What is a Payroll?

Definition: A company's financial list of the salaries, wages, bonuses, net pay, and deductions of their employees.

Within a company, payroll is the combination of all of the financial records of their employees' salaries, wages, bonuses and deductions.

In accounting, the term payroll signifies the amount that has been paid out to employees for the services they have done for the organization within a certain period of time.

An important part of financial accounting

Payroll is essential to a company’s financial accounting for many reasons.

In accounting, payroll is important because payrolls (and payroll taxes) greatly affect the net income of most companies. Payroll is also often subject to numerous laws and regulations that companies need to cooperate with.

Of course, payroll is also incredibly important to its recipients: the employees of a company. Employee morale can be negatively affected by errors and irregularities in payroll, so an organization must distribute payroll in an appropriate and precise manner.

It is critical that every employee receives their pay accurately and with the correct withholdings and deductions, and for an organization to guarantee that all of these withholdings and deductions are submitted in an appropriate manner to the correct entities. This may include salary payments, paycheck deductions and tax withholdings.