Good morning everyone and welcome back to the Breakroom!
For today’s post I decided to draw upon my own job and talk about something I feel many employees need to hear. Taking accountability for your paycheck!
On a daily basis I work with leaders and employees who very much seem to think managing a timecard is not their duty and that is “what payroll is for.” Now, there are some companies (usually small ones) in which their payroll administrator is the person who reviews and signs off on timecards and would be the person to reach out to directly when there is an issue. But when it comes to larger companies, the payroll team’s primary duty is the processing of payroll. This includes issuing paychecks, managing deductions line union dues or donation deductions, and processing tax documents like W-2s. But when it comes to your timecard, it is the expectation that you are watching to ensure you are paid correctly. So what are some of the big areas that employees seem to fail at this?
Timecard/Time Tracking
This is where you document your time each pay period which is typically logging your clockings, adding in items like PTO, as well as occasionally adding in unique codes for items like incentive pay or extra shifts. In companies like my own where we have more than 15,000 employees there is no means we could ever review each individual timecard. Even if we could, we have no clue what everyone’s schedule should have been for that period. When you start, your first task should be learning how you document your time and where you can go ahead and review this. If you have questions, speak to your leader or even reach out to Human Resources to ensure you understand the process. After that, it is your responsibility to watch your time and ensure that at the end of each period you are being paid properly. I am routinely coming across requests from employees who cite “I realize I didn’t get paid for something from 6 months ago.” Not sure how you suddenly came across this but please do not try to blame me for this because now is not the time to suddenly have a lot of eagerness to get this corrected, it was 6 months ago you should have had that energy. I always recommend that employees should be checking at the end of each week, or at the very least you should check your timecard after you clock out of your final shift of that period. You might say “I am too busy to do that” to which I would respond that A) I am too busy as well, and B) if you want to get paid you simply need to learn to do this. What happens if you realize you made a mistake and need this corrected? If it is the current period, you likely can correct this yourself so you can take ownership. If it is from a prior period, you will likely need to speak to your leader or else reach out to payroll. Who truly depends on the structure of your organization as companies like mine require your leader to reach out to payroll so they can give their stamp of approval that the request is a valid one. So this might be a harsh statement but I truly believe that if an employee cannot learn to take ownership of their own timecard, they must not care that much about being paid. The resources are available for you to learn what you need to do, so instead of asking for corrections you should simply learn how to be responsible of your pay.
Taxes/Tax Documents
As it is now tax season, this is another area where I am getting issues from people who have made mistakes on their taxes. Ever since the IRS changed the W-4 in 2020, it is very easy for employees to accidentally set their Federal Withholding to a point that little to no taxes come out. Naturally, they would like to blame their employer for making this error but in reality it is our job that taxes process as you have elected them to be. I know someone might say that they are not a tax expert, and while that is true I would like to point out that payroll administrators are not your personal tax consultants. We can walk you through how a W-4 might calculate your taxes, but we are trained to advise on your personal elections and how much you should have deducted. So what should you do? When you are first hired at a company, make sure you fill out your W-4. If you are confused, reach out to your personal tax advisor. If you do not have one, I would recommend you consider getting one as I have had one since I was about 20 years old so this is not an odd professional to hire. If you truly do not wish to hire one, the next step would be use tools available through the IRS website which can assist you with calculating out your taxes. Worst case scenario, I recommend keeping it simple with no dependents or Total Dependent Amount. Keep those empty and watch the first paycheck to see how much comes out and how it aligns with how much you need to have deducted. If not enough is coming out you might want to consider Extra Withholding, or if too much is coming out then you can slowly add in a Total Dependent Amount. I would also like to mention that your tax return is an amount of excess money that the government has been holding on to. I have spoken to employees who think of it as a rebate or bonus, and they are disappointed when they get a small one back. The goal is not to get a large refund; the goal should be not having to pay in and maximize how much you have throughout the year. Again, I am not a tax advisor, but I would say that most would agree with that statement. Taxes are your responsibility so if you do not notice that the incorrect amount has been coming out for the year, you need to take ownership of that fact and be kind to those trying to walk you through where you went wrong.
One big recommendation I have is to also hold onto the tax documents. I routinely have people asking about tax documents from previous years and I question how the heck they lost them. The IRS can audit you from 3 to 6 years so you should at least hold on to that many years’ worth of documents. Another benefit to a proper tax advisor, they usually retain digital copies for you and will then return originals, so it is not that hard to do so. Not afraid of getting audited? These documents can also be used for applying for a loan or even certain verifications. Keep a physical copy in your records or at least retain a digital copy on a computer or your email.
Direct Deposit/Paycheck
Most companies likely offer the ability to have a Direct Deposit set up, and I will recommend that you do it. Paper checks are pricey, awkward, and it means that you are subject to waiting for the check to arrive in the mail. And that is if it does since it does require people to have their most up-to-date address on file, entered in the proper format. It is certainly your decision if you wish to receive a paper check, but at that point I will say you are not allowed to complain about how long it takes for it to arrive. It is not payroll’s fault; it is at the mercy of the Postal Service so you can reach out to them if you would like to complain.
Let us say you are trying to set up your Direct Deposit with a company. While smaller companies will likely have you give them a blank check or similar, larger companies have self-service sites in which you enter them in yourself. So, you must learn how to properly enter this information, and more importantly you need to learn how to pull these accurate details. While usually listed on checks, a growing number of people do not have paper checks on them to do so. For that, I have two tips. One, you can reach out to your bank, and they can easily get you that information. Second and one that I have used, is I can pull it up through my banking app. All I had to do was type in “show me my account information” and it brought me right to the correct page and I was able to access it. It is not that hard and I am sorry to be harsh, but I do think people need to learn how to do these important actions themselves because it instills vital education for the future.
Payslip
And finally, your payslip. This has been touched on above, but your payslip is a representation of all your pay and deductions for the period. I hear often about how people are not checking theirs, and I will be honest that I do not do this myself. But it is imperative that you take the time out to check on it occasionally to ensure everything is processed as expected. If nothing else, make it a point to review after big changes. This could be a large bonus coming your way, you updated your taxes, or similar changes. You should at least make sure that the unusual items or updates are processed as expected rather than waiting until the end of the year before you do so. Additionally, most companies make it so you can review your payslips so that is a good thing to learn early on how to access them.
I admit this might come off a bit firmer in my recommendations than I normally am, but I think sometimes we really need that. If we do not get a decent scolding at times, I don’t think we understand the true gravity of how ridiculous we are in our actions. And obviously my tips above will not work for every person. Smaller companies typically do not offer the same services and technologies as large companies do. Then we have employees who are commission-based and their time is managed much differently. I certainly do not think it is fair for them to have to count every cent they brought in so I would say that the leaders of those types of employees should be able to make those types of records easy for the employees to review and follow. My company does not use that pay style so I cannot truly weigh in on it.
So, leaders, employees, and colleagues did I miss anything? Are there other payroll aspects that should have been mentioned? Do you have recommendations for employees out there who struggle to take ownership of these processes?
I hope you all realize that these recommendations come from a place where I am trying to pass long knowledge and understanding to everyone and get feedback in return. I wish you all the best going into this tax season, and winter season as we will hopefully start to see the first signs of spring. Have a great weekend, and I’ll be sure to see you around the Breakroom!
