Identifying (and Avoiding) Payroll Pitfalls

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September 29, 2022

Stated plainly, both time and attendance and payroll management are high-stakes, highly complex endeavors that require attention, focus, and expertise. The professionals who dedicate themselves to these critical tasks are often the unsung heroes of the finance and HR communities, deserving of the support and resources necessary to make their tasks easier, faster, and automated.

Payroll Challenges

Payroll processing complexities don’t end once the hours and calculations are passed to payroll. In fact, there’s a whole new set of challenges that come into play.

Tax withholding

In addition to accurately capturing and applying withholding levels as defined by each employee when they join the company, employers must also keep pace with a constantly changing regulatory landscape at the federal, state, and even local level.

Where an employee lives and works can significantly impact how they are taxed, and with the number of remote workers and “deskless employees” on the rise, even minor missteps can have pricey consequences for employees and employers alike.

Regulatory compliance

Compliance also represents a significant challenge for many employers, particularly complying with some of the less common policies, like applying minimum wage credits for those workers who fall below the defined amount for their location.

Another area that creates headwinds for even the most seasoned payroll professional is calculating an employee’s disposable income to determine what wages are subject to (and exempt from) garnishment.

Even more challenging is that regulations and policies change with surprising regularity, meaning your teams need to stay in the know or risk falling out of compliance.

Forms handling

Forms handling including year-end form processing for employees and quarterly and annual tax filing to the government – represents a significant time sink and substantial manual effort for any employer. As your business grows, the size and importance of this task grows right along with it. With deadlines and all the more strategic pursuits your team needs to address to remain competitive, handling tax forms alone can place a significant drain on your already overworked internal teams.

Whether employees prefer paper-based forms or electronic forms that can be accessed and downloaded via the web, as an employer, it’s incumbent upon you to ensure everything is handled completely, accurately, and promptly.

Employee satisfaction and engagement

The satisfaction of your employees relies increasingly on payroll accuracy, completeness, and timeliness. With 87% of Americans experiencing inflation-related anxiety, 68% of workers indicating they don’t have enough money set aside for emergencies, and 64% of workers stating they live paycheck-to-paycheck, there’s little room for error.

If payroll errors are made, they need to be corrected – quickly – or your employee and your brand could suffer a considerable setback. The negative impact on your business is amplified in a labor market dominated by headlines of worker shortages and record-high unwanted attrition.

The Critical Link Between Time, Attendance, and Payroll

As an employer, “getting the paycheck right” has never been more important. And to deliver on that promise – week after week – you need to make sure that your time and attendance, payroll, and tax withholding processes are automated, accurate, and complete.

We've put together an educational webinar to help you better understand how these practices are aligned and highlight the benefits of “leveling up” your payroll and time-and-attendance practices.

Lathem and Greenshades, a leading provider of automated payroll, HR, and tax compliance solutions - are teaming up to bring you Accuracy Counts: The Critical Links Between Time, Attendance, and Payroll.

Webinar: The Critical Links Between Time, Attendance, and Payroll.

Join us on Thursday, October 6, 2022. The webinar kicks off at 1:00 pm EST. 

We will unpack some of the topics we’ve covered in this post, including:

  • Key contributors to payroll and time capture errors
  • Best practices for mitigating those errors
  • How to use both time & attendance and payroll solutions to simply complexities and overcome payroll challenges


Get the Recap & Replay Now

 

About Greenshades Software

Since 2002, Greenshades has been singularly devoted to helping hardworking companies fulfill the promises they make to their employees. With intuitive technology and best-in-class customer support, Greenshades empowers Payroll and HR departments to give their teams everything they need to thrive. Delivering accurate payroll, proactive compliance, automated tax calculations, and robust employee engagement through one powerful platform supported by world-class customer care.

 

About Lathem Time

Lathem offers innovative technology that is easy-to-use, reliable, and designed with over 100 years of industry expertise. Over 1 million companies have relied on a Lathem solution to track their employees' time for payroll. From cloud-based software to mobile apps and biometric face recognition technology, every Lathem product is backed by an industry leading US-based customer service team that average an astounding 18 years of service. Many have tenures of more than 30 years. This commitment is evidenced in every product that carries the Lathem name. Family values, pride of craftsmanship and attention to detail are at the core of Lathem's culture.