What Paycheck Records Are Mandatory For The Employers To Keep?

A business owner keeps all the records related to its business and its employees. Payroll records are one of them.  These records include all the information related to the compensation of the employees and all the deductions made in their payments, etc. The staff that calculates the payroll need these records to check for the employee’s commissions, pensions, wages, bonuses, vacation pay, etc.

Each business must keep employee’s payroll records properly. At the time of the audit, businesses may have to pay fines and penalties because of the failure of keeping these records. Moreover, you don’t have to go through all other documents to find the employee’s pay details. Business owners are supposed to keep these records so that no extra steps are required further. These records must be reviewed beforehand to make sure they are proper as per the requirements of the IRS and FLSA. These records will include the following information-

• Name of the employee, address, occupation, date of birth, gender, and contact details.
• The day his/her work starts and other information.
• The number of hours worked each day/number of hours worked each week.
• The employee is paid hourly or is paid a salary.
• Any deductions or additions made in his wages.
• Overtime payments.
• Payment date.
• Other than these records there are various documents that one needs to keep like, the W-4 Form, the document to authorize the additions or deductions, a form that shows the rise in the pay because of promotion or demotion, deductions in taxes, etc.

Other facts that one should know about keeping the payroll records are-

• Employees’ payroll records can be made on paper or stored electronically. Storing the records online would be safe as the record keepers would not have to worry about losing them.
• Not everybody is allowed to view the payroll records as these are stored alongside the personal information, identification information of the employee. So, only the human resource department, direct supervisors, or the employee himself, but only if an authorized person accompanies him, are allowed to view them.
• The records of the employees who are exempted are somewhat different from those who are not exempted. Exempted employees may be who work under conditions with uncommon arrangements of payment, for those whom some facilities are furnished. One must consult some higher authority if any of the employees follow under this category.

There are various service providers that provide payroll outsourcing services. They may help the businesses in keeping a check on the payroll of their employees in an organized manner. One can also get online payroll services. It increases the efficiency in performing the tasks, there are very few error possibilities, it allows employees to access the data and simplifies the compliance in case of any new requirements in the documents. They have payroll experts for the tasks being performed so that there are no or minimal errors. Hence, the employees, as well as the business concern, are satisfied.