Customer Start-Up Procedures:  Payroll

HOW PAYROLL WORKS

The Payroll module is contingent upon the General Ledger System being setup. However, you have the option of integrating Payroll with Bank Reconciliation or Freight Settlements.

Setting up Payroll requires you to define Pay Types and Deductions which allows you to customize these fields to your business. Tax tables are accessible, allowing you to maintain updates when appropriate.

The Payroll system will calculate employee earnings and deductions, print checks, figure employee and employer taxes and post to the General Ledger system. Detailed employee check history is available. 941 Quarterly Detail and Tax Liability listings assist you when filling out quarterly reports. Computer generated W2 forms may be printed at end of year.

 

PAYROLL FEATURES

DEPARTMENTAL REPORTING: Employees are assigned to individual departments. The department file allocates General Ledger Account numbers to individual Pay Types. Quarter To Date and Year To Date wages for hours, miles and pay are, also, identified by department for reporting purposes.

USER DEFINED PAY CYCLE: You may specify as many pay cycles as you choose with each pay cycle code identifying number of pay periods and number of hours per pay period.

USER DEFINED DEDUCTION TYPES: You may specify 12 company deductions with each deduction having its own General Ledger Account Number, Tax Exempt options (Federal, State, FICA, Unemployment, Local 1 or 2), and whether the dollar amount is a Flat Amount or Percent Of Gross calculation. The computer will automatically calculate State and Federal taxes, however, an additional amount may be taken (per an employee's request) if you make Added State or Added Federal as one of your 12 deductions with the appropriate Type Code. Once the Deduction Label file is set up, you will need to set up the Deduction Schedule by individual employees. The Deduction Schedule identifies which week a deduction should be taken, the yearly maximum amount that should be taken, the year to date dollar amount that has been taken and whether the amount is a Percent Of Gross or Flat Amount. Employee information will override company information set up in the Deduction Label file.

USER DEFINED PAY TYPES: You may specify 12 company Pay Types (Regular, Overtime, Vacation, etc.) with each Pay Type having its own Tax Exempt options (Federal, State, FICA, Unemployment, Local 1 or 2).

FEDERAL AND STATE TAX TABLES: Federal and state tax tables may be entered and maintained by you as updates are released.

PAYROLL CHECK HISTORY: Detailed check information may be kept on file indefinitely. This allows you to print listings of your own creation whenever you choose. Earnings and deduction information may be tracked on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis by employee or by company. Before purging information by the year you select, you may write the detail history to a tape enabling you to restore information onto your hard disk at a later date.

AUTOMATIC APPLICATION OF EARNINGS AND DEDUCTIONS: Salaried employees may have their earnings and deductions automatically applied.

EARNED HOURS CONTROL: This is an optional feature allowing you to track earned hours for a particular pay type. Say, for example, the company policy is 40 hours of vacation after one year. At time card entry, if you entered hours in vacation pay and the employee already had a year to date total of 40 hours for vacation pay, a message would advise you of this and give you the option of continuing the entry.

CHECK STUB MESSAGE PRINT: An optional message print of two lines forty characters each on individual or all check stubs is available.

DIRECT DEPOSIT: Direct Deposit listing is available for company use with payroll check stubs being issued to the employee.

MANUAL AND REVERSE CHECK PROCESSING: You may enter checks written manually or reverse a check previously recorded.

AUDIT REPORTS: Check print edit lists are provided to review time sheet entry, employee deductions and tax calculation information before printing checks.

CHECK PRINTING: Checks may be automatically printed with check stub data showing earnings, deductions and tax information for the current pay period as well as year to date.

CHANGE LOG: This listing identifies any changes made to the Employee Master File.

TAX REPORTING: 941 Quarterly Detail and Tax Liability Listings are available.

W2 FORMS: W2's may be computer printed or filed by magnetic media.

 

INTEGRATING WITH OTHER MODULES

GENERAL LEDGER: When integrated with the General Ledger module, all earnings, deductions and tax information are posted directly to the General Ledger for both computer generated, hand written or reverse payroll checks. The General Ledger module provides financial reports for your company.

BANK RECONCILIATION: This module records all checks printed through the Payroll, Accounts Payable, Interline Payable and Freight Payable modules, as well as deposit information from the Accounts Receivable module. You need only verify that the transactions recorded by the system agree with the bank's statement. Any discrepancy or missing information is easily identified.

FREIGHT SETTLEMENTS: The Truckload Freight Billing module updates employee driver data into the Freight Settlement module. In the Freight Settlement module, you may identify driver earnings and over the road expenses to create a Net Settlement Amount. Information is updated into the Payroll module so Payroll deductions and taxes may be calculated before issuing the driver a check.

 

INFORMATION YOU NEED TO GET STARTED

Before beginning the Payroll system startup process, you should have the following information assembled and available for use:

• Your General Ledger Chart of Accounts.
• A list of the earnings and deductions used for Payroll processing.
• Employer federal, state and local tax ID numbers for each jurisdiction in which your employees are paid.
• Tax tables for the above federal, state and local tax jurisdictions.
• A list of employees, complete with personal information and quarter to date and year to date earnings and deduction history.

 

PAYROLL STARTING PROCEDURES

The startup process consists of:

1. Entering Payroll related General Ledger Account Numbers in the General Ledger module.
   
   
2. Changing the information in the General Ledger Journal Files to use the General Ledger Account Numbers you set up. The journals that are effected are 10040, 10041 and 10042.
   
   
3. Setting up the Payroll System Maintenance files. These files are accessed by selecting 12 (PAYROLL SYSTEM MAINTENANCE) from the Payroll Selector and then selecting the number corresponding to the desired option. The following Payroll System Maintenance files are required:
   

a. The Deduction Label file. You may choose up to eight of the following Type Codes:

' ' = Nothing Exempt	F = Flat Amount
G = Federal Tax Exempt	P = Percentage of Gross
S = State Tax Exempt	A = Added FIT Amount
C = FICA Exempt	D = Direct Deposit
1 = Local Tax 1 Exempt	T = Added State Tax Amount
2 = Local Tax 2 Exempt	U = Unemployment Tax Exempt

b. The Pay Type file.  You may choose up to five of the following Pay Types:

' ' = Nothing Exempt	G = Federal Tax Exempt
1 = Local Tax 1 Exempt	C = FICA Exempt
2 = Local Tax 2 Exempt	S = State Tax Exempt
R = Use Rate as Extension	U = Unemployment Exempt
X = Stop at Extension only

c. The Department Master file.

d. The Pay Cycle file. Suggested Pay Cycle Codes:

SW = Salary Weekly	HW = Hourly Weekly
SB = Salary Biweekly	HB = Hourly Biweekly
SM = Salary Monthly	HM = Hourly Monthly

e. The Unemployment Insurance Master file.
f. The Employee Master file.
g. The Deduction Schedule.
h. The Income Tax Tables file.
i. The Payroll Control file.
j. The Detail History file.
k. The Payroll Initialization file.

4. The following maintenance files are optional:

a. The Direct Deposit file.
b. The Earned Hour Control file.
c. The Message Center file.
d. The 401K Report Setup file.
e. The Exempt Pay For Percent Of Gross Calculation file.

 

CONVERTING FROM YOUR EXISTING PAYROLL SYSTEM

In order to obtain correct information from your Payroll module, you must first bring it "up to date" with your current payroll totals. This is true whether you are currently using a manual system or a different computerized Payroll system.

If you convert your payroll system at the beginning of the year, follow the 'Payroll Starting Procedures'. Additional information is not required to be entered.

If you convert your payroll system at any time other than the beginning of the year, you may enter individual check information or monthly or quarterly employee information by selecting 12 (PAYROLL SYSTEM MAINTENANCE) from the Payroll Selector and then selecting 3 (DETAIL HISTORY FILE). Please refer to the Detail History File operator instructions for further procedures.