How to Conduct an Internal Audit to Prevent an External One

This webinar will explain strategies for conducting internal audit in an efficient manner. It will provide best practices for payroll departments to avoid external audits.

Why Should You Attend:

Audits are the biggest fear of most employers especially the payroll department. Whether it is for wage and hour law or IRS compliance, suffering through an external audit is an ordeal that everyone tries to avoid. But what if you conducted your own internal audit to root out the areas of noncompliance? Wouldn’t it be easier, not to mention cheaper in the long run, to find your own compliance issues? In fact, by conducting an internal audit you can increase your own and your payroll staff’s knowledge and education concerning the law, rules and regulations governing your payroll processes.

Auditing requires knowledge of the subject being audited and this webinar will demonstrate how to acquire this knowledge before beginning each phase of the audit. The attendee will learn:

• How to conduct an internal audit including what sources to use to verify the compliance requirements
• How to set up and conduct the audit
• What to do if a compliance issue is found
• How to organize such an audit in an efficient manner and the tools to conduct the audit while still maintaining a hectic payroll processing schedule
• Ways to assist in convincing management the need for such an audit and it is preferable to the alternate—an external audit.

Unfortunately, it isn’t just compliance issues that you need to worry about when deciding whether or not to conduct an internal audit. Fraud is all around us in this day and age and not even the payroll department is immune. And an external audit will never be looking for internal fraud, only you can do that. This webinar will also discuss how conducting an internal audit can discover whether or not you have been subject to fraud plus help you to prevent internal fraud in the future.

Areas Covered in the Webinar:

• Best practices for payroll departments to avoid audits
• How to beat them at their own game: strategies to conduct your own internal audit
• Auditing for internal fraud: what to look out for including phantom employees and reverse deductions
• How an internal audit can aid in training payroll staff members
• Auditing for Wage and Hour law compliance on both the federal and state level
• Auditing for tax law compliance on both the state and federal level
• What to audit for: sample lists to get you started on your own audit
• How to get management to buy into the idea of an “internal audit”
• What to do if a compliance issue does arise during an internal audit
• When to conduct the internal audit

Who Will Benefit:

• Payroll Professionals
• Human Resources
• Accounting Personnel
• Business Owners
• Lawmakers
• Attorneys, or any individual or entity that must deal with the complexities and technicalities of ensuring compliance within the payroll process

Instructor Profile:

Vicki M. Lambert, CPP is President and Academic Director of The Payroll Advisor™ a firm specializing in the training of payroll professionals. With over three decades of hands-on experience in all facets of payroll functions as well as over 20 years as a trainer and author, Ms. Lambert is a sought-after and respected voice in the practice and management of payroll issues. She has conducted open market training seminars on payroll issues across the United States as well as serving as an in-house trainer for businesses such as Sun Microsystems, Fox Studios, Disney, County of Riverside and the City of Hesperia. Ms. Lambert currently produces and presents payroll related audio seminars, webinars and webcasts for clients, APA chapters and business groups throughout the country. Ms. Lambert is an adjunct faculty member at Brandman University in Southern California and is the creator and instructor for their Practical Payroll Online program, which is approved for recertification hours by the APA.