A particularly elegant best practice that resolves this problem is to give employees direct access to the deduction data so they can determine the impact of deduction changes themselves and enter the changes directly into the payroll database. To do so, it is necessary to construct an interface to the payroll database that lists all deductions taken from employee paychecks (with the exception of garnishments, which are set by law). However, this is not enough, for most deductions are usually tied to a benefit of some sort. For example, a deduction for a medical plan can only be changed if the underlying medical plan option is changed. Accordingly, an employee needs access to a "split screen" of information, with one side showing benefit options and the other side showing the employee's gross pay, all deductions, and net pay. This view allows the employee to modify deductions and see the impact on net pay. Examples of deductions for which this data view will work are federal and state tax deductions, medical and dental plan coverage, life and disability insurance coverage, and pension plan deductions.

Though the primary emphasis of this best practice is on allowing employees to alter their own deduction information, it can be used in other ways, too. For example, employees can alter the bank routing and account numbers used for the direct deposit of their pay into bank accounts, or change the amounts split between deposits to their savings and checking accounts. They can also use this approach to process requests for additional W-2 forms or to download files containing the employee manual or other relevant personnel information.

This approach completely eliminates all work by the payroll staff to enter deduction changes into the computer. An added benefit is that employees are responsible for their own data entry mistakes. If they make an incorrect entry, they can go into the system themselves to correct it. The system can also be expanded to include other data items, such as employee names, addresses, and phone numbers. In addition, the deduction modeling system just described enables employees to determine precisely what their net pay will be, eliminating any surprises. In a more traditional system, an employee might make a deduction change without realizing the full impact of the change on his or her net pay and end up back in the payroll office, demanding a reversion to the old deduction level. By using the modeling system, the payroll staff can eliminate such repeat visits from employees.

This system will only work, however, if the organization is willing to invest a significant amount of software development effort to design an employee interface, as well as to provide either individual computers or central kiosks to employees so that they can use the system. Given its high cost, this system is usually found only in larger organizations with many employees, where the cost-benefit trade-off is obvious.