This course - taught by and ex-payroll auditor - covers the payroll and benefit areas that are most likely to come under scrutiny due to the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) Act.
SOX has far-reaching implications affecting all corporate functions - including payroll - so it is wise to increase internal controls over those parts of payroll operations which have the most profound effects to your company.
If not, the Act authorizes both civil and criminal penalties for corporate officers and managers responsible for non-compliance.
This course helps identify which payroll and benefit expenses are most likely to come under scrutiny due to the SOX Act. It also makes recommendations on how to conduct internal audits designed to test controls over these areas, and ensure the results are adequately represented on corporate financial statements.
You'll also learn how documentation, testing, reporting, and monitoring can ensure ongoing compliance with the Act, letting you and your upper management sleep better at night.
Top FAQs
In business since the mid-1990's, we have over 25 years of experience delivering high-quality training content via seminar, webinar, online, and other formats. Each of our courses are delivered by an industry expert who will share his or her years of experience to help you be in compliance, smarter, and more productive, and almost all offer SHRM and HRCI credits.
Employees work directly for the company, which controls their work, pays their taxes, and often provides benefits, whereas the Independent Contractor is hired to do a specific job without the employee perks.
The company withholds income tax, Social Security, and Medicare from wages paid for employees, but none for Independent Consultants.
Payroll Administrators must be able to:
- Properly "classify" workers
- Apply the various exemptions
- Calculate gross pay and properly make deductions
- Correctly identify, pay, and withhold taxes for employees
- Administer deferred compensation, cafeteria plan, sick pay, and other compensation
- Handle stock options, expense reimbursements, relocation, and other "expenses"
- Follow the proper policies, procedures, and documentation requirements for garnishments and levies
- Properly complete and file all required reporting requirements
- Correctly complete year-end requirements and establish year-beginning requirements
- Implement and maintain fraud, audit, disaster recovery, and record retention processes and procedures
Definitely! An audit can be done either by an internal person or outsourced to an expert, with the expectation of fixing or updating any issues to avoid fines, penalties, etc.
A payroll audit is a review of an organization's payroll procedures. It can be done internally for assurance or by an external entity such as the government in reponse to a complaint, lack or inconsistent reporting, etc.
A payroll audit typically occurs because either for many reasons: an employee makes a claim of unfair pay practices
It often depends upon which factors - such as pay, tools, equipment, work hours, manner and means of performing services, etc,) the worker has control over.
Payroll is much more than just handing out paychecks, and includes a variety of responsibilities such as handling garnishments, travel pay, multi-state taxation, unclaimed paychecks, and much more in a timely and accurate fashion.
While many payroll-related regulations are federally-governed, there also are many state requirements, including those for handling garnishment, final paychecks, and unclaimed paychecks. Each state's requirements differ in the details, so be sure to check your state's requirements by clicking the applicable link(s) at the bottom of this page.
In addition to ensuring that employees are paid correctly and on time, "Payroll" has numerous time and reporting requirements. The primary payroll areas include paychecks, reporting, operations, and management.
