In treasury management, a payroll is the list of employees of some company that are entitled to receive pay as well as other work benefits and the amounts that each should receive. Along with the amounts that each employee should receive for time worked or tasks performed, payroll can also refer to a company's records of payments that were previously made to employees, including salaries and wages, bonuses, and withheld taxes, or the company's department that deals with compensation. One way that payroll can be handled is in-house, meaning that a company handles all aspects of the payroll process on its own, including timesheets, calculating wages, producing pay checks, sending the ACH (Automated Clearing House), for any direct deposits, and remitting any tax payments necessary. Payroll can also be outsourced to a full-service payroll processing company. When a company chooses to outsource their payroll, timesheets, wage calculations, creating pay checks, direct deposits, and tax payments can be handled all, or in part, by the payroll company.
Payroll plays a major role in the internal operations of a business for several reasons. From the perspective of accounting, payroll and payroll taxes are subject to laws and regulations. Payroll in the U.S. is subject to federal, state, and local regulations including employee exemptions, record keeping, and tax requirements. Payroll also plays a large role from the human resources point of view. Payroll errors, such as late or incorrect paychecks, are a sensitive topic that can cause tension between employees and their employer. One requirement to maintaining high employee morale is that payroll must be paid accurately and in a timely manner because employees are very sensitive to any payroll errors.