Essentials of Payroll: Management and Accounting (Essentials Series) [Paperback]

Steven M. Bragg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 2003 | Series: Essentials Series (Book 27)

Your one-stop-shop for unparralled coverage of payroll control systems, best practices, measurements and reports, cost account, and outsourcing. Includes a step-by-step checklist of activities to follow when setting up a payroll system and how to install controls that combat payroll fraud. 

Order your copy today!

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

ESSENTIALS OF PAYROLL

Full of valuable tips, techniques, illustrative real-world examples, exhibits, and best practices, this handy and concise paperback will help you stay up to date on the newest thinking, strategies, developments, and technologies in payroll.

"Steven has done it again. Payroll seems and is complicated to the average executive who is the decision-maker. In the past, there has not been a source for understanding the technical and practical applications of payroll. Essentials of Payroll covers each area of payroll from the initial forms in the employee file to details about payment options, deposits, and problems such as termination, manual checks, and integration with general ledger. I think this should be required reading for those executives who supervise personnel and payroll functions."
–Gail W. Sevier, CPA
Marrs, Sevier & Company LLC

"Creating effective procedures, maintaining policies, and streamlining operations are more important now than ever before. This is an excellent reference and useful guide for professionals who manage payroll, compensation, and related benefit issues."
–Clint Davies, Partner (Principal)
Berry, Dunn, McNeil & Parker

About the Author

STEVEN M. BRAGG, CPA, CMA, CIA, CPM, CPIM, has been the chief financial officer or controller of four companies, as well as a consulting manager at Ernst & Young. He received a master’s degree in finance from Bentley College, an MBA from Babson College, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Maine. He is also the author of The Controller’s Function, Just-in-Time Accounting, and Managing Explosive Corporate Growth, all from Wiley. He resides in Englewood, Colorado.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (April 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471264962
• ISBN-13: 978-0471264965
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,381 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The primary question I receive is, why would anyone write so many accounting books? The story began in the early 1990s, when my former boss, Jan Roehl-Anderson, asked me to assist in taking over a book called Controllership from Jim Willson (correct spelling), who had been maintaining the book since the early 1950s. I liked the experience, and even found it relaxing (I must have issues!).

So... I had an idea for another book, called Just-in-Time Accounting, which the publisher accepted, and which got me on the track of doing management accounting books. Most accounting books up to that point had primarily dealt with accounting principles and not how to management the department, so this was a rich area for new books.

The Accounting Best Practices book, which is one of the top-selling accounting books in the country, started when I was bouncing around ideas for new books with one of my editors, John DeRemigis. He suggested the accounting best practices idea, and I said, "nah, there's not enough material." Four editions later and over 400+ pages long, it appears that he was right and I was wrong.

Writing became more intense in 2005, when John Wiley & Sons recommended me to the authors of the Wiley GAAP Guide as a new co-author. This is a seriously technical high-end accounting principles guide, and so was nothing like what I had written before. My first assignment was adding a hundred or so new examples to the book, which was absolutely frantic -- imagine becoming an expert on a really far-out accounting topic in one day, writing an esoteric example, and then hurrying on to an entirely different example the next day.

I have just finished writing Accounting Controls Best Practices, which is chock-full of control points for the most common accounting systems, as well as for best practices upgrades to those systems. And now, it is time for a break, if only for a week.

So... I am heading to the Western Pacific for some serious diving off a live aboard dive boat.

Steve Bragg

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Valuable Payroll Resource, January 3, 2004

By 

Alex P Limbert CPA (Torrance, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essentials of Payroll: Management and Accounting (Essentials Series) (Paperback)

I think this is a good beginner-to-intermediate level book about payroll. While I doubt this book can serve as your only source to setting up a payroll system (a claim never made by the author), it can serve as a valuable guide to implementing or reviewing your current payroll internal controls, best practices and payroll policy manual. It may also help you analyze whether you are paying too much money or spending too much time on your job costing system. If you like examples, the author uses many short case studies to clarify his main points.

He keeps the book up-to-date by discussing topics such as payroll information technology, current payment alternatives and Internet references. He discusses other issues in detail, such as fringe benefits, vacation pay, minimum wage laws, payroll calculations, retirement plans, and stock option plans.

Given the popularity of outsourcing the payroll function, I think the book could have went into more detail about how to select the right payroll outsource vendor and how to ensure that the outsource vendor maintains proper internal controls (e.g. obtaining an annual SAS 70 Type II). Also, I felt I could have skipped the payroll tax portion and read IRS publication 15, 15a and 15b and my state's corresponding payroll tax publication. Finally, to help improve the books longevity, the author could have either left out the current year tax rates and limitations altogether or listed Internet references where the current and future rates and limitations could be referenced.

Nevertheless, overall I think this is a good book that I will use from time to time to brush up on my payroll process knowledge. Therefore, I think the book is worth buying, reading and referencing.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Basic Overview, February 28, 2006

By 

Jack Holt "aka Ahnog" (Leesville, LA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Essentials of Payroll: Management and Accounting (Essentials Series) (Paperback)

The title says it all--this is a good basic overview of payroll. You will not become an expert by reading it, but what can you read that makes you an expert? This book will give you the vocabulary and the tools you need to take your first steps in payroll. After that experience is the best teacher.

5.0 out of 5 stars This is an advice book for payroll specialists, not technical manual, December 17, 2011

By 

Citizen John (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Essentials of Payroll: Management and Accounting (Essentials Series) (Paperback)

I found the advice provided practical and spot on. This is real world type advice and discussion and not a textbook. The book is useful for payroll specialists to learn now to navigate competing interests in the organization as they affect payroll duties.