Payroll Investigations

Wage underpayments continue to be a significant issue for businesses across Australia. We specialise in providing payroll accounting services for organisations that have complex and challenging payroll issues.

Our services include:

  • investigations into whether wages have been paid in accordance with the relevant industrial instrument;
  • the quantification of wage underpayments;
  • assessing the configuration of payroll codes in order to identify inconsistencies with the relevant industrial instrument;
  • data analytical techniques to recalculate employee entitlements in accordance with the relevant industrial instrument rather than conducting manual calculations; 
  • assessing and providing recommendations in respect of improvements to internal payroll procedures and processes; and
  • periodic internal audits in respect of previously identified payroll issues and emerging payroll risks.

We regularly prepare expert reports for boards, law firms and for businesses that are self-reporting to the Fair Work Ombudsman or Fair Work Commission.

Morris Forensic’s most recent payroll investigations involved one of South Australia’s largest employers. In this regard, we were responsible for investigating and quantifying potential underpayments in respect of approximately 2,500 employees, spanning a seven-year period.  This involved the interrogation of over 50 million data points, including detailed time data, pay data and fingerprint data in order to calculate potential underpayments under various interpretations of the relevant industrial instruments applicable from time to time.