Final answer:
The process of payroll preparation starts with determining the number of days worked by employees and includes various other calculations. Payroll surveys, like those conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, provide important data for managing payroll on a larger scale.
Step-by-step explanation:
The initial step in preparing a payroll involves determining the number of days each employee has worked within a pay period. However, this is just one aspect of payroll preparation. There are other important factors to consider such as calculating hours worked, overtime, deductions, and understanding the payroll survey data when making broader employment decisions.
For instance, the Bureau of Labor Statistics conducts a payroll survey to estimate several employment metrics, which can inform how payroll is managed on a larger scale within an economy. Furthermore, understanding one's individual employment situation, such as the frequency and period of paychecks, is critical for personal financial planning.
For exercise 78 concerning the mean number of sick days employees take, a small sample suggests that the personnel team should test the assumption that the mean number is 10 using statistical methods like calculating the sample mean and conducting a hypothesis test.