| Increasingly good salary (compensation) survey data is available on the Internet. The analysis of good salary and compensation data should be an important part of a company’s decision-making. Many salary and wage surveys are linked to from this Will Yancey site, www.willyancey.com/salary.htm. Several Department of Labor sites are useful as a source of salary data. Wages by area and occupation can be found at the DOL site www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm. At this site, you can gain access to wage data for over 700 Standard Occupational Classification occupations. National-wide, statewide, and metropolitan-wide data is presented. Data is based on surveys of companies. Job descriptions for the 700 Standard Occupational Classification occupations might be useful. This link, www.bls.gov/ncs/home.htm, takes you to a site, maintained by the DOL’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, from which you can obtain compensation cost trends. based on surveys of companies. Benefit costs data for small, medium, and large companies can be linked to from this site. The Management Accounting Information Center maintains a separate front page topic tilted “Costs – accounting, management, and other aspects”, which has links to many sites with current costs data and cost trends for a variety of products, materials, and services. Some links are provided to sites that provide employee-related costs data and trends, including the DOL links provided above. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants site at fmcenter.aicpa.org/Resources/Professional+Development/CPA+Financial+Managers+Role/Position+Descriptions.htm is useful for accounting position job descriptions. 4. Payroll Processing, Including Payroll Taxes. Payroll is an employee-related function that accountants usually perform. Often it is this payroll responsibility that accounts for accountants acquiring other employment-related functions such as benefits, compliance, and human resource initiatives. This is especially truer for smaller companies. Processing payroll and associated taxes can greatly benefit by access to good information. Payroll-associated tax policies affecting rates and other variables frequently change. The Internet is making payroll processing easier by providing frequently needed information very efficiently. The Internal Revenue Service maintains a site at www.irs.gov/faqs/index.html, which has answers and publications links to many questions related to employment taxes. A general resource site is the American Payroll Association website, www.americanpayroll.org. From this site, you can access publications and other websites that can provide you a lot of important payroll processing information. The Social Security Administration has a site at www.ssa.gov/employer, which provides employers reporting instructions and other information related to W-2 forms. Symmetry Software Corp maintains a site at www.payroll-taxes.com, where you can search for information on doing payroll. The search system works well and good results were obtained for searches on “independent contractor” and “1099”. Several sites aid in processing payroll and computing payroll tax obligations. CCH, Inc. maintains a site, www.tooolkit.cch.com/text/P07_1000.asp, which provides details on payroll tax obligations. TaxSites.com, LLC maintains a site at www.taxsites.com/topics/payroll-taxes.html, which provides links to many IRS and other sites with information related to payroll taxes and withholding. The American Payroll Association has a site at www.americanpayroll.org/states.html, which has links to state tax, revenue, labor, child support, new hire, workers compensation, and unemployment insurance sites. An example of a state site that can provide employers useful payroll information is the California Employment Development Department site at www.edd.ca.gov/taxind.htm. For companies with employees in Canada, the Canadian Payroll Association’s site, www.payroll.ca/index.cfm, has links to Canadian employment-related sites. Clicking on “Payroll Mall” at the home page will lead you to the Canadian sites (click Government Links next). Links are provided to both Canadian federal and provincial government sites. Some links are also provided to employment-related sties in other countries. One of the Canadian government sites linked to is the Canadian Customs and Revenue Agency site, www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/business/topics/payroll/menu-e.html, which explains required payroll deductions for Canadian payrolls. The US Social Security Administration maintains links at www.ssa.gov/international/links.html to many country agencies, which administer social security-like programs for their respective countries. Some Internet sites provide access to interactive calculators, so that many specific calculations of interest to accountants, including payroll-related calculations, can be performed at the interactive sites. The Management Accounting Information Center has a separate topic listed on the front page, titled “Interactive spreadsheets and calculators and spreadsheet and database use information”, from which payroll-related interactive calculators can be linked to. 5. Mega Sites – Multi-Topics. Some websites provide substantive information, including links, to many topics such as employment law and compliance, benefit information, and payroll processing. This section identifies such sites. Also, this section includes sites that provide access to employment program and human relations practices. Will Yancey maintains a site at www.willyancey.com/emp_law.htm, which is a mega site with many links to other sites with information on employment-related topics. Sites have information on employment and benefits law, labor standards, unemployment and workers compensation, employee rights, labor-management relations, and workplace safety and health. Human Resource Executive Magazine and Cornell University maintain a site at www.workindex.com, which serves as a good search system to links to sites with information that cover a wide range of employment-related topics. HR.BLR.com, Inc. maintains a site at www.hr2.blr.com/index.cfm, which provides much accessible information on many employee-related topics. Overview information is provided on such topics as worker’s compensation, vacations and leave, and the Family and Medical Leave Act. Some information requires subscription for access. A site maintained by CCH, Inc. at toolkit.cch.com/text/P05_0000.asp provides a clear, concise overview of topics related to employees. Topics include recruiting and hiring, paying, benefits, rules, rewards, disciplining, and terminating. 6. Definitions and Employment-related Forms. Definitions for employment-related terms can be found at several Internet sites. The Management Accounting Information Center maintains a separate front-page topic titled “Definitions and explanations of terms, abbreviations, and acronyms”, from which you can find employment-related term definitions. The Management Accounting Information Center also maintains a front page topic tilted “Forms and worksheets needed by management accountants”. Many employment-related forms can be downloaded, or copied, from links provided under this topic. 7. Conclusions. The Internet provides an enormous amount of information that can assist the management accountant in completing work tasks related to payroll, tax deductions, employer compliance, and benefit program administration. Using the Internet efficiently and effectively will greatly increase the management accountant’s performance and the value he or she adds to the company. End. Please click here if you would like to comment on this article or suggest a topic for another article. Please click here if you want to return to the Management Accounting Information Center's front page. |
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| Finding Employment-related and Payroll Information on the Internet |