In a company, payroll is the sum of all financial records of salaries for an employee, wages, bonuses and deductions. In accounting, payroll refers to the amount paid to employees for services they provided during a certain period of time. Payroll plays a major role in a company for several reasons.
From an accounting perspective, payroll is crucial because payroll and payroll taxes considerably affect the net income of most companies and they are subject to laws and regulations.
Definition of 'Payroll'
The sum total of all compensation that a business must pay to its employees for a set period of time or on a given date. Payroll is usually managed by the accounting department of a business. Small-business payrolls may be handled directly by the owner or an associate.
Investopedia explains 'Payroll'
Payroll can also refer to the list of employees of a business and the amount of compensation that is due to each of them. Payroll is a major expense for most businesses and is almost always deductible as such.
Payroll can differ from one pay period to another due to overtime, sick pay and other variables.
The primary mission of the payroll department is to ensure that all employees are paid accurately and timely with the correct withholdings and deductions, and to ensure the withholdings and deductions are remitted in a timely manner. This includes salary payments, tax withholdings, and deductions from a paycheck.
Companies typically generate their payrolls at regular intervals, for the benefit of regular income to their employees. The regularity of the intervals varies from company to company, and sometimes between job grades within a given company. Common payroll frequencies include: daily, weekly, bi-weekly/fortnightly (once every two weeks), semi-monthly (twice per month), and to a somewhat lesser extent, monthly. Less common payroll frequencies include: 4-weekly (13 times per year), bi-monthly (once every two months), quarterly (once every