubs.com/.