Ensure that payroll is punctual, accurate, secure and used effectively as a management tool Managing the payroll is often seen as a purely administrative function. But, aside from the legal and financial implications of payroll errors, payroll has significant implications for the organisation as a whole. So this 6-Step audit first of all ensures that your payroll: Meets all relevant legal requirements Is secure against the risk of mistakes and internal and external fraud Is managed efficiently and cost-effectively Is supplied with timely and accurate information about all employees Then it goes on to consider the overall role of the payroll function and allows you to consider: How the payroll function could be better integrated into the HR function Whether any of the information held by the payroll function could usefully (and legally) be shared - e.g. flexible working schemes may hold two sets of time and attendance data How far payment methods and timetabling meet employees' needs and the needs of the company Whether payroll resources could be used by other departments at 'quiet' times Whether payroll should be seen as a separate profit centre, and how it might earn revenue."