OneSource Virtual Blog

One in five U.S. payrolls contains errors, each of which costs an average of $291 to fix, according to Ernst & Young. It doesn't take much to make a mistake. A misplaced period, a four that looks like a nine, a wrong box checked — these are the kinds of small errors that can end up costing your business, not only financially but also by eroding employee trust, disrupting your operations, and tarnishing your organization's reputation. Understanding how errors like these occur is crucial to preventing them.

Payroll reporting is crucial for businesses across all industries. It's part of how organizations manage employee compensation, ensure compliance, and make informed, data-driven decisions. When they're detailed and accurate, payroll reports reveal valuable insights about labor costs, employee trends, and regulatory obligations.

The era of the traditional biweekly paycheck is coming to an end.

Most finance and HR leaders share a common goal: a truly unified system for payroll, benefits, and accounts payable. But poor data quality — including payroll data — costs companies an average of $12.9 million annually, according to Gartner. To avoid that risk, opting for a unified system allows companies to make faster decisions with better accuracy and reduced compliance risk.

Whether you're running a small business or managing HR for a large enterprise, one thing is the same: you have to pay your employees accurately and on time.

Data is everywhere. The companies that win are using the data they already have to make better decisions. Data-driven organizations are 23 times more likely to acquire customers, 6 times as likely to retain them, and 19 times more likely to be profitable, according to research by McKinsey.

With HR teams spending as much as 57% of their time on administrative tasks, strategic initiatives often take a back seat. This is far from ideal, considering how critical compensation management is to employee satisfaction, retention, and the success of your organization overall.

Payroll teams face a costly reality. Disconnected HR, finance, and payroll systems create data silos that lead to processing errors, compliance risks, and wasted administrative hours. But the Workday ERP system eliminates this problem by centralizing all workforce management functions on a single cloud platform.

In 2024, businesses paid $2.8 billion in payroll penalties for incorrect or missed employee payments — errors that help explain why one in three employees has quit a job over payroll problems.