Payroll-Service Provider Mistakenly Doubles Up on Deposits

Duplicate wage-payment deposits to some employee bank accounts were inadvertently processed Sept. 26 by a large payroll-service provider, resulting in workers receiving funds from more than one paycheck.

Ceridian HCM Inc. experienced a service problem that resulted in duplicated payroll file instructions, said Teri Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Minneapolis company. The duplicate payments to direct-deposit accounts were made to an undisclosed number of U.S. customers that had a Sept. 27 pay date.

“While most employees did not notice any effect, some U.S. customers’ employees may have seen duplicate payroll deposits or pending transactions in their accounts,” Murphy said in an email Sept. 27 to Bloomberg Tax. “We transmitted reversal instructions to correct the issue and it has been fixed. Funds were distributed to employees today as expected.”

In one case, Bloomberg Tax learned that an employer in Hickory, N.C. said its payroll was processed multiple times, with some employees receiving three deposits of the same pay. In another case, an employee for a California company who is based in North Carolina said double payroll payments were made to her bank account.

Ceridian was working with clients that had unresolved problems, Murphy said, adding that the service provider hoped to quickly remedy those issues.

The payroll-service provider, with services that also include human resources, benefits, and workforce management, has global operations in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Mauritius, and the United Kingdom, as well as the U.S.