Payroll Best Practices [Hardcover]

Steven M. Bragg (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471702269 | ISBN-13: 978-0471702269 | Publication Date: July 20, 2005 | Edition: 1

120 best practices to improve the total process of the payroll department

Payroll Best Practices examines, in great detail, best practices for the payroll function, and how to install them to provide readers with an in-depth knowledge of how this critical functional area can be improved. Here, controllers, payroll managers, and CFOs will discover the exact work plans needed to implement each best practice in their organizations, and lays out pitfalls likely to be encountered and avoided along the way.

This how-to resource for payroll improvements includes:
* Techniques for reducing the workload and error rate of the payroll staff
* Methods for switching from an in-house to an outsourced payroll solution
* Ways to create or outsource a Web-based timekeeping system
* Approaches to switching to an employee-driven payroll deduction system
* Graphics indicating the cost and implementation duration for each best practice
* Policies and procedures that support the best practices
* A simplified best practices implementation plan
* An appendix that summarizes the large number of best practices presented
* A glossary of key payroll-related terminology
* And much more

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

By implementing best practices, a company can greatly improve its level of efficiency information reporting, especially within the payroll department. Payroll Best Practices features more than 120 best practices related to every phase of a company's payroll activities: tracking employee time, recording deductions, paying employees, calculating commissions, outsourcing, control systems, and more.

Written by esteemed accountant and bestselling author Steven Bragg, Payroll Best Practices shows controllers, payroll managers, and CFOs how to integrate these techniques into their existing payroll system. This go-to source for payroll improvements includes:

• Detailed policies and procedures that incorporate best practices
• An implementation plan for achieving the greatest efficiency improvement through the selective use of payroll best practices
• Ways to automate the timekeeping process or, at least, simplify it
• Methods to reduce employee deductions and convert to automated processes through the use of employee and manager self-service
• Numerous forms and reports, as well as advanced forms of data storage and electronic presentation
• Approaches to converting to a variety of electronic employee payments, as well as ways to encourage employees to accept the change
• A broad range of methods designed to simplify the calculation of commissions
• Ways to outsource multiple payroll functions
• Coverage of management-related payroll tasks, including training, process improvements, and customer service issues
• Techniques for using major computer systems to improve payroll processing
• Several payroll-specific measurements useful in designing a payroll metrics tracking system
• And much more

Increase efficiency, lower error rates, and improve service to employees, with the help of Payroll Best Practices.

From the Back Cover

120 best practices to improve the total process of the payroll department

Payroll Best Practices examines, in great detail, best practices for the payroll function, and how to install them to provide readers with an in-depth knowledge of how this critical functional area can be improved. Here, controllers, payroll managers, and CFOs will discover the exact work plans needed to implement each best practice in their organizations, and lays out pitfalls likely to be encountered and avoided along the way.

This how-to resource for payroll improvements includes:

• Techniques for reducing the workload and error rate of the payroll staff
• Methods for switching from an in-house to an outsourced payroll solution
• Ways to create or outsource a Web-based timekeeping system
• Approaches to switching to an employee-driven payroll deduction system
• Graphics indicating the cost and implementation duration for each best practice
• Policies and procedures that support the best practices
• A simplified best practices implementation plan
• An appendix that summarizes the large number of best practices presented
• A glossary of key payroll-related terminology
• And much more

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (July 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471702269
• ISBN-13: 978-0471702269
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,174,797 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

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent bedtime reading, May 1, 2007

By 

B. W. Lovell (Incline Village, NV United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Payroll Best Practices (Hardcover)

I have been away from full time practice for many years. This refresher was well written but still dry.