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Holding pay for late timesheets?

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sarapiani

Junior Member
Washington State

I am the HR person for our company (30 employees total), and manage the payroll. Most of our employees are salaried, with a few being hourly. We are paid bimonthly (5th & 20th); timesheets are due each week.

What recourse does an employer have for employees who do not turn in their timesheets on time?

Even though most folks are salary, we still need to deduct/record for paid time off, and without the timesheets this is impossible to do; we end up doing corrected payrolls which cost us money and time.

We use ADP, which allows us to turn direct deposits off for everyone but not for certain people... Though I would hate to turn off all the DD's, I would do it if we are allowed to hold paychecks for the tardy parties.
 


Beth3

Senior Member
What recourse does an employer have for employees who do not turn in their timesheets on time? You can discipline the employees in the same manner you would anytime an employee fails or refuses to comply with company policy. What you cannot do is hold their pay "hostage" in retribution for failing to turn in their timesheet.

You have to pay the employee if you're aware he or she worked, even if you have to guestimate their hours. Of course as an evil-genuius HR/payroll friend of mine has suggested, "There's nothing to prevent the company from estimating LOW." :D

By the way, "salaried" is merely a pay method. You need to be clear on which jobs are exempt and which are non-exempt in order to make sure your payroll practices are complying with the law.

If the company shows they're serious about turning timesheets in on time by giving disciplinary actions to the worst offenders, I expect you'll find the problem largely clears up. In all fairness though, you should first tell all employees that henceforth they will be subject to formal disciplinary action if they turn in their timesheets late.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Of course as an evil-genuius HR/payroll friend of mine has suggested, "There's nothing to prevent the company from estimating LOW."

(Jumping around, waving hand in air) Ooh! Ooh! I bet I know who that was!
 

sarapiani

Junior Member
Thank you. I had hoped not to have to move into our formal disciplinary procedure 'just' for timesheets... I guess our managers need to talk about that!

I can't estimate (low or high :rolleyes: ), because the salaried employees are exempt and get a flat amount regardless of how much / little they work --- the paid time off is deducted from their "regular hours" as a way to keep up with the paid leave balance, but the total never changes. Our problem comes about when I have to run payroll without all the timesheets (so, regular hours) but it ends up that an employee really did use some PTO that week. I then have to either run a corrected payroll or remember to record those hours the following payroll, but then they don't align with the actual timesheets. urgh...
 

Beth3

Senior Member
Yep, it's a pain in the fanny for payroll. What you need to do is make it painful for the managers too so that they start enforcing the requirement that everyone turn in their timesheets on time.

Rather than you running around looking for missing timesheets and contacting employees to find out if they worked, if they took any PTO, etc., send e-mails to the managers and have them do it. After a couple of those, I'd get plenty annoyed with my subordinates who were causing me this stupid headache. Be sure to let your boss in on your plans first and get his/her endorsement 'cause some of your managers' first reactions will be to complain about YOU bothering them for this stuff rather than deal with their employees who are causing it.

Good luck.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
I feel your pain, sister.

I had a modicum of success with not just holding the managers responsible, but making it part of their performance review and having it affect their increase! They don't get their subordinates time sheets (or their own) in on time, they only get a 3% increase instead of a 5%, and they get told that's why. It takes time, and it's a rough road, but it's been known to work.l
 

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