Companies don't always reflexively carry out a payroll and social security audit, but are delighted when it's over.
Performing an audit is essential for a number of reasons, which we'll explain in detail below.
The first reason to carry out a payroll and social security audit: the 2023 URSSAF audit results
URSSAF's annual activity report, for the year 2023published in August 2024 gives the following assessment of the controls carried out:
- 800 million in adjustments were made in 2023: 648 million euros were adjusted (+26 % compared with 2022) and 152 million were refunded to companies, i.e. 19 % of the total amounts adjusted.
- The adjustments relate in particular to the following reasons,
- General reduction in contributions on low salaries (111 million euros)
- Mobility payment, calculation of base or liability (65 million euros)
- Unjustified allowances and reimbursements (54 million euros)
Faced with these very high amounts of reassessments, increased vigilance in the application of laws and regulations is imperative, but payroll teams do not always have the time to do this.
Second reason to carry out a payroll and social security audit: the regulatory context
As you intuitively know, France's normative activity is dense. A report by Senators DEVINAZ, MOGA and RIETMANN in 2023 on "Normative restraint to boost business competitiveness". confirmed this intuition with factual elements:
- France has 400,000 applicable standards,
- 1,786 regulatory decrees were passed in 2022,
- The number of words per law between 2002 and 2021 rose from 322,639 to 591,595 (an increase of 83 %).
Faced with this normative context, according to our estimates, payroll departments would have to spend 600 hours a year reading the news!
Third reason to carry out a payroll and social security audit: the context of payroll teams
The payroll department is at the heart of the company's reactor and plays a strategic role. What would a company do without a payroll team, or with one that was failing? Incorrect DSNs, unpaid or incorrectly paid wages...
The payroll teams are there in spite of everything, and are committed whatever the cost. These payroll teams whose role is not "simply" to press a button!
Payroll teams are therefore highly sensitive within an organization. The day-to-day work of these teams, combined with the vagaries of replacements, stoppages, entries/exits, etc., makes updating knowledge and practices a complex task.
This is precisely why a payroll audit is so useful. This analysis highlights good practices and those that need to be improved, in order to limit the risk of adjustments or even better receive reimbursements of contributions.
Find out more about our methodology, you can click herei or contact our experts for a chat.
