If your business has been audited by the IRS, you’re not alone.  According to IRS statistics, anywhere from .38% to 14.55% of businesses are audited annually (see data grid below). The government’s exact method for choosing who is audited remains a well-kept secret. However, the IRS boldly warned in a 2007 report that some business types are more likely to be audited than others. The IRS report states that “While large corporate audits are down slightly, we have increased our focus on mid-market those with assets between $10 million and $50 million dollars.”  See specific IRS service and enforcement tables here. Into what category does your business fall, and how likely are you to be audited?  What’s your worst fear in an audit? Are you prepared for it?

The burden of proof during an audit lies with you, the business owner, and the depth of records required by the IRS can be time-consuming and onerous at best.  AllBusiness.com posted an aptly titled article, “To Hell and Back: Different Types of Tax Audits”, which documents the extensive information that the IRS requires during a business audit. The IRS provides their auditors with specific guidelines to follow during a business audit that is industry specific. Do you know what your potential future auditor may ask of you? Become more prepared and look for your guide here.

Don’t be another IRS statistic

Audits are costly. The expense to your business will be massive, and the strain on your valuable employees even more so. Regardless of the kind of audit you may experience, it’s always helpful to have the information you need at your fingertips. Ascentis online payroll and HR software (HRIS) offers robust core functionality that supports the electronic documentation of most, if not all, employment and payroll related data you will need during an audit. Ascentis integrated systems include standard and customized reporting engines so HR and payroll teams can provide the specific and detailed data that audits often require.

Learn more

For more information, or to request a product demo, fill out this short form and let’s talk about how we can help your HR and payroll teams be more accelerated, efficient and compliant. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, the Ascentis HR, Benefits and Payroll News, and stay on top of industry news, best practices and always-evolving legislation. Follow Ascentis on Twitter and “Like us” on Facebook to receive great HR, payroll and business tips.

Ease of use is a vitally important feature for an HRIS. The learning curve on any new software is often a challenge for people whose primary function is non-technical, such as the average HR consultant. It is important that if the investment is made in a product, it is accepted to the extent that it becomes part of the fabric of the department. There are three things to look for that will make an HRIS easier to use and more accepted by staff:

• Wizards: Wizard-based technology makes it easy for staff to enter or import information and make changes and updates, by following through a set of simple instructional, fill-in the blanks forms on the screen, rather than their having to learn to program or call in the consultants.

• Strong HR facilities combined with flexible benefit capabilities: The system should be able to handle compensation, attendance and recruitment, and legal requirements such as FMLA and OSHA, while integrating them with benefits issues such as COBRA.

• Role-based operation: A good HRIS solution should be able to cater to the needs of a wide range of people and functions within the organization, and should appear seamlessly tailored to their requirements. Role based administration is becoming increasingly important in the HRIS marketplace. With this feature, HR administrators can define what an individual can see in the system, allowing managers access to the information they need about their particular team, while locking them out of information that is not pertinent to them. Role-based administration can extend further into proactive alerting—a particular manager or management level can be automatically alerted by the system that it is time to conduct a review, for instance, with those alerts being based on the specific mangers role and needs within the organization.

Ascentis provides fully integrated HRIS, self-service and payroll solutions that are especially designed for small to mid-sized organizations. For more information, visit www.Ascentis.com.