Conducting an Internal Audit - An Ounce of Prevention

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so the saying goes.

For payroll tax compliance, this means conducting effective internal audits. For medium to large sized businesses, this means several things. Does your payroll system process information timely and accurately? Do your staff managers and timekeepers provide ALL the information needed for payroll to accurately calculate paychecks, withholdings, benefits, etc? Are deposits and payroll tax forms filed timely? Are mistakes found quickly, and all necessary corrections made? There are many more things that you must be aware of to avoid costly payroll tax audit liability.

Why should you Attend: This webinar will provide a roadmap to efficiently conduct payroll tax internal audits. We will start with the ten most common (and expensive) mistakes that are made in payroll operations. With the information you can evaluate how well you are doing in the compliance arena.

From there, we will take you through what an internal audit function would do to conduct an evaluation of payroll operations. This is from an internal audit expert of over 7 years with the state of California. Don't worry, the language and procedures presented are those any payroll manager can understand. You wont need to hire new staff to do them.

You will learn about conducting a risk assessment for your business. What areas are you most vulnerable in? Then we will define internal controls mandatory for keeping a smooth payroll operation from steaming out of control. Then find out how to perform periodic tests to ensure controls are working.

Areas Covered in the Session: The following topics will be discussed throughout the webinar:

• Top 10 payroll mistakes - Overtime calculation and payment; Misclassifying workers; Recordkeeping mistakes; and many other essential functions of payroll
• Internal Audit Basics - Why is it essential to do these every once in a while? Why you don't necessarily need professionals. Finding out where your business is at the highest risk of expensive non-compliance. How to evaluate your compliance and functionality without taking forever to do it. How to train your workers to find and correct mistakes before they become major problems
• Internal controls - Day to Day policies and procedures to train you employees with. How IT systems can help in analysis and finding systematic problems. What to address in policy and procedure manuals. Ultimately, how to conduct day to day payroll functions and still be able to sleep comfortably at night. You wont have to worry about reviews or audits by the IRS or state agencies

• Payroll Managers and Staff
• Financial Auditors and Management
• HR Managers and Staff
• Accountants and IT Personnel