Real-life MMD: Should I let my brother pay staff twice?

ellesbellesxxx

I agree that you need to show what's happened - rather than it coming from auditing, when you will be compromised.
However, it's only fair for the employee (who if he is struggling, will have used it!) to come with a reasonable payment plan - so he may well have been helped by it anyway as it will be like an interest free loan!!!!

franr43

You're a generous sister providing free bookkeeping to a successful business! I wonder if this gives you a moral right to a bit of bookkeepers discretion...... maybe a quiet word to the person to payback later when his finances are in better shape?

starlet_haylz

Agree with most -it has to be disclosed and recovered but use tact and grace when doing so and sort out an affordable repayment plan. Plus, as someone else has already said Citizens's Advice are wonderful and might be able to help the employee.

cazpost

The obvious answer is to speak to your brother and the employee and arrange to deduct the overpayment from his salary at a reasonable amount over the next few months. If the auditors discover an error which you knew about it wil lead to disaster all round.
A more important moral dilemma to my mind is that ou appear to be holding a responsible position in a successful business for no pay! Is there some reason you do this other than being daft? Your brother shouldn't expect you to do this for nothing.

clairebear114

If you say nothing you are aiding and abetting this employee, who is not to be trusted. Sounds harsh, but it would be better to mention it to the employee now than do nothing and get yourself into trouble for incompetence later.

tain

It's a no brainer really.

You've been put in a position of trust. If you feel comfortable to even consider breaching that trust, then you shouldn't be doing the job.

tain

However, I wouldn't criticise the employee for a second like everyone else is.

It's not his fault he got paid twice, and it's not his duty to do the accounts to highlight that he'd been paid twice. Sure, it's 'dishonest', but I wouldn't hold that against anyone. You're asking them to be super honest in my opinion. I might just be a worse person than most, but the fault isn't with the employee at any stage in this process. There is no duty of honesty that they have to abide by, whereas the accountant does have that duty.

Gwendoloena

I'm guessing from your post that there are no other accountants and no auditors. It was an error that this person was paid twice- which is bound to occur when the only accountant for a successful firm is a part-time volunteer! As you say, this overpayment is probably way less than hiring an accountant! If you think that you can get away with it, say nothing. A lot of people are being harsh about the employee but most people would say nothing if they needed the money- others don't even keep track of their finances and wouldn't realise where the error was.

Brian_Steele

1) It would be dishonest of you not to report it if you found it.

2) Did this member of staff mention the double payment himself? I bet he would have mentioned it if he had been underpaid. I would question the honesty of a staff member who was given all that money and knowing that it was not his, decided to keep it anyway. Can you trust him to have the company's interest at heart in any other aspect of his employment?

If you think you are being taken advantage of, perhaps you should raise the issue of your free services being used for a company that does not need them. I am all for helping out family, but if this is a regular good deed with responsibilities, then you should be thinking about somehow sharing in the profits it helps to realise.

bagginslover

gloriouslyhappy wrote: »

I would have a quiet word with the employee, he must realise he's been overpaid and having it out in the open could be a big relief for him. Work out a repayment plan, you've mentioned he's struggling, so sort something out he can live with. Once that's done, tell your brother and make a note for the records. As others have said, the tax man as well as the accountants will spot the error sooner or later so much better to deal with it now in-house and have it all on the record.

Also, as part of your duty of care to your employee, I'd think about referring him to an advice and / or debt management organisation like the Citizens' Advice Bureau, see if they can give him some good pointers so he'll struggle a bit less.

Then, I'd have the payroll system thoroughly assessed to make sure no other duplicate payments occur, the poor employee really shouldn't be put in the position of thinking he's got a windfall when it's an accounting error!

This, exactly.
It's not the employees fault he's been over paid, and many people don't check their bank accounts as rigorously as they should, it is possible he's unaware. A friendly chat with him, working together to sort out a repayment plan seems the fairest way to me.