Auditing Human Resources and Payroll

Course overview

Course outline

1. 1Day One: HR and Payroll Risks and Audit Planning

   • The employee life cycle and associated risks
   • Common HR and payroll control failures and audit findings
   • Regulatory, tax and employment law considerations in overview
   • Understanding HR and payroll systems and interfaces
   • Risk assessment and scoping of an HR and payroll audit
   • Data requests and preparing for analytics
   • Exercise: building a risk and control matrix
2. 2Day Two: Recruitment, Onboarding and Master Data

   • Workforce planning and approved headcount controls
   • Recruitment process integrity and conflicts of interest
   • Pre-employment checks and documentation
   • Employee master data creation and change controls
   • Segregation of duties between HR and payroll
   • Personnel file completeness and data protection
   • Exercise: testing master data changes
3. 3Day Three: Payroll Processing and Payment

   • Payroll calendar, inputs and cut-off controls
   • Calculation of basic pay, deductions and taxes
   • Payroll review, reconciliation and approval
   • Bank file creation and payment security
   • Payroll accounting and general ledger reconciliation
   • Outsourced payroll provider controls
   • Exercise: reviewing a payroll reconciliation
4. 4Day Four: Allowances, Overtime, Leave and Leavers

   • Allowances and benefits eligibility and approval
   • Overtime authorisation and reasonableness testing
   • Leave and absence recording and accruals
   • Performance-related pay and bonus controls
   • Leaver notification and timely removal from payroll
   • Final settlements and end-of-service calculations
   • Case study: an overtime and allowance fraud
5. 5Day Five: Payroll Analytics and Reporting

   • Analytics to detect ghost employees and duplicates
   • Comparing bank details, addresses and identifiers
   • Identifying unusual pay changes and exceptions
   • Visualising payroll trends for audit insight
   • Writing persuasive HR and payroll audit findings
   • Agreeing management actions and follow-up
   • Personal action plan for HR and payroll auditing