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PC-PR MANUAL
Version 1.7
Copyright 1988, Jerry Medlin
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
PC-PR is a payroll writing program for small and medium
size businesses. The program runs on a IBM PC or compatible
computer with one disk drive and 128k memory.
PC-PR is Shareware. That means you are free to try the
program and are encouraged to give copies to anyone who might
use it. Since the federal tax tables are included in the
program, you will need an updated version of the program each
year. The cost for the updated program is $35. The program as
distributed, includes the 1989 federal tax tables. To receive a
copy of the program with 1990 tax tables send $35 to:
Jerry Medlin
P.O. Box 357
Napa, Ca. 94559
The updated payroll program and a program to print 1989 W-
2's will be available in December 1989. Your payment will
entitle you to a telephone number for limited telephone
assistance should you require it.
To run the payroll program, simply type "PC-PR" at the DOS
prompt. If you want to specify a drive and path for your data
just add the drive and path description after the program name.
i.e. type "PC-PR B:PAYROLL\" to use the directory named PAYROLL
on the B drive for data files. If you just want the root
directory on B: drive you would type PC-PR B:
You will be asked to enter a date. This date will be used
to date all of the payroll checks written.
A menu is then displayed for operator selection:
Enter or Change Employee Data
Enter or Change Payroll Checks
Print Employee Listing
Print Payroll Check Listing
Print Payroll Ledger
Print Quarterly Summary
Zero Employee Balances
Enter or Change Employer Data
Export Employee Data
End Processing
Use the arrow keys to highlight your selection then press
return.
PC-PR is fast because it works with data in memory, but the
capacity is limited by available memory. Available memory is
shared by the data. With more employees on file, fewer payroll
checks can be entered. PC-PR allows a maximum of 500 employees
and 1000 payroll checks per accounting period with 512k of
memory. With 128k the capacity is reduced to about 200
employees and 200 checks.
Each time the menu is displayed, the number of payroll
checks that can be added with the available memory is printed at
the bottom of the screen. The number of employees that can be
added is obtained by dividing this number by 2, as each employee
takes up twice as much memory as a payroll check entry.
Since a power interruption will result in loosing all the
data currently entered into the program, you should occasionally
save your data back to the disk. This is done by selecting End
Processing from the menu. The current data will be saved to the
disk then you will be asked "Do you want to end ?". Just answer
with an "N" and you may resume processing.
THE PROCESSING CYCLE
Payroll checks may be written on any cycle from daily to
annually. After each batch of payroll checks, you should print
the Payroll Check Listing report and the Payroll Ledger report.
This will provide a printed "audit trail". Although the program
will work just fine without printing these reports, you will not
have any printed record of where you got all those numbers on
the employee's W-2.
Each time the program is run, all employee data is loaded
into memory. You will then be asked: "Do you want to start a
new payroll period? (Y/N)". Usually, you will answer Y to this
question and a new payroll period will be started. If you ended
the previous payroll without printing any reports you should
answer with a "N", and all payroll checks written since the last
"Y" answer will be loaded into memory. You can then continue
writing checks to be added to the previous batch of checks.
Payroll Checks are printed as the payroll data is entered.
When all of the payroll checks for the current payroll have been
printed, you may begin printing reports. Reports may be printed
in any order and as often as desired. If you discover an error
in any of the reports you may correct the problem and reprint
the report. At any time you can stop processing by choosing the
End Processing selection from the menu. Data will automatically
be saved.
ENTER OR CHANGE EMPLOYER DATA
Before you can do anything with PC-PR you need to enter a
screen of employer information. This employer information need
only be entered once and then changed whenever any of the
relevant data changes. This is done by selecting ENTER OR
CHANGE EMPLOYER DATA from the main menu. When the program is
first run, most of the data is blank. By using the up and down
arrows, you can select each field to be changed then by pressing
"C" you may change the information in that field.
Space is provided for the employer name (2 lines), employer
address (2 lines) and employer federal and state identification
numbers. The first line of the employer name will be printed on
all reports. The remaining name and address information is used
only for printing W-2's at the end of the year.
The number of paydays per year is required to calculate
federal income tax to be withheld and must be a number between 1
and 52. Weekly payroll would be 52 paydays per year,
semimonthly payroll would be 24 paydays per year, biweekly
payroll would be 26 paydays per year and monthly payroll would
be 12 paydays per year. If the federal withholding amounts are
calculating incorrectly, it is because you have not entered the
correct number for the number of paydays per year.
Next you must fill in the information for payroll
deductions. There are 6 deductions possible with PC-PR. The
first deduction will always be federal income tax withholding
(FWH). The remaining five deductions must be named by the user.
You may also set a limit for each deduction and the percentage
to be withheld. For instance social security tax (FICA) for
1989 is limited to 7.51% of the first $48000 of income. Anyone
who earned more than $48000 will not have social security tax
deducted after they reach $48000.
A zero value for the limit and percentage means that this
deduction must be input by the user. Such is the case with some
state income taxes and for any miscellaneous deductions.
A negative value for deduction percent will tell the
program to calculate the tax as a percentage of federal
withholding. So, if your state income tax is 10 percent of
federal income tax, you should enter 10.00- for the deduction
percent for that deduction.
A negative value for the deduction limit will tell the
program to reduce the annual taxable income by that amount per
dependent before multiplying it by the percentage. For
instance, Illinois state income tax is calculated by reducing
the taxable pay by $1000 per dependent on an annual basis and
multiplying it times 2.5 percent. So, you would enter -1000 for
the deduction limit and 2.5 for the percentage. Several other
states have similar withholding plans, including Michigan.
A value of 99.99 for the deduction percent will tell the
program to use the state income tax withholding tables. The
opening screen of PC-PR states which state tax table is
supported. If no state is mentioned in the opening screen, the
California tax table is included.
Next, you may input information for calculating up to 6
payroll tax amounts. This information is used to print at the
bottom of the payroll ledger report a summary of payroll taxes
due for the quarter. It is especially useful for calculating
employer paid payroll taxes like federal unemployment insurance
(FUI), which is based on payroll paid up to a certain amount for
each employee.
Since PC-PR requires a printer capable of printing at least
96 characters across a page, you must let the program know what
printer codes are required to set your printer to 10 and 12
characters per inch (cpi). If your printer is already set up to
print at least 96 characters or you use switches to set the
printer pitch then you can leave this part blank. Otherwise,
enter in hexadecimal the code or codes required to change your
printer pitch to 10 cpi and 12 cpi. Your printer manual should
contain this information.
If your printer does not allow 12 characters per inch,
enter the code for compressed printing. For instance, if you
have an older model Epson printer you would enter the following:
10 cpi 12
12 cpi 0F
For a HP Laser Printer the settings are:
10 cpi 1B266B313248
12 cpi 1B266B313048
For newer Epson and compatible printers the settings are:
10 cpi 1B50
12 cpi 1B4D
The following is an example of a completed employer data
screen for the state of California for the 1989 tax year and
using a Prowriter or C-Itoh 8510 printer. Your data will vary
depending on state law and the type of printer you are using.
Employer Data
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Name 1 JOHN HENRY'S DRILLING Printer Control Codes
Name 2 & EXCAVATING INC.
Address 1 333 OAT HILL ROAD
Address 2 CALISTOGA, CA. 94598 10 Cpi 1B4E
Federal ID 94-2678232 12 Cpi 1B45
State ID 250-7432-4
Paydays per year 26
Deduction Limit Percent P/R Tax Limit Percent
FWH None Table
FICA 48000 7.51 FICA 48000 7.51
SDI 21900 0.90 SUI 7000 2.30
SWH 0 99.99 ETT 7000 0.10
Insur 0 0.00 FUI 7000 0.80
Other 0 0.00 SDI 21900 0.90
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Use the up and down arrows to move the pointer
then <C> to change or <Esc> to exit.
ENTER OR CHANGE EMPLOYEE DATA
Employee information is entered and changed using this
selection from the menu. The following information is entered
for each employee:
Employee name - Up to 25 characters are available.
Street Address - Up to 25 characters for the street
address.
City, State & Zip - Up to 25 characters for the city, state
& zip code.
Sort by - A ten character code that will be used to sort
employees in alphabetical order. Employees are sorted each
time you leave the ENTER OR CHANGE EMPLOYEE DATA section.
In most cases you will want to enter the employee last
name, followed by as much of the first name as will fit in
the remaining characters. For instance, if the employees
name is Jerry Medlin, the employee code would be
MEDLINJERR. When a new employee name is entered, the
program will make a pretty good guess and enter a sort code
for you. If you want to change it just press the escape
key and you can type the sort code.
Social Security - Enter the employee social security number
without spaces or dashes. Dashes will be added later when
the social security number is printed on reports.
Status - Marital status can be either M for married or S
for single.
Allow - The number of allowance claimed by the employee.
Enter a number from 0 to 9 or the letter E if the employee
is exempt from federal tax. Entering an S for allowance
will tell the program to input federal tax from the
keyboard instead of calculating it.
Rate - The employees hourly wage rate. If you wish, you
can enter the pay rate for a whole pay period then enter
the hours as 1 when entering payroll check data.
Dept - Enter a department number between 0 and 9. This
number will be used to summarize payroll by department at
the end of the Payroll Check Listing. When an employee no
longer works for you, you can enter an "X" for department
and the employee will be omitted from payroll and employee
listings but retained for W2 purposes.
Pressing the Escape key during entry takes you back to the
previous field. Pressing the Escape key at the first entry
takes you to the command mode. The command mode allows you to
scroll up and down through the employee names, delete employees
and change employee information. Pressing the Escape key from
command mode takes you back to the menu.
If you don't know the employee's address or social security
number, you can leave that information blank for now and fill it
in later using the <C> Change option.
The <E> Enter New Balances command allows you to enter new
quarter and year to date balances for an employee. Be careful!
The principal purpose of this selection is to allow you to enter
opening balances when you first begin using PC-PR. It will also
allow you to enter incorrect balances and foul things up!
At times you may want to find an employee without scrolling
through the entire employee list. The <G> Go to Employee
selection from the command mode allows you to do this. Just
enter the employee's name or even the beginning of the name and
the program will take you immediately to that employee.
The acceptable commands at any point are printed at the
bottom of the screen.
ENTER OR CHANGE PAYROLL CHECKS
Payroll checks are printed on a common check form from New
England Business Services (NEBS). The checks should be ordered
pre printed and numbered. You will need to send a voided check
with your account number, your company name and address and the
beginning check number to: NEBS, 500 Main Street, Groton, MA
01470. You can get pricing and order information by calling
NEBS at 800-225-9550. The form number is 9022 and the catalog
code number is 03897.
With the PRCONFIG program provided to registered users you
can elect to print on a variety of check forms. See the
description of PRCONFIG at the end of this manual for details.
The ENTER OR CHANGE PAYROLL CHECKS selection allows you to
enter or change payroll checks. Payroll checks are normally
printed as the payroll information is entered. This normally
causes no delay with most printers and results in a shorter
overall time for doing a payroll. If you prefer, you can skip
printing the checks as they are entered and print them one at a
time using the <P> Print command.
Before any payroll checks can be entered you must have your
employer information entered into the program as explained in
the previous section.
The following information must be entered to calculate a
payroll check:
Date - The date entered at the beginning of the processing
period is automatically entered for each payroll check.
The only way to change the date is to go back to the date
entry at the beginning of the program and enter a new date.
Employee Name - No, you don't have to type in the employees
name. Just use the up and down arrows on the number pad to
search for the employee you want to pay. When you find the
right employee just press the return or enter key. There
is no need to memorize employee numbers. Payroll checks
are entered by name only.
Check Number - Up to 4 characters for the check number.
Alphabetic characters are allowed. Pressing the return or
plus <+> key enters a number equal to the previous check
number plus one.
Total Hours - The total hours worked by this employee for
the pay period. This will be multiplied by the rate
entered for the employee to determine regular pay. The
total hours should include any overtime hours to be entered
below.
O.T. Hours - Overtime hours worked for the pay period.
This number will be multiplied by one half the rate entered
for the employee to determine the overtime excess pay. If
a weekly employee worked 42 hours, enter 42 hours for Total
Hours and 2 hours for O.T. Hours.
Other Income - Enter the dollar amount of any other income
to be paid during this pay period. You could use this
entry for entering total pay for salaried employees.
Non Taxable - If you want to add a non taxable payment to
the check such as an auto allowance or reimbursement for
supplies paid for by the employee, you can enter it here.
Be sure the amount you are entering is, in fact, non
taxable. The amount will simply be added to the net check
with no deductions taken.
The program will then instantly calculate the payroll
deductions that are supposed to be calculated and prompt you to
enter the deductions which are not calculated. You will then be
presented with four choices:
<Return> or <+> Print this check <C> Change this check
<X> Skip Printing <Esc> Cancel this check
Normally you will press the return or plus key and the
check will be printed. If you made an error in one of the steps
above, or if you want to change one of the deduction amounts you
should select <C> and you will be given an opportunity to change
any of the check information and then returned to the above four
choices. Should you not want to print the check at this time
you can press the X key. The <X> Skip Printing choice is
usually used when you want to enter a manually written check
into the payroll. Pressing the Escape key will cancel the
check.
Pressing the Escape key during entry takes you back to the
previous field. Pressing the Escape key at first entry position
(Name) takes you to the command mode.
The command mode allows you to scroll up and down through
the entries, delete entries, change entries, and print any
checks you left unprinted. From the command mode you may press
the <T> Total key to see the total all of the payroll checks
written so far.
Pressing the Escape key from command mode takes you back to
the menu. All the available commands are printed at the bottom
of the screen and may be chosen by a single keystroke.
PRINTING REPORTS
When you first enter the PC-PR program you will be asked to
enter a report date. This date will be used on all reports. If
you want to change the report date you can do so by pressing
Escape at the Main Menu.
PRINT EMPLOYEE LISTING
This is a listing of all current information for each
employee. You may use this sheet as a payroll input sheet for
the next pay period and to check addresses and social security
numbers for accuracy.
PRINT PAYROLL CHECK LISTING
This report list all of the payroll checks written for the
payroll period. At the end of the payroll check listing the
total of all checks is printed followed by a breakdown of
payroll by department. This report should be printed and
retained after each payroll for a permanent record.
PRINT PAYROLL LEDGER
The payroll ledger is an important "audit trail" for the
PC-PR program. It lists each employee with his or her payroll
balance at the beginning of the payroll period. Then each
payroll check for the employee is then printed followed by the
quarter to date and year to date balances for the employee at
then end of the payroll period.
Important! If you don't print the Payroll Ledger Report
before starting a new payroll period, you will not have a
permanent record of how the payroll balances arrived at their
total for the year or quarter. This means that you won't be
able to show the employee or the IRS where all those numbers on
the W2 form came from. The Payroll Ledger should be printed
after each payroll.
At the end of the Payroll Ledger report the quarterly
payroll tax liabilities are calculated and printed. These
numbers have no effect on payroll, but are there to help you
fill out the various state and federal payroll tax forms. The
calculations are based on information you entered in the ENTER
OR CHANGE EMPLOYER INFORMATION section of the program.
PRINT QUARTERLY SUMMARY
This report will give you the Federal Liability by Paydate
information required at the bottom of the Federal Form 941. For
this report to be correct, you must have completed the quarter
using this program and you must have used the second deduction
(the one after federal withholding) for Social Security (FICA)
tax. The totals on this reports may vary from the total
liability by a few pennies due to round off errors.
START A NEW QUARTER OR YEAR
At the end of each quarter, before you print the first
payroll check for the new quarter, you should use this selection
to set all employee quarter to date balances to zero. At the
end of the year you should set all employee year to date
balances to zero. When you select this choice from the menu you
will be asked to enter a "Q" to zero quarter to date balances or
a "Y" to zero year to date balances. Hitting any other key will
return you to the menu with no changes made. It is up to the
user to remember to set quarter to date balances to zero at then
end of each quarter and to set year to date balances to zero at
then end of the year. Forgetting to set quarter to date
balances to zero is the most common mistake for beginning users
of this program.
EMPLOYEE HISTORY REPORT
The program retains payroll checks from the last 9 payroll
periods on your data disk. The employee history report allows
you to review those checks for any or all employees. This
report is sometimes helpful in filling out state or local
reports that request the number of payroll periods worked.
EXPORT EMPLOYEE DATA
This selections allows you to print at least some of the
employee data to a file called PR.PRN. This file can then be
read into many spreadsheet and database programs, allowing you
to use the employee data for other purposes.
The file PR.PRN is created as soon as you select this
option from the menu. You can view the file after you exit PC-
PR by typing TYPE PR.PRN. You can also load the resulting data
into LOTUS 123 using the import/numbers option.
The Export Employee Data option is provided only as a
convenience for those advanced users who need the data for other
purposes. Otherwise, you need not use this option.
SAVE DATA AND END
When processing is completed you must exit the program
using this selection. If you just want to save the current
data to the disk without ending, you may answer "N" to the
question "Do you want to end processing?" and you will be
returned to the menu.
PROGRAM LIMITATIONS
I have tried to write a simple payroll writing program that
complies with the multitude of laws regarding payroll. As a
result, the program works for most payroll situations, but not
all.
The program is not recommended for any payroll applications
that require FICA wages to be different from taxable wages.
This includes companies that deduct for pension and deferred
compensation plans, supplemental unemployment compensation plans
and students working for private schools.
The program will handle tips declared by employees, but the
tax summaries at the end of the Payroll Journal will always
include the tips, which may not be correct in some situations.
If you have different payroll periods for different
employees the program won't work for you.
In addition, the following situations will require amounts
to be manually entered or changed before the check is printed:
State Income Tax Withholding - Many state legislatures have
created withholding schemes that are even more complicated than
the federal system. At present the program only supports a
limited number of states plus all states with an income tax that
is 1) a fixed percentage of gross pay, 2) a percentage of
federal taxes, 3) a fixed percentage of gross pay after a flat
deduction or 4) zero. Most users have found that it doesn't
slow them down too much to manually enter state withholding.
Family employees - If you are a sole proprietorship and you
pay family members you must manually change the FICA deduction
to zero. Remember that the tax due calculations at the end of
the Payroll Journal will include the family employee, so that
amount must be subtracted before calculation the tax due.
Earned Income Credit - I have never known an employee to
claim this credit. If you have one, you must manually calculate
the amount and enter it in the federal withholding field and
keep a separate manual record of the amount.
Additional withholding amount - If an employee wants an
additional amount added to his or her federal withholding, you
must enter it manually.
USING THE CONFIGURATION AND W-2 PRINTING PROGRAM
The configuration program (PRCONFIG.EXE) is provided to all
registered users. It allows you to change certain features of
PC-PR and to print W-2's at the end of the year. The
PRCONFIG.EXE program and the main program (PC-PR.EXE) should
both be on the same disk drive when you configure your copy of
PC-PR. Just run the program by typing PRCONFIG at the DOS
prompt. To configure PC-PR select the first menu choice. Then,
use the up and down arrows to move the pointer and then press
<C> to change an item. You will be allowed to change the
following information:
Display Colors - If you have a color adapter and monitor,
you can change the colors for screen borders, program
prompts, data, and background. Allowable colors are from
0 to 15 except for background color which can only be from
0 to 7. The display will be instantly updated as you
enter the new colors.
Laser Printer? - You will also be able to change the way
PC-PR starts a new page. Usually, PC-PR starts a new page
by counting lines until the page total equals 66 lines (or
42 lines for checks). If you enter a "Y" for the laser
printer question, PC-PR will start a new page by issuing a
form feed command. This would work just fine on most other
printers too, but requires that you set the top of form
before you start printing.
Disk Drive and Path - Enter a drive and path designation
for PC-AP data. If you want the program to read data from
the B drive just enter B:.
Non Taxable Name - Normally this is just called "Non
Taxable", but if you want to get more specific by calling
it "Auto Allowance" or "Expense Reimb" you can do so.
Payroll Periods to Save - The PC-PR program saves previous
checks on your data disk for later review with the
Employee History Report option. Normally the payroll
checks for the previous 9 payroll periods are saved. You
may modify this number to be anywhere from zero to 30
payroll periods. Remember, the more data you save, the
more room you need on the data disk and the more time it
will take to review an employee's history.
Top or Bottom Stub Check - PC-PR normally prints on a check
form with the stub on the bottom. Enter a "T" for top
stub or a "B" for bottom stub.
Check Number Printed on Check? - Enter a "Y" for yes or "N"
for no. See below for more information.
Long Laser Check? - If you have a laser printer you can
choose the new 11 inch long laser checks. You will not be
asked this question unless you answer "Y" for laser
printer.
When you have finished making your changes, press the
escape key to return to the main menu. When you exit the
program, you will then be asked if you want to save the changes.
If you answer with a Y, both the configuration program and PC-AP
will be changed until you run the configuration program again.
CHECKS SUPPORTED
Normally, PC-PR prints on NEBS check form 9022 which is a
bottom stub check with no check number printed on the check. By
combining the Top/Bottom choice with the Yes/No choice for
"Check Number Printed on Check", you can choose from a variety
of different check styles. Use this chart to configure the PC-
AR program for the proper check.
NEBS Form Number Stub Location Num on Check? Long Check?
=============================================================
9020 Top Yes *
9022 Bottom No *
9024 Top No *
9027 Top No No
9215 Bottom Yes *
9039 Top No Yes
* Not normally used on laser printers
PRINTING W-2'S
Before printing W-2's, you should check the standard setup
for W-2's by selecting the second menu choice in the PRCONFIG
program. You can select which deductions you want printed in
the different blocks of the W-2 form. If any of the blocks
along the top of the W-2 form require checking, it will have to
be done manually. So, if an employee has a deferred
compensation or pension plan or is deceased, be sure to go back
and manually X out the proper block after you print the W-2.
W-2's will print on standard, one-wide W-2 forms, but since
most printers are not capable of printing 6 copies, you might
want to order W-2 forms in "twin sets". New England Business
Service (NEBS) offers W-2 forms in 3 part employee and 3 part
employer forms which you print separately. The form number is
9859 and the catalog code number is 03897.
If you use a laser printer, the program will print on cut
sheet W-2 forms from NELCO. NELCO's phone number is (414) 337-
1000 and the form numbers are BW2FED, BW2ER and BW2ER. Also, be
sure that you choose laser printer operation and that you choose
the alternate W-2 format.
HELPFUL HINTS
The program makes liberal use of the ten key pad for both
numbers and commands. The Num Lock can be on all the time.
When inputting information, the plus <+> key has the same
effect as the return or enter key. Numerical information is
entered "calculator style". The decimal point is placed
automatically. The minus <-> key enters a negative number.
This makes using the numeric key pad even easier.
The escape key is always used to go back to the previous
operation. From anywhere in the program if you continue to
press the escape key you will eventually return to the opening
date question.
The first 9 times you start a new payroll period more disk
space is required for historical files. If you have a large
business and you are using floppy disks for data storage, you
could run out of disk space. Check available disk space with
Dos's DIR command occasionally.
If you void a payroll check before you start a new payroll
period, you may simply delete the check from the payroll checks
by pressing the delete key when the check is displayed on the
screen.
If you void the check after a new payroll period has
started, you must enter the check as a negative payroll check so
that the amounts will be reversed from the employee's payroll
totals. Negative numbers are entered by first entering the
amount then pressing the minus <-> sign.
If the federal withholding is not calculating correctly,
check to see that the correct number of payroll periods has been
entered in the Enter or Change Employer Data section.
Federal withholding amounts are calculated using the
percentage method detailed at the front of the Circular E
withholding booklet. The method is actually more accurate than
using the tables and will result in a small difference from the
amounts in the withholding tables if the wages fall near the top
or bottom of a wage bracket. So, if the calculated amount
differs from the tables by a few dollars, it's not a problem.
SPECIAL WARNING: Garbage In - Garbage Out.
Although I have made every effort to eliminate the most
common operator errors, it is still possible to enter complete
nonsense into this program and get incorrect payroll from the
program. Just because it is a computer doesn't make it
automatically correct. Look at the checks and printouts and
make sure the numbers are reasonable. If you enter an incorrect
check, be sure and void it. It is your responsibility to see
that your employees and the government get correct information.