Finding 1161497 (2024-001)

2024-001 Improper Payroll Approvals Criteria: In accordance with the Agency’s written internal controls, for employee timesheets, “Supervisors review and approve subordinate’s time at the end of the pay period”. Condition: For 21 of 40 payroll transactions selected for testing during the year under audit, there was no approval of the employee’s timesheet by a Supervisor. Cause: Control activities relating to payroll timesheet approvals are not functioning properly, and the Agency was unable to provide written supporting documentation of Supervisor approval. Effect: The Agency is not following its documented internal controls relating to payroll timesheet approvals on a consistent basis. Recommendation: We recommend that the Agency adhere to written internal controls and ensure that all employee timesheets are approved at a level higher than the employee themselves. Additionally, we recommend that appropriate documentation of the approvals is retained. Corrective Action Plan: Employees approve their timesheets electronically, and then it moves to the manager for approval. Once approved the HR Manager reviews and makes any necessary corrections. The COO reviews it once corrected and approves the payroll for processing. The HR Manager will continue working with the payroll vendor to see if they could create a special report to use for our audit. We will create a log for the HR Manager and COO to initial to verify they approved the payroll.