The Complete Course on Payroll Management

Introduction

Ask anyone in your organization what they think you do. The answer? “It’s simple. Multiply my hours by my salary, subtract the tax, and write a check.” If only it was that easy. You’ve got every employee from the CEO to contract workers depending on you. And each paycheck brings its own special challenge ... the technician who has a company car, the secretary who worked overtime, the employee with multiple court orders, or the supervisor requesting FMLA.

Plus, you’re the buffer zone between your organization and the DOL, the IRS, and other federal and state agencies. You have to stay current on the latest forms, laws, and practices and deal with a host of forms from A to Z. Make one mistake and you and your company are left open to expensive legal consequences and audits.  When you consider that the greatest percentage of your company’s revenues goes to employee salaries that makes you the biggest accountant, asset controller, and tax consultant your company has. Add all this up and you have one tall order for your job duties.

Objectives

What you’ll learn

• The latest FLSA requirements – keeping it correct to the letter of the law
• The Wage-Hour Law: from commissions to on-call pay and overtime
• Taxable vs. nontaxable compensation: A close look at the benefits and fringes
• Standard test criteria for employee classification
• Payroll accounting and record-keeping that meets federal and state guidelines
• Managing the payroll process cost- effectively
• Dealing with the challenges of final payments, FMLA and COBRA overlaps and new-hire reporting
• And much, much more

Training Methodology

This is an interactive course. There will be open question and answer sessions, regular group exercises and activities, videos, case studies, and presentations on best practice. Participants will have the opportunity to share with the facilitator and other participants on what works well and not so well for them, as well as work on issues from their own organizations. The online course is conducted online using MS-Teams/ClickMeeting.

Who Should Attend?

• Experienced payroll professionals who want to stay up-to-date
• Beginning payroll administrators who want to get up-to-speed
• Small business owners
• HR professionals
• Managers and supervisors
• Office managers and other one-stop-shop payrollers
• You’ll be sitting shoulder to shoulder with other payroll professionals who are facing the same daily problems. Even if payroll is not your full-time responsibility, the risks are just too great to miss this seminar. Its two can’t-miss days of learning and networking.

Course Outline

Employee Classification: What’s What on Who’s Who 

• The often misunderstood standards of the Categories of Evidence test to determine employee status
• What to do when a retiree returns as a consultant
• Temporary positions, “casual laborers” and “floating laborers”: What are your responsibilities?
• A list of job titles that the IRS normally considers to be contractors
• Appealing a Misclassifed Worker Ruling
• Exempt vs. nonexempt according to the FLSA  

Wage Calculations: Are Yours Adding Up? 

• Time-keeping practices that keep your records air-tight and accurate
• Straight practices for calculating sick pay, vacation pay and retroactive pay
• Calculating overtime: what qualifies as “on the clock”
• How do you deal with the employee who works from home
• What to do with exempt employees who still receive overtime
• Comp-time policies: Are yours within the guidelines? Do exempt employees ever qualify?
• Applying the FMLA to the FLSA: common mistakes
• Is it really okay to dock pay?
• Can you not pay nonexempt employees for training?

Benefits: Tax Only the Taxable

• Beyond a morning cup of coffee: De minimis fringes 
• Special Accounting Rule: its uses and restrictions
• Determining the fair market value of employer- provided parking and commuter highway transportation
• Is the company car always excluded from taxable income?
• Cash awards, gift certificates, sports tickets, travel expenses ... exempt or not?
• IRS 10-point checklist for qualified cafeteria plans
• Dealing with FSAs: Use-it-or-lose-it
• IRS red flags – the patterns of abuse in business expenses
• The FMLA and COBRA overlap – keeping it straight 

Record-Keeping and Forms 

• Making a reconciliation schedule and the information you will need to get started
• Spotting the common errors on a W-2
• A line-by-line look at Form 941 and the timely deposit
• IRS publications and getting online: Going to the source
• Information checklists for W-4s
• Keeping your organization free from late-deposit penalties, civil penalties and failure-to-pay penalties
• How long are you required to keep various documents?
• Answering an IRS notice: What to do if you made a mistake 

 Hot Issues for the Payroll Administrator 

• Writing easily understood procedures for the employee manual
• Standardizing your payroll process and 12 great cost-saving efficiency tips 
• Outsource the payroll process: finding the right vendor 
• Dealing with payroll vendors: processes you should have in place for your security 
• E-Payroll: Wave of the future – but is it right for your company?
• Dealing with the “people factor”: gaining cooperation to get your co-workers to cooperate with policy