What Are the Pitfalls When Paying Employees?

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What Are the Pitfalls When Paying Employees?
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• Paying your employees can at times be
  complicated, especially if you have staff working
  different shift patterns and being paid varying
  salaries, and there are several pitfalls that
  business owners can encounter if theyre not
  careful. If youre new to the world of business,
  or have recently taken on more employees and want
  to know more about how to pay them correctly and
  within the confines of the law, youll find a few
  pointers and guidelines listed below
• Dont get pay day wrong!
• Many employees rely on their salary being paid on
  a specific day, and having a certain amount of
  money credited to their bank account, and

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• getting this wrong is likely to damage the
  relationship between you and your staff. Pay your
  employees on time to help improve relations and
  build their trust in you as their employer.
• Withholding without consent
• Did you know that as an employer, you cannot
  withhold any portion of an employees wages
  without their consent, except in the case of
  withholdings required by law, such as FICA taxes
  Social Security and Medicare taxes on income that
  everybody must pay. Employers must withhold these
  taxes from their employees pay checks, and pay
  them to the IRS (inland revenue service). FICA
  taxes are referred to as payroll taxes, because
  theyre based on the amount an employee is paid.

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• Accurately recording work patterns
• Some companies have a whole bunch of different
  shift patterns for their employees, and these
  need to be accurately reflected in your payroll
  processing. Getting the hours right that each
  employee has worked, is not only important for
  their salary or wage calculations, but it also
  has an impact on their health insurance and leave
  entitlement, so its important to get it right.
• Withholding pay as punishment
• As an employer, you may not withhold the pay of
  an employee as a means of punishing them for any
  offence, such as violating company policy.

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• Even if the employee is disgruntled and leaves on
  very bad terms, you are still obliged to pay them
  their full pay check.
• Final pay check
• Generally, the final pay check of an employee is
  owed to them either on or before, the next
  regular pay day.
• Dont pay employees who no longer work for you!
• This is a surprisingly common pitfall that occurs
  when payroll records arent kept up to date, and
  a staff member leaves the company but continues
  to receive pay. Recovering these payments can be
  costly and time consuming, so preventing this
  from happening is vital.

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• Remember, the best way to avoid making any
  mistakes and avoiding pitfalls when calculating
  and processing payroll for your employees, is to
  get sound advice from a payroll professional.
• Apollo Payroll is one of the premier small
  business payroll companies in Miami Beach and
  Coral Gables. Apollo Payroll is dedicated to
  delivering expert advice, responsive service, and
  highly accurate payroll processing and reporting
  to ensure the success and growth of the business
  that we serve. Our services include comprehensive
  payroll service in Miami and other cities in
  Miami-Dade County, employee background check and
  group health insurance in Coral Gables Miami.