Time and Attendance Software Can Help Prevent Payroll Fraud

Although the phenomenon has drastically reduced over the past few years payroll fraud can still occur, with a comprehensive time and attendance software remaining one of the best solutions to combat these costly problems.

According to HR experts, buddy punching or buddy clocking is one of the top methods to engage in payroll fraud, and it occurs when a worker has someone else punch in and out for them, whether punching in early, punching out late, or punching them when they are not even present.

The most straightforward way to prevent clocking buddy is to use a time and attendance software suite that includes proper employee authentication, such as a fingerprint, an ID badge, password, or facial recognition.

Another common occurrence of payroll fraud is when ghost employees are set up – meaning someone who is on the corporation’s payroll but does not work there. When someone with access to the payroll software creates a fictitious employee in the records or fails to delete a terminated employee and then changes the documents to receive direct deposit or cheque.

This problem can be avoided by conducting audits of employee lists regularly while also searching for non-contractor paychecks with no deductions.

One of the most popular types of payroll fraud cases involves extending worked hours on timesheets in small increments. In order to avoid it, employers need to establish a clear policy for punching in and out so that employees understand the rules. The most straightforward next step is to sync the payroll software with the time and attendance software suite which will immediately feed the data.

Some software requires configuration with predefined rules that prevent employees from punching in or out of a specific time window.

Finally, requiring manual approval of overtime and scheduling payroll audits can help detect problems.

The more extended payroll fraud occurs, the more expensive it is for most corporations do not recover their losses. While you can never eliminate the risks of fraud, the steps outlined above should help identify and prevent payroll fraud.

Time and Attendance UK – Expert Suppliers of Time and Attendance Solutions to Help You Prevent Payroll Fraud

The first answer to this situation is to switch from using a retrospective, self-reporting method of recording time to a daily, unbiased recording method.

Clocking terminals are ideal for this. They require a physical presence to clock you in and out, and all clocking data is immediately stored in the database. If there is a network failure and the terminIt is 2018, and yet companies are still using self-reporting timesheets to record their employee hours. Why?al can’t transfer its clocking data to the main database, it can hold up to 32,000 clocking transactions.

This clocking data can then be exported straight from the WinTA.NET software in a format suitable for all leading payroll programmes.

Our terminals can be configured to accept different levels of authentication, from just a smart card all the way up to PIN, smart card and biometrics.

Smart cards are a cheap and effective way of clocking your employees in and out; however, if you are very worried about fraud, or are fed up of people losing their smartcards, then you will want a biometric clocking terminal. Smart cards can be stolen or passed to a friend, in a scam called “buddy punching” or “buddy clocking”, but employees can’t do that with biometrics!

The biometric methods that we offer are fingerprint scanners and hand geometry scanners.

Neither of these store actual prints, as that is an unnecessary use of personal information. In the finger scanner, the print patterns are converted into a code through a secure algorithm. The hand scanner stores the geometry, size and shape of the hand. These details are then stored for future authentication.

Whenever registered users have their fingerprints scanned, a comparison is made between the live fingerprint and the stored fingerprint template and if the two match, the event is saved in the controller database.

This time and attendance system makes it much more difficult for employees to claim wages they aren’t entitled to.

If you would like to find out more about the workforce management systems from Time and Attendance UK, just contact us. We would be more than happy to answer all your questions and queries.