Sumner County trustees press departments for correction plans after payroll and timekeeping errors

Sumner County trustees voted Feb. 5 to ask county departments to submit short, written correction plans after a report showed recurring payroll and time-sheet exceptions tied to the Kronos timekeeping rollout and some departments' separate systems.

The board was presented with a new report documenting missed termination paperwork, missed punches, misreported hours and late mileage logs. Unidentified Speaker 8, who walked trustees through the exceptions report, said supervisors and payroll staff had caught several issues but that patterns remained across departments.

"We have to capture the taxes from his next payroll shift," Unidentified Speaker 8 said describing adjustments made after late mileage and fringe-benefit submissions. The presentation included an example in which an employee's retirement paperwork submitted late required corrections to W-2/W-4 entries and payroll processing.

Trustees pressed staff on the county's phased Kronos implementation and on departments that continue to use local or manual timekeeping systems. Unidentified Speaker 5 urged supervisors to require monthly mileage and fringe-benefit submissions so the county can document due care in case of federal review.

"If they are a 100% service connected disabled, the state will pay a good portion of their taxes for them," Unidentified Speaker 6 said when explaining the veterans tax-relief process, a separate portion of the trustees report. "This year, the state is paying $622 toward taxes for our veterans, which is really good." (This quote was provided by county finance staff during the trustees report.)

Much of the meeting focused on the payroll scheduling problem known as "holdback," where some employees are on a different pay cycle. Unidentified Speaker 2, addressing how changing payroll timing would affect operations, said, "When I last looked at the numbers, it'll cost the county about $340,000 to pay out for time not worked." That figure was cited in discussion of whether to move all employees to a single pay cycle or to adjust processing deadlines.

Board members and department heads debated two practical options: pay a one-time cost to align pay periods or change the payroll processing schedule to reduce holdbacks. Several department leaders said the problem is most visible when an employee leaves because vacation and sick pay must be reconciled across pay cycles.

Trustees voted to ask each affected department to submit a short action plan describing the steps they will take to prevent the same payroll exceptions and to indicate whether they will move to monthly submissions or maintain existing practices. The motion passed on a voice vote.

The board also directed staff to consider running recurring exception reports (similar to purchase-order exception reports) to identify repeat offenders and departments needing extra training or process changes. No formal policy to change the payroll date or to pay an alignment lump sum was adopted at the meeting; trustees said those options would return for further discussion.

The trustees left follow-up items for staff: circulate a checklist for mileage and fringe-benefit submissions, confirm which departments have Kronos fully implemented, and report back with a recommended timeline for resolving holdback disparities. The meeting adjourned after the remaining agenda items were deferred to a later date.