Almost any size of company can have "Ghost" employees on the payroll.
(PRWEB) October 23, 2013
Mr. Read has seen payroll ghosts many times in all kinds of companies. Almost any company can have ghost employees on the payroll and not know it. Also any size of company can have real people that punch in and out of work without being there in body, only in spirit. That is called "Ghost punching", according to Mr. Read. You have spirits punching the company time clock on days other than just Halloween!!
A ghost employee is a fake employee that has been added to the payroll system. Then hours are reported for this ghost employee. The payroll system generates a check or a direct deposit that is actually cashed. This can be done by a single person in the right place as a result of inadequate internal controls. It can also be the result of collusion between multiple employees in separate departments. The collusion is harder to catch but is seen less often.
Ghost punches or buddy punches happen with many kinds of timekeeping systems except for biometric or heavily supervised systems. A biometric clock measures body parts, finger prints, retina prints or similar things. It compares the measurment with an original measurement to make sure that the person timing in is a certain person. A biometric clock prevents ghost punches.
There will always need to be corrections and management must make sure that the corrections are real and not just ghost stories.
To access the video blog and article, go to: http://payrollonabudget.com/paying-your-employee/ghosts-in-your-payroll-system.
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