·2 min read·HRPPL Team
Top 10 Payroll Errors and How to Prevent Them
Payroll errors damage trust and trigger compliance risk. These are the ten errors we see most often — and the controls that stop them.
Why payroll errors compound
A small payroll error rarely stays small. A wrong tax code repeats every pay run. An unpaid allowance accumulates across the team. Errors compound until an audit, a complaint, or an EOFY reconciliation forces a reckoning.
The top 10
- Wrong tax code — TFN declaration not loaded, study/training loans missed.
- Missed allowances — tool, vehicle, first-aid, meal.
- Incorrect super base — applying SG to OTE only, missing items it should cover.
- Wrong overtime calculation — daily vs weekly thresholds confused.
- Late STP submission — pay event missed, finalisation delayed.
- Manual leave balance drift — manual adjustments without payslip trail.
- Bank file errors — ABA file not regenerated after late corrections.
- Termination pay omissions — leave loading on termination, redundancy, notice.
- Salary sacrifice misreporting — pre-tax amounts shown in gross.
- Reimbursements taxed as income — expense reimbursements wrongly treated as wages.
Controls that prevent each
- Two-person review on any change to tax setup or super fund.
- Variance report comparing this pay to last pay, with thresholds.
- Automated award and allowance application by award engine.
- Real-time STP submission, not batched at EOFY.
- Read-only leave balances driven by accrual rules.
- Locked ABA files with hash check.
- Termination calculator linked to the offboarding workflow.
HRPPL builds these controls into the pay run by default — variance reports, audit logs, and an STP dashboard are part of every cycle.
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