Don’t Forget to Audit Payroll!

All too often, I find that clients forget to run 5-3-7 Payroll Audit before preparing to pay their payroll tax liability or preparing payroll tax returns.  Payroll Audit is a handy utility that compares amounts actually withheld and accrued for FICA and Medicare Taxes with what should have been withheld.  It also identifies payroll records that have not been completely processed or processed with conflicting payroll quarters compared to payroll check dates. If you use the Repair option, the system will reconstruct the control totals on the employee records – this will correct any misposted or partially posted payroll records before it actually audits the payroll records. The Repair option takes longer than just running the Payroll Audit (this makes sense because it performs both the reconstruction of control totals and the auditing of payroll), but the extra time is usually worth it.  Always run the Payroll Audit with Repair and resolve any issues indicated, before computing the amount of payroll taxes to deposit or preparing payroll tax returns.

Since we’re talking about preparing payroll tax data, remember to always run your payroll tax reports by check date, not by period ending date.  The tax authorities want all of their payroll data reported by check date.

If you find that payroll audit errors exist, contact Sage Tech Support or call Mathieson Consulting at 480-471-5305 for assistance.