More than a third (36%) of Australian organisations are not confident that they have identified and corrected all payslip errors according to a survey of more than 630 payroll managers by the Australian Payroll Association. Additionally, it found that 12% identified errors that have not been corrected.

The results also found that, the greater the employee pool, the more likely the organisation is to make payslip errors. Almost two thirds (63%) of organisations with 5,000 or more employees believe they hadn’t spotted and corrected errors compared to the 27% of businesses with 200 or less employees.

Of the surveyed organisations, 28% believe employee underpayments occur more frequently than overpayments.

22% of payroll managers also admitted that they don’t do payroll reports for their chief executive or chief financial officers excluding monthly PAYG.

“With the Fair Work Ombudsman frequently cracking down on companies that miss errors in employee payslips, even when these errors are oversights and not deliberate, it’s crucial that organisations do more to rectify these issues,” Australian Payroll Association chief executive Tracy Angwin says.

“One of the biggest ways that organisations can mitigate payroll errors is by ensuring that their staff receive adequate education and training.

“This will help to minimise the likelihood of other payroll mistakes occurring, such as accidentally paying a terminated employee. Having strong governance and controls also helps organisations de-risk the payroll function by ensuring they have well-documented processes to help staff understand the current legislation, which changes regularly.”

To counter this issue, Tracy mentions what businesses can do: “The Australian Payroll Association has developed the Certificate IV in Payroll Administration and the Diploma of Payroll Management, Australia’s first recognised payroll qualification, which can assist people working in payroll to get properly trained and qualified.”