Does your company have a written payroll procedure manual? Perhaps you have a vendor-supplied manual. Does it cover all issues, or only the system-driven ones? What about payroll policy as it involves your company? Make sure that you are ready for all contingencies by keeping your procedure manual up-to-date. Every payroll team or one-person “team” needs a reference for payroll answers. Is there a precedent for the issue you face? If so, how was it handled before?  Beginning with existing documentation – or determining that it doesn’t exist-will help you to begin the process.Whether you use a vendor-based system, an internal company system or manage the payroll manually, documentation is essential to ensure that all payroll employees and management can understand the process. If a payroll person is out, a replacement needs to understand how to process in that person’s absence. Written references are crucial in keeping payroll processes timely and accurate.

• How do you avoid problems with your payroll process
• Ensuring that your payroll team understands the process and all the steps needed to successfully complete each payroll cycle. Written procedures are a big step in accomplishing that goal
• Tips for creating process documents will be given, as well as ideas for defining the scope of your document
• Have you identified the existing documentation, or is there none
• Research on company policy, procedure and the applicable laws will be needed in order to create an appropriate procedure document
• New laws in effect for the first time this year will require additional documentation-are you ready to tackle it