What Every Employer Needs to Know About Payroll Security
Nearly 82 million American workers experience payroll problems annually. These problems can involve everything from incorrect pay to security issues. As a business owner, your main goal should be providing your team with a highly secure and accurate payroll system.
Protecting your payroll data should be one of your main priorities. This information will generally include things like Social Security numbers, bank account information and pay rates. Finding ways to improve payroll security will not be easy without some professional help.
The following are some important principles to consider when attempting to protect payroll data.
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Separation of Duties is Important
Most small business owners have to consolidate the various departments they have to avoid hiring more employees. While this can help you save money, it can also create a lot of problems. Typically, the same person that creates new hire records or collects timesheets will also be in charge of issuing paychecks.
The individual in charge of these various tasks will have access to lots of sensitive payroll data. Unfortunately, there is always a risk of an employee with this sensitive information exploiting it for their own financial gain. Instead of leaving your payroll in one person’s hand, trying delegating the various tasks to different team members.
When you have these tasks delegated, be sure to perform routine audits. The information from these audits can help you assess whether or not your team is handling payroll security properly.
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Don’t Forget About Email and Mobile When Devising a Payroll Security Plan
Creating a companywide data security policy is no easy task. When developing this plan, you have to consider all of the ways employees access sensitive information. If you have members of your team using their mobile device to sign in to your network, then making sure these devices are secure is vital.
If payroll data is accessed from an unsecured device, it can be stolen by hackers. Putting this sensitive data in the hands of cyber-criminals can lead to people having their identities stolen. Educating your team regarding how to protect their payroll information is easy with the help of paystubcreator.net.
You will also need to make sure everyone on your team knows how to spot and avoid email phishing scams. Clicking on the wrong email attachment can infect your entire business network. The more your employees know about how to avoid these cyber-attacks, the easier it will be to protect sensitive data.
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Updating Your Payroll Software is Crucial
Trying to do payroll without the help of modern software programs can be difficult. Most business owners use software to calculate hours, print checks and keep up with tax obligations.
While this software is beneficial, it can also be dangerous if it is not updated regularly. Allowing software updates to lapse will put your payroll data in jeopardy. This is why using cloud-based software that updates automatically is a great idea.
Seek Out Professional Help
If you are unsure about how to update your existing payroll security policy, reach out to professionals for help. With their guidance, securing this sensitive information will be much easier.
Are you looking for more small business management advice? If so, check out the rest of the articles on our website.