Payroll fraud, explained
Before you shop for software, it helps to know exactly what you're defending against. These guides cover the schemes themselves — how they work, what they cost, and how to catch them — plus the employment questions that show up the moment you find something.
The schemes, and how to catch them
What each kind of payroll fraud actually is, what it costs, and the controls that close it off.
What Is Payroll Fraud? A Plain-English Guide for Small Businesses
The main payroll fraud schemes — ghost employees, padded hours, diverted deposits — plus how common each one is and who tends to commit them.
8 min read
Ghost Employees: Red Flags and How to Find Them on Your Payroll
What a ghost employee actually is, the red flags that give one away, and a step-by-step audit you can run this week without special software.
9 min read
Time Theft and Buddy Punching: What They Cost and How to Stop Them
Buddy punching quietly costs about 2% of gross payroll. How to prevent it, what counts as time theft, and what the law says before you install anything biometric.
8 min read
How to Prevent Direct Deposit Fraud
The email asking payroll to update someone's bank details is clean — no malware, no bad link, nothing for a filter to catch. The control that actually stops it costs nothing.
8 min read
How to Detect Payroll Fraud: Red Flags and Controls That Work
Most payroll fraud is caught by a tip, not an audit. The data red flags, behavioral warning signs, and five controls that close the gaps.
10 min read
Payroll Fraud Statistics: What the 2026 Data Actually Says
Current payroll fraud numbers from the ACFE's 2026 Report to the Nations and the FBI's 2025 cybercrime data — median losses, durations, small-business risk, and honest notes on what each figure measures.
9 min read
Payroll Audit Checklist: The Checks That Actually Catch Fraud
A practical payroll audit you can run in an afternoon with reports you already have — roster reconciliation, duplicate bank accounts, overtime outliers, and the money trail.
9 min read
Segregation of Duties in Payroll: The Control Auditors Ask About First
Why one person controlling hiring, payroll, and the bank account is behind most payroll fraud — and how to split the duties even at a five-person company.
7 min read
How to Report Payroll Fraud: Who to Call, in What Order
The reporting paths for both directions — an employee suspecting their employer, or an owner who just caught someone — including the 72-hour window that decides whether stolen money comes back.
8 min read
Payroll Fraud Insurance vs. Prevention: What Actually Protects You
What employee dishonesty coverage really pays for, the social engineering sublimits that surprise people, why an ERISA bond doesn't protect your business — and where prevention fits.
8 min read
Firing, hiring, and compliance
The operator's version of the employment questions that come with payroll fraud — terminations, audits, and I-9 paperwork.
Can You Fire an Employee for Stealing? What to Do First
Almost always yes. What decides whether it costs you is the 48 hours before the termination — preserving evidence, the final paycheck, and who you tell what.
9 min read
Can You Fire an Employee for Time Theft?
Yes, and the trap is the final paycheck. You still owe wages for hours actually worked, so docking pay to claw back the stolen time turns your termination into a wage claim.
8 min read
What Triggers a Payroll Audit?
Three different things get called a payroll audit, and different people set each one off. Most start with one former employee making a phone call, not a computer flagging your return.
9 min read
The Remote I-9 Verification Process for Remote Employees
You can examine I-9 documents over video, but only if you're in E-Verify and only if you follow DHS's alternative procedure exactly. The three steps, the box everyone forgets, and who doesn't qualify.
8 min read
I-9 Reverification Rules: When You Must, and When You Must Not
Green cards and U.S. passports never trigger reverification, and asking anyway is its own violation. The documents that do expire, the deadline, and where Supplement B goes.
7 min read
Can You Run a Background Check Without Consent?
No — the FCRA requires a standalone written disclosure and signed authorization before any third-party consumer report, with narrow exceptions most employers assume don't apply to them.
7 min read
Background Check Cost Per Employee: What You'll Actually Pay
Published per-check prices across five vendors, from $13.99 database-only checks to $89.99 packages that actually catch a fabricated work history — and why the cheapest tier is usually the wrong buy.
7 min read
How Long Does a Background Check Take for Employment?
Most instant database checks clear in a day. The honest range is 1 to 5 business days, and it stretches fast the moment a county courthouse search or an employment verification step gets added to the package.
6 min read
What Shows Up on an Employment Background Check
Criminal records, identity checks, and verified job history — plus what legally can't show up, like arrests without a conviction past the FCRA's 7-year lookback, and why a clean report still isn't a guarantee.
7 min read
How Much Does Employment Verification Cost?
Not a background check — this is confirming someone's income and job history, and the pricing looks nothing like a criminal search: $20-$60 a pull for most vendors, free if you're the employer whose data gets pulled.
6 min read
How to Verify Employment Eligibility (I-9 and E-Verify, Explained)
Not the same question as verifying someone's job history. This is the I-9/E-Verify side — confirming a new hire is legally authorized to work in the US — and the .gov pages that own this search skip the parts employers actually get wrong.
8 min read
E-Verify Tentative Nonconfirmation: What TNC Actually Means
A mismatch isn't a rejection. The employee gets to contest it, the government gets eight working days to resolve it, and you're barred from acting against them while that clock runs — the walkthrough e-verify.gov doesn't give you.
7 min read
Can I Do Payroll Myself? What It Actually Costs You
Yes, legally, in all 50 states. The real cost isn't software, it's the IRS holding you personally liable for payroll taxes you forgot to deposit — and where that risk stops being worth the money saved.
8 min read
Can You Sue an Employee for Stealing Money?
Yes, and it runs alongside any criminal case rather than instead of it — but a judgment against someone with no assets is a piece of paper, and that's the part law-firm pages leave out.
7 min read