Accounting Best Practices, Fifth Edition

17–15. Only Allow On-Line Payroll Remittance Viewing if Employees Use Direct Deposit

Some employees have a strong preference for being handed an actual paycheck, walking it to a bank, and cashing it themselves, no matter how many inducements a company dangles before them to use direct deposit. Thus, there is always a small percentage of employees for whom the company must create a different paycheck-handling process.

A subtle inducement to make them switch to direct deposit is to implement an on-line payroll remittance system (as noted in the previous best practice), but to allow viewing of the information only if an employee has also enrolled in the direct deposit program. Given the increasing dependence of society on access to electronic information, it is entirely possible that this added benefit will persuade a few more employees to make the switch to direct deposit. The lure will be especially great if additional features are added to the on-line payroll remittance program, such as allowing the viewing of multiple years of payroll information and access to an on-line W-2 form.

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