COMPLIANCE
Top three tips: how to make year-end a great experience
Billy Meyerkorth CPP, owner and consultant of Billy Meyerkorth Consulting, provides his top three tips for dealing with year-end, to make the process smoother *
I t’s year-end already. If you’re new to payroll, then this will probably be your first experience with year-end. Don’t be afraid of this adventure. Stay calm, organised and focused, but be adaptable to change at any moment. Be ready to learn and make it a great experience. Year-end comes once a year but starts months before year-end and ends weeks to months after. Although you might not know what to expect, try not to worry about the nightmare stories you’ve heard from other payroll professionals. It doesn’t have to be a time to dread. Here are three top tips to avoid any stress and to help make your first year-end go a little smoother. 1) Start early The year-end process should start with a plan and should start early. Each company is different and has specific tasks to include in their year-end plan, so try to think of everything when you’re starting early. Everything may include, but not be limited to:
all information quickly. Other teams to keep open dialogue with, and to include in the process, are the communications department, information technology (IT), mail service and accounting. The communications department is responsible for delivering information to employees, while IT is there to help and provide technical assistance with loading new tax tables, Form W-2 printing or other system updates that may arise. The mail services team would need to be aware of postage and workload if Forms W-2 are printed and mailed internally. Finally, accounting can help with accruals and reconciliation issues or processes. The company’s size may mean there’ll be various other teams and individuals who’ll probably need to be involved at various levels of year-end. Year-end doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Think of it as an adventure and a huge, but amazing, goal to accomplish. Just focus, start early, reconcile, communicate and, above all, don’t be intimidated. You will survive like all the other payroll professionals who’ve done this for many years. Eventually, it’ll be a normal task in your payroll life and will come naturally as you gain more payroll experience. n
● Form W-2 preparation ● reconciliations. Prepare and accomplish tasks on your to-do list so it doesn’t all come at the very last payroll of the year. An example of something to accomplish ahead of time is taxable fringe benefit items. Why wait until the end of the year? Entering them early could eliminate grossing-up items and save time and money for the company. 2) Perform reconciliations The next thing to consider completing early are reconciliations. They should hopefully be completed during the year, but we all know these sometimes lose priority, and the ‘catch-up’ game must be played at year-end. You’ll still need to do your final year-end reconciliations but preparing these pay period / monthly / quarterly reconciliations ahead of time will make the year-end reconciliation a much easier task. 3) Keep open communication Determine who needs to be involved in the year-end process or project. It’s extremely important to keep open communication with human resources and other departments involved with year-end. This will help ensure you receive
● fringe benefits ● manual checks ● company vehicles ● group-term life insurance ● company aircraft ● bonuses
The American Payroll Association (APA), http://ow.ly/bPPQ50LsVZQ, is the nation’s leader in payroll education, publications and training. This nonprofit association conducts more than 300 payroll training conferences and seminars across the country each year and publishes a complete library of resource texts and newsletters. Representing more than 20,000 members, the APA is the industry’s highly respected and collective voice in Washington, D.C. Get more information at http://ow.ly/bPPQ50LsVZQ.
The Global Payroll Management Institute (GPMI), http://ow.ly/Yiv050LsW3t, spearheads the APA’s global initiatives to provide the world with a leading community of payroll leaders, managers, practitioners, researchers and technology experts. Subscribers connect with each other through networking discussions, collaborative opportunities and access to education and publications dedicated to global payroll strategies, knowledge, research, employment and training. GPMI also publishes several global payroll texts and white papers as a benefit to subscribers. Get more information at http://ow.ly/Yiv050LsW3t.
* This article relates to US payroll practices.
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 86 | December 2022 – January 2023
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