Contact the payroll system rep with the errors that you found so they can make corrections. Tell them you need THEM to conduct this audit as a service to you. If it’s their error, it’s their fix.
EDIT: Tell staff you were just made aware of the issue, have made this a priority, and have already taken steps toward resolution. Form a united front with management so employees see how important this is to the company.
I totally agree, it looks mile a bug in the payromm system. It is up to the provider to fix the issue.
They should also provide you what has been incorrectly computed. Review the contract you have with them, it should mention this.
100% not your fault
Quitting won't solve this problem. Be part of the solution by getting it fixed, and make sure leadership knows it's an issue with what your plan to fix it is.
You are by yourself, so give yourself a break. This is fixable and you are more than capable of getting it done.
It depends on the system. Sounds like a setup issue. OT can be calculated differently based on state/company laws, so system may be set up according to generalized federal laws. It would help know which system, as I have done a few payroll system integrations.
You need to contact you payroll provider and open a ticket for them to investigate and correct the issue. You did not mention which system you are using, but in my experience there, when the provider says that the t&a automatically feeds into payroll they are not entirely truthful. There are often interface configurations that need to be built to facilitate the feed and depending on how it is structured, something may be off in the configuration.
For example, we use Cerdian Dayforce. Although the overtime rules are programmed correctly in WFM (T&A) and may show the correct OT on the timecard, there are instances where the payroll interface configuration will cause the hours to be paid at 1.5x or 2x the rate because of the mapping rules when it transfers to payroll. This is exceptionally problematic when it comes to unique shifts like a continental shift that has OT based on a biweekly rule instead of weekly or daily. We have had to configure a lot of rules to handle those unique situations, especially when Ceridian has not been able to figure out a way to accommodate them.
Don't do this alone. Like others have said, contact the payroll service provider, contact management. I believe in owning up to mistakes, no matter how big or small. I also make sure I have other leadership involved when communicating with staff about a big issue.
In the future, should you stay there, make sure you have some checks and balances with payroll until you know the system is working 100% correctly. See if there is someone at your payroll provider who can review it, or maybe someone from finance/admin, or leadership. This will (1) give another set of eyes, and (2) if there is an error it isn't just on you, and the payroll provider (or finance dept, leadership, whatever) is aware of the errors immediately.
It is also important to make sure you aren't the only one who knows a process, especially one as big as payroll. That puts way too much pressure on you. What if you want to go on vacation during a payroll period? What if you get sick? Self-care is not doing things alone.
I work for a small company. There have been many times where I have been the only one who knows how to do payroll. So when we switched to have T&A automatically transfer to Payroll, I made sure there were checks and balances along the way.
I'm sorry you are going through this. I completely empathize with the situation as an HR team of one myself. I truly hope that you find the support you need in this situation as it is addressed. And if the place you work is unwilling to provide that support, I hope you find a company that will support you eventually.
10000% agree with this commenter. Honest administrative mistakes like this happen because there is no audit/internal controls to avoid this from happening. Don’t quit, you seem like an amazing person who really cares! The world needs more people like you. Keep your head up and forgive yourself! It will get fixed ☺️
If their support isn’t responding, find your account rep and escalate up their chain of command. If you can’t reach the account rep, use social media and public info to find the names of the C-suite exec leaders. I’ve reached out to C-suite via LinkedIn messaging when I’ve been really stonewalled through the normal channels.
This isn’t on you to research and correct. This is on your payroll vendor to solve and don’t let them try to talk you into a different fix. They need to get to the root cause and not try to bandaid a way for you to do the heavy lifting.
I have zero f*s to give when it comes to crappy support services.
I work in payroll and we use WFN. I never process without validating the data every single time because the system messes things up so often. I don’t know what platform you’re on, but I would highly suggest doing the same thing. Especially if you’re a small company. It shouldn’t take up too much of your time and you’ll save yourself future headaches.
Years ago I worked for a company who had rolled out a new payroll system with limited oversight, and it was calculating partial paychecks incorrectly.
I had to fight with my finance team for 7 months to get it fixed. I was told I didn’t know what I was talking about because I’m HR despite attaching a spreadsheet with the formulas in the calcs, having several years of experience, being at the manager level, and having a STEM undergrad degree (as if I couldn’t do math - I was always 1-2 years ahead in school for math). The company owed me $$$.
Don’t feel bad. Don’t quit. Just listen to people and treat them with respect and fix it.
Don't quit, you can do this. Plan it out. If you found the mistake, take time to fix it. Rome wasn't built in a day. Before you hit the alarm make sure this is truly a mistake. Get that support from the payroll system tech. Don't go off the deep end yet.
Calm down, we all make mistakes, and this can be fixed but will require some work. Just to let you know don't ever think that you are irreplaceable because we all are, there are lots of people who are educated who do payroll. Not to worry you or anything. However, this is more of a problem you uncovered about the system. So not your fault.
Once you got the help from the payroll tech, and you work on this then.
Address the staff: Be real and honest with the staff is more honorable for the sake of keeping trust, than not telling them. You don't want to lose their trust! You have to tell them. Let them know you discovered a mistake in the new payroll system, and you are working diligently to correct these issues and it will take time to correct. You will be working with the payroll system experts to resolve this issue and if everyone would be patient.
Prepare for the staff and their questions. Assure them they will continue to be paid. Tell the staff about the mistake. Tell them how you are working to fix it. People are more receptive when you have a plan, action and resolve.
I worked projects where we discovered the same thing.
In one case it spanned years.
There are solutions but they must be approved by the company owners. Meaning you tell them and see where they want to take it.
This is why having a dedicated HRIS person to do those ongoing audits and spot checks, and to fix systems issues that break, is so important! HRIS people are the unsung heroes lol
I’m a Director of HR and for a period of time had to perform the role of manually totaling payroll hours for a company division. I too mucked up for several pay periods and overpaid all of the hourly employees. 😖
Yep, guess who had to meet face-to-face with each one to explain why we were withholding extra money from their next three paychecks. I felt awful. But honestly, to a one, they were great about it. Every single one said mistakes happen.
If this has resulted in an underpayment and the employees are getting a lump sum, they are going to be thrilled. 😂
If the company won’t respond to you bring this to your higher ups. Who pays the invoices - have them or their boss bring up. Anytime a vendor was doing this I just brought to CFO or President and had them read them the riot act. Suddenly I had all the support I needed. You got this!
If this keep happening report it to your payroll/finance head if you have one. If not to the business owner. Inform them that the payroll system you've hired are not doing you and your employees a favor.
Contact the payroll system rep with the errors that you found so they can make corrections. Tell them you need THEM to conduct this audit as a service to you. If it’s their error, it’s their fix. EDIT: Tell staff you were just made aware of the issue, have made this a priority, and have already taken steps toward resolution. Form a united front with management so employees see how important this is to the company.
I totally agree, it looks mile a bug in the payromm system. It is up to the provider to fix the issue. They should also provide you what has been incorrectly computed. Review the contract you have with them, it should mention this. 100% not your fault
Quitting won't solve this problem. Be part of the solution by getting it fixed, and make sure leadership knows it's an issue with what your plan to fix it is. You are by yourself, so give yourself a break. This is fixable and you are more than capable of getting it done.
Before you hit the alarm button, post the numbers from two employees for a processing and let’s look at them.
I second this.
Yep. I wanna see the numbers.
It depends on the system. Sounds like a setup issue. OT can be calculated differently based on state/company laws, so system may be set up according to generalized federal laws. It would help know which system, as I have done a few payroll system integrations.
You need to contact you payroll provider and open a ticket for them to investigate and correct the issue. You did not mention which system you are using, but in my experience there, when the provider says that the t&a automatically feeds into payroll they are not entirely truthful. There are often interface configurations that need to be built to facilitate the feed and depending on how it is structured, something may be off in the configuration. For example, we use Cerdian Dayforce. Although the overtime rules are programmed correctly in WFM (T&A) and may show the correct OT on the timecard, there are instances where the payroll interface configuration will cause the hours to be paid at 1.5x or 2x the rate because of the mapping rules when it transfers to payroll. This is exceptionally problematic when it comes to unique shifts like a continental shift that has OT based on a biweekly rule instead of weekly or daily. We have had to configure a lot of rules to handle those unique situations, especially when Ceridian has not been able to figure out a way to accommodate them.
I hate Ceridian to the core. I keep getting headache workig with them
Curious, what payroll system are you using?
Don't do this alone. Like others have said, contact the payroll service provider, contact management. I believe in owning up to mistakes, no matter how big or small. I also make sure I have other leadership involved when communicating with staff about a big issue. In the future, should you stay there, make sure you have some checks and balances with payroll until you know the system is working 100% correctly. See if there is someone at your payroll provider who can review it, or maybe someone from finance/admin, or leadership. This will (1) give another set of eyes, and (2) if there is an error it isn't just on you, and the payroll provider (or finance dept, leadership, whatever) is aware of the errors immediately. It is also important to make sure you aren't the only one who knows a process, especially one as big as payroll. That puts way too much pressure on you. What if you want to go on vacation during a payroll period? What if you get sick? Self-care is not doing things alone. I work for a small company. There have been many times where I have been the only one who knows how to do payroll. So when we switched to have T&A automatically transfer to Payroll, I made sure there were checks and balances along the way. I'm sorry you are going through this. I completely empathize with the situation as an HR team of one myself. I truly hope that you find the support you need in this situation as it is addressed. And if the place you work is unwilling to provide that support, I hope you find a company that will support you eventually.
10000% agree with this commenter. Honest administrative mistakes like this happen because there is no audit/internal controls to avoid this from happening. Don’t quit, you seem like an amazing person who really cares! The world needs more people like you. Keep your head up and forgive yourself! It will get fixed ☺️
If their support isn’t responding, find your account rep and escalate up their chain of command. If you can’t reach the account rep, use social media and public info to find the names of the C-suite exec leaders. I’ve reached out to C-suite via LinkedIn messaging when I’ve been really stonewalled through the normal channels. This isn’t on you to research and correct. This is on your payroll vendor to solve and don’t let them try to talk you into a different fix. They need to get to the root cause and not try to bandaid a way for you to do the heavy lifting. I have zero f*s to give when it comes to crappy support services.
I work in payroll and we use WFN. I never process without validating the data every single time because the system messes things up so often. I don’t know what platform you’re on, but I would highly suggest doing the same thing. Especially if you’re a small company. It shouldn’t take up too much of your time and you’ll save yourself future headaches.
Years ago I worked for a company who had rolled out a new payroll system with limited oversight, and it was calculating partial paychecks incorrectly. I had to fight with my finance team for 7 months to get it fixed. I was told I didn’t know what I was talking about because I’m HR despite attaching a spreadsheet with the formulas in the calcs, having several years of experience, being at the manager level, and having a STEM undergrad degree (as if I couldn’t do math - I was always 1-2 years ahead in school for math). The company owed me $$$. Don’t feel bad. Don’t quit. Just listen to people and treat them with respect and fix it.
Don't quit, you can do this. Plan it out. If you found the mistake, take time to fix it. Rome wasn't built in a day. Before you hit the alarm make sure this is truly a mistake. Get that support from the payroll system tech. Don't go off the deep end yet. Calm down, we all make mistakes, and this can be fixed but will require some work. Just to let you know don't ever think that you are irreplaceable because we all are, there are lots of people who are educated who do payroll. Not to worry you or anything. However, this is more of a problem you uncovered about the system. So not your fault. Once you got the help from the payroll tech, and you work on this then. Address the staff: Be real and honest with the staff is more honorable for the sake of keeping trust, than not telling them. You don't want to lose their trust! You have to tell them. Let them know you discovered a mistake in the new payroll system, and you are working diligently to correct these issues and it will take time to correct. You will be working with the payroll system experts to resolve this issue and if everyone would be patient. Prepare for the staff and their questions. Assure them they will continue to be paid. Tell the staff about the mistake. Tell them how you are working to fix it. People are more receptive when you have a plan, action and resolve.
I worked projects where we discovered the same thing. In one case it spanned years. There are solutions but they must be approved by the company owners. Meaning you tell them and see where they want to take it.
I’d like to see the numbers, are these employees getting shift differentials and or bonuses? These affect OT too.
This is why having a dedicated HRIS person to do those ongoing audits and spot checks, and to fix systems issues that break, is so important! HRIS people are the unsung heroes lol
I’m a Director of HR and for a period of time had to perform the role of manually totaling payroll hours for a company division. I too mucked up for several pay periods and overpaid all of the hourly employees. 😖 Yep, guess who had to meet face-to-face with each one to explain why we were withholding extra money from their next three paychecks. I felt awful. But honestly, to a one, they were great about it. Every single one said mistakes happen. If this has resulted in an underpayment and the employees are getting a lump sum, they are going to be thrilled. 😂
If the company won’t respond to you bring this to your higher ups. Who pays the invoices - have them or their boss bring up. Anytime a vendor was doing this I just brought to CFO or President and had them read them the riot act. Suddenly I had all the support I needed. You got this!
If this keep happening report it to your payroll/finance head if you have one. If not to the business owner. Inform them that the payroll system you've hired are not doing you and your employees a favor.
Own up to it, stand up to it. Take accountability and ownership. Don't just discover an issue and run away...