Payroll from approved attendance: reducing errors at the source

Where payroll errors really come from

A payroll run can only be as accurate as the hours, rates and rules it is given. Errors usually enter earlier: a shift that was worked but never approved, an overtime rate changed in one place and not another, a deduction typed in by hand. By the time the run is prepared, the mistake looks like data.

Approve the time first

Make approved attendance the only source of paid hours. Recorded start and end times are evidence of what happened. A supervisor reviews exceptions, such as a missing end time, and approves the payable minutes. Scheduled hours should never silently replace recorded ones.

Keep rules as reviewed rules

Allowances, overtime and statutory deductions change. Hold them as rules that someone reviews and approves, with a date they take effect, instead of as numbers scattered through spreadsheets. When the law or an agreement changes, you change a rule once and can show who approved it.

Separate preparing, approving and paying

No single person should be able to create, approve and release the same pay. Splitting these duties is the simplest control against both honest error and fraud. It also means every run has had a second pair of eyes.

• One person prepares the run
• A different person approves it
• Payment is recorded separately
• Locked runs change only through tracked amendments with a reason

A simple checklist for every pay period

Before you approve a run, a short routine catches most of what goes wrong.

• Every shift in the period has approved attendance, or a recorded reason why not
• Missing punches and no-shows have been reviewed and resolved
• Rate, allowance and overtime changes since the last run have an approver and an effective date
• Totals are compared with the previous period, and large differences are explained
• The person approving is not the person who prepared the run

Let people see their own pay

When each person can open their own payslips and pay history, mistakes are found sooner and by the person best placed to notice them. Kinetic VOC calculates pay from approved attendance, holds deductions as reviewed rules, separates the duties above and gives everyone access to their own payslips.