He Said, She Said: Terminology Confusion in Payroll Auditing

Posting by Phil Vivirito

As payroll auditors, one of our tasks is to determine if the employer is reporting all covered employees.  This includes employees working in covered job classifications or bargaining unit employees. However, an employer may use different terminology when referring to covered and non-covered employees. This can be somewhat annoying to the experienced auditor, but it can become confusing and troublesome to the new or inexperienced payroll auditor.

Some employers may call non-covered employees ‘non-union’; other employers may […]

“How To” Series: To Reconcile or Not To Reconcile – That is the Question

Posting by Phil Vivirito

Over the next few weeks, Phil Vivirito, Bond Beebe’s Director of Payroll and Compliance Auditing, will explain several fundamental payroll auditing principles.  This week he reviews the best practices for determining whether or not to reconcile the payroll.

One of the arguments among payroll auditors is whether or not the auditor should reconcile the payroll. If your client’s payroll audit program states that you must, then you have no choice but to do so. But, if the […]

Providing Expert Witness Testimony for a Payroll Litigation

Posting by Phil Vivirito

I recently provided expert witness testimony for a multi-employer benefit fund. It was a non-jury trial in Federal Court. I was admitted as an expert in payroll auditing.

In this case the employer , who was the defendant, was taking the position that the payroll audit completed by the funds’ accountant is an agreed upon procedures report and as such failed to meet the requirements set forth by the AICPA as an agreed upon procedures report. The […]

Auditing Mailbag: Examples from “Audit by Mail” Cases

Posting by Kurt Needles, CPA

1) The Internet as an Auditing Tool

In performing an audit by mail, the employer in question provided all the records required except a roster that classified everyone on the payroll.   All but a handful of the employees were reported to the two trades for which we were performing the audit.  Repeated queries to the employer went unanswered and I was at a loss as to how to proceed.

Trying to find possible leads to these questions, […]

Formula Audit Allowed

Posting by Larry Beebe, CPA

A Court ruled that a formula approach could be used to calculate an employer’s liability for employer contributions when the employer refused to allow a payroll audit.

The employer signed a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) which incorporated a trust agreement.  The trust agreement provided the plan with the authority to conduct a payroll audit.  The employer stopped making contributions and the plan sought a payroll audit which the employer refused to allow.  The plan’s auditor calculated […]

Remembering the Individual

Posting by Phil Vivirito

When we conduct payroll audits for a pension fund I remind our auditors of an important aspect of the audit that I think many times gets overlooked, which is the individual employee. When we find an individual not being reported the payroll auditor is the one that begins the process to have this individual put into the pension fund. Other findings such as a new hire reported late or time work omitted can affect a person’s […]

Collection Cases: Going to Trial

Posting by Andrew Staab

As Fund Counsel, I am often asked “How many cases do you win at trial?”  I say without committing to a number or won-loss ratio, “A few.”  I must admit that going to trial is not something I particularly savor, because Taft-Hartley collections law is slanted so strongly in favor of the Fund that cases should never go to trial.  I have preached that if a Fund’s delinquency case goes to trial, there might be something […]