Eliminate Year-End Payroll Headaches
Barbara Steckly
We’ve all experienced unexpected glitches despite normally smooth running financial systems. If those occur just before crucial CRA filing deadlines, you could quickly fall behind, with late filing penalties as the result. Ouch!
Below are two ideas to minimize payroll headaches and insure your deadlines are met:
- Take a few moments to audit your payroll after each run. Each payroll provides an opportunity to review and check the effectiveness of your systems. When you consistently balance and audit up front, then you’re easily able to run employee T4s on the last payday of the year.
- For 2016, mark October 31st as the day to run a “year-to-date” payroll summary. Then reconcile it with the CRA payroll account statement. This allows time to make any "shortfall’s" to CPP and/or EI to be made before December 31st, saving you from paying the employee’s portion(s). Also, when you fix any errors in advance of that year end, CRA T4 filing will be less stressful.
If you’d like a comprehensive checklist of the year’s payroll activities, you can download a copy from The Canadian Payroll Association at www.payroll.ca.