Payroll reporting: how to provide management information that is timely, useful and relevant

Many stakeholders that are not working in payroll and are not aware of the rules and complexities rely on the payroll team to provide accurate and timely reports with valuable employee data. But how do we seek and provide information at the right time through the right channels?

Organisations without good processes and with lack of visibility over the payroll information could be exposed from a workforce or from an authority’s perspective. According to APA’s 2016 survey, the average accuracy rate for all respondents was 98.91%, which resulted from calculating the number of errors per pay period as a percentage of the total payslips produced.

Each organisation has its own necessities, and what is useful and relevant for one, may not necessarily have the same importance to another. Still, there are guidelines which should be considered common to all organisations:

• Not under or overpaying employees;
• Not underpaying authorities; and
• Minimising exposure to fraud.

The level of manual tasks, duplication and non-value added activities in the payroll process often prevent staff from providing the reports that management require on a timely basis.

The best practice for providing management information that is timely, useful and relevant is automating, simplifying and standardising as many processes and tasks as possible, to eliminate unnecessary complexity and inconsistencies. This will reduce opportunities for error or fraud and make it easier to track the quantity and quality of information flowing to payroll.

A holistic approach that considers factors across all business dimensions, including strategy, structure, people, process and technology, creates reporting that is highly sustainable and scalable.

There are a number of tools in the market that help companies analyse their data and produce interactive dashboard visualisation. As an example, PwC has developed a payroll analytics tool that has the ability to test clients’ payroll data, identifying compliance failures, trends across the workforce, opportunities for efficiencies and adherence to employment obligations.

If you do not feel confident in your reporting capabilities or would like to improve your reports, technology could be a valuable ally providing master data that is clean, up to date and which can be relied upon.