The personnel department prepares a

The personnel department prepares and submits personnel action forms to the payroll department. These documents are used to effect changes in hourly pay rates, payroll deductions, and job classification. They also identify employees who are authorized to receive a paycheck. This information plays an important role in preventing errors and payroll fraud. A common form of fraud is to submit timecards on behalf of employees who are not employed by the firm. To prevent this kind of fraud, someone in the payroll department should be designated to compare timecards with the list of authorized employees sent from personnel. Another common fraud is to create checks for “ghost” employees. The authorization of employees should be done in such a way as to help prevent this kind of fraud.