Business Assistant

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Business Assistant / Business Assistant.iso / acctg / payr222 / payusa.doc < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1989-02-14 | 51.1 KB | 1,550 lines

ANTHISTLE SYSTEMS & PROGRAMMING LTD. 563 Patricia Drive, Oakville, Ontario, Canada L6K 1M4 Telephone : (416) 845 7959 30th. July 1988 PAYROLL USA PROGRAM DOCUMENTATION ===================== Take a Look at the Slide Show ----------------------------- This file forms part of the overall documentation. We strongly suggest that you take a look at the Slide Show for an overview of what this system is all about. The Slide Show is contained in PAYUS21A.ARC AND PAYUS21B.ARC and these will have been unpacked onto the C:\PAYSLIDE directory. To see the Slide Show: C: CD \PAYSLIDE RUNSLIDE Where to find More Documentation -------------------------------- We also suggest you may wish to look at the following files for additional information on specific points: PAYUS21B.ARC Contains: INSTALL TXT 14364 7-29-88 Installation Guide / File List SAMP_RPT TXT 47685 7-28-88 Sample Reports Once the .ARC files are unpacked the above two .TXT files will be found on C:\PAYSLIDE . They can be read on your screen, and/or printed out, from the RUNSLIDE menu. (The Slide Show itself can also be seen and/or printed out from the RUNSLIDE menu). PAYUS21C.ARC Contains: BACKUP TXT 9797 7-26-88 Information on Backing Up Employees PUSAFORM TXT 1721 6-04-87 Optional Employee Data Collection Form INVOICE TXT 2449 7-25-88 Order form to Register NEWVIEWS DOC 11576 7-25-88 NewViews Users, how to import PAYUSA Once the .ARC files are unpacked the above three .TXT files and the above .DOC file will be found on C:\PAYPGMS Also in PAYUS21C.ARC and unpacked onto C:\PAYPGMS you will find PRINTDOC EXE 9700 7-30-88 Prints or Displays ALL documentation If you run the above program by typing PRINTDOC at the DOS Prompt for C:\PAYPGMS and pressing Enter it will print or display on the screen your choice of any or all or the documentation including the files that can be printed from RUNSLIDE, but excluding the Slide Show which can only be printed from RUNSLIDE as it has to be specially processed by the DEMOPRN.EXE program to translate the screens into printable characters. You even have an option to transfer to RUNSLIDE from PRINTDOC . Also, the Employee Update program (PAYUSEDT.EXE), and the Check and Report Print program (PAYUSPRT.EXE), both have main menu choices to read additional Program / Registration Information (which includes our legal Limitation of Liability statement, and our fee for telephone consultations in excess of the free 30 minutes allowed with each Registration). All users, Registered or Not, are deemed to have read it so please take a look at it. In addition to all this, the programs themselves are menu driven and contain lots of helpful information which is presented as it might be needed. Taking a Look at the Working Programs ------------------------------------- So, you have at least read the INSTALL.TXT file and seen the Slide Show, now you want to get PAYROLL USA working. To use the PAYROLL USA system C: CD \PAYPGMS PAYUSA If you have a CGA video card you will see a graphic title picture. The PAYUSA.EXE program is a Menu program which makes it easier to run the other component programs from "Pay Menu". PAYUSA.EXE first checks for the existance of the PAYUSA.CNF file which contains the customisable Configuration information. If this file does not exist then it knows you are a new user and immediately transfers you to the Configuration program where you are asked for which drive and directory you want the employee files to be stored on. There are default values in all new Configuration choices and you can just press Enter if you find these acceptable. It also asks for permission to copy our supplied test employee files into the data directories. You should reply Y so you can use them to get a feel for the system. You can replace them later with your own Employees (simply ERASE \PAYIN and ERASE \PAYOUT to get rid of our test employees) once you get the hang of it. Our test files will be on C:\PAYPGMS after you unpack the distribution disks, and they will be copied into C:\PAYIN when you answer this prompt with a Y. After the copy you are taken to the Configuration Menu where you can either set up other choices or you can press Esc to return to the PAYUSA.EXE main "Pay Menu". For now, press Esc. PAYUSA.CNF is now created but can be easily changed if you return here later to customise our defaults to your own requirements. Choices can be made from "Pay Menu" by moving the bright bar with the arrow keys or space bar. The default choice is "Read or Update Employee File" so just press Enter. After reading our promotional message you will arrive at the employee update menu. Choices can be made by moving the bright bar with the arrow keys then pressing Enter or by pressing the Function Key shown for that choice. Select F2 Update Existing Employee and you will be presented with another menu asking how you want to find the employees (with many different ways offered). Once set up, Salaried employees usually need no changes on a pay by pay basis unless their salary is changed or they are off sick etc. However, hourly paid people will need their hours to be input for each pay, so the default choice is F4 Find ALL Active Non Salaried. We can just press Enter to take that choice. This will cause the identification of the first matching employee to be displayed with a choice of do you want to look at this person (simply press Enter), do you want to skip this one and go on to the next (change the TRUE to FALSE - or press Ctrl Y which is a short cut to do the same thing - and press Enter, or do you want to end the search (press End or Esc). For now, just press Enter to look at this person. You are then presented with a menu asking which screens you want to see. In a normal hours entry, all you need is the default F6 Current Hours screen. The hours can then be entered and to finish with this employee just press End then when the Double Check window pops up press Y to save your changes to disk. The search will then continue and the identification of the next matching employee will be displayed. In a normal pay hours set up you would just go through in this manner until hours for every employee were entered. Employees found this way will normally be presented in alphabetical order (they are sorted in the previous pay cycle into groups by status and pay method and into alphabetical order within each group). It may be faster if you have their time cards in the same sequence. For large employers of hourly paid people we have a rapid hours entry program which is even faster than this, but it costs extra (call for details). Because this is your first look at PAYROLL USA we will instead take a tour through the employee record so you can see what is on there. From the menu asking which screens you want to see press F1 to bring up the first of the basic information screens. Once that screen is displayed (name, address, etc.) the line editor is active and pressing F1 from there will display the editor command set (works from any employee or configuration input screen). Note that Tab or Enter will go from field to field, up arrow and down arrow go up and down a line at a time, Pg Up and Pg Dn will go up and down a screen at a time, Home will return you to the menu asking which screen you want to see, and End will exit from this employee and give you an option to save or discard any changes made. Press Pg Dn and you will be on the second basic information screen with the cursor sat on the top left corner for PAY METHOD. This employee probably has a H for Hourly in there. Change it to a space by pressing the space bar. Space is an invalid code, so before you can leave the field (press Enter) a window pops up giving you the range of valid values and their meaning. Select Hourly and press Enter, the H is put back for you. This kind of editing is done on all important fields (i.e. things that are absolutely necessary for generating pay). Not every field needs to be filled in. If the cursor will go past an empty field you can leave it empty unless you find its purpose meaningful to you. If you wanted to jump from here to the current hours screen for example you could press Home to return to the screen select menu, then select the Current Hours Screen, or you can page through every possible screen until you arrive at the one you want. Because we are taking a tour, we will do it the long way. Press Pg Dn again (from the second basic information screen) and you are on the tax setup screen, Pg Dn again brings you to the Additional Tax information for Employee Benefit Plans, Pg Dn again and you are into a screenful of free form notes which you can keep on the employee. Press F1 to see what the word processor editor can do. Pg Dn again from the notes screen and you are into the 1st of 3 year to date screens. These YTD screens are normally read only as they are system maintained, but if starting PAYROLL USA mid way through a year you can (and should) transfer YTD information from your existing payroll system to the YTD screens. You can do this any time BEFORE the first pay cycle is run for an employee. The transfer should include the Employer Contributions to FICA, FUTA, and SUTA, and the amount of pay those contributions were based on (Screen 3 of the 3 YTD Screens). If you are using the automatic vacation accrual feature (VAC P'CENT greater than zero on the second basic employee information screen) then also transfer the dollar value of the employee's earned (but not taken) vacation time (i.e. the amount of vacation you would pay if he quit today). Pg Dn twice more and you are on the current hours entry screen, Pg Dn again and you are on the 2nd of the 3 current pay screens. This and the next screen have a precalculation feature. Press F8 and the pay will be calculated and shown on the screen. You do not have to routinely press F8, the pay is actually calculated in the pay cycle, F8 is just if you want a preview (example somebody is leaving before the next pay cycle and you need to know how much to give them today). F8 can be pressed as many times as needed. It normally does not have any permanent effect and the figures are recalculated in the pay cycle anyway (the result will be the same if nothing else changes). Notice that the cursor only travels to fields that the computer is NOT going to calculate. It skips over any calculated fields. Press Pg Up to return to the Current Hours screen. There are two switches on that screen, Computer to Calc Pay, and Computer to Calc Tax. These are normally defaulted to TRUE when adding an employee and after each pay cycle, but if you wish to override normal operation for this employee for some reason either or both of them can be changed to FALSE. The cursor will then go to the fields that are no longer being computer calculated. If both are FALSE then F8 is limited to adding up the screens to ensure they balance, else it calculates whatever is left to calculate. The Pay Cycle does exactly what F8 does. If Computer to Calc Tax is false you must ensure that you manually calculate and enter ALL taxes including the Employer Contributions to FICA, FUTA, and SUTA and the amount of pay these contibutions were based on. Very rarely is it necessary to turn off the computer calculations. It is there in case you need it, but use it with caution. From the Current Hours Screen press Pg Dn twice more to arrive at the last screen which is read only, system maintained, and contains the history of the last 10 pays and the SUTA totals for this and previous quarters. Press End for the Double Check window and because we were just taking a look and do not want to save any changes press End again to throw any changes away. If the Find window pops up with another employee press End again to terminate the search and return to the Employee Update Menu. You may want to try adding an employee to our test file at this point. Don't add too many employees as we are going to throw them away before we start your own file. When adding note that SSN and Empl. Num. are the file key. As a key they cannot be changed after set up, so be sure they are correct. Empl. Num. is optional, leave it blank if you do not normally use Employee Numbers. Also when adding employees you must go through a complete set of screens. You are given an option to abort the add after every screen. You can press Pg Dn to skip over any screen that has nothing to enter on it. If you forget something and have already gone past it don't worry, once added the employee can be immediately accessed in update mode where you can flip backwards and forwards to whatever screen you want and insert the missing information. When you finish adding an employee you will be back at the Employee Update Menu. Press Esc to return to the main "Pay Menu". From there we can select the choice to run a pay cycle. You will then see a sub menu which has run a pay cycle as the first choice, select it. Read the note which appears on the screen about the contents of the CONFIG.SYS file so you will know what to do just in case DOS complains. Enter the current and next pay dates when prompted. Also read the note on the screen. The next pay date is used to determine when the end of the year has been reached and W-2 file production and zero YTD (except vacation and sick accruals) is required. Next pay date is also plugged into the current hours screen in readiness for the next set of updates. When this screen is complete, the pay cycle will start (printer required) and you will be given a progress report both on screen and on the printer. Any failed edits will be printed out. If you have any gross errors to fix then the Employeee Update Program can be run again to fix them, then the pay cycle can be re-run. The update program AND the pay cycle always read \PAYIN, and \PAYIN will not be changed until you tell the program, when prompted, that it is O.K. to copy the results of the pay cycle from \PAYOUT to \PAYIN. The prompt which asks for this appears in the update program and if a copy is not done it will also appear in the pay cycle program. Always use this prompt to do the copy, several files are involved and it will get all of them then clear the run control flag. Do not attempt this copy with the DOS Copy command. The copy prompt is highlighted and includes a detailed explanation. Be extra careful with this prompt. If you indicate you want to copy (i.e. the pay cycle is O.K.), then the same prompt will ask if you want to backup \PAYIN before it is overwritten. Take a backup, then if you do accidentally give the wrong answer you can put it back later (see file BACKUP.TXT). The pay cycle also creates various other files on \PAYOUT which are used by a seperate program to produce the checks (or pay slips), the payroll register, etc. After the pay cycle you will be returned to the menu which has a choice to print these reports. They can be printed any time before the next pay cycle, but we will select them now. In a regular pay you should always print the current payroll register at this point and check it to see if everybody is O.K. If you find, for example, you gave somebody 750 hours instead of 75 hours then now is the easy time to fix it by running the update program then re-running the pay cycle, as described in the previous paragraph. If the payroll register looks O.K. we can go ahead and print whatever else we need from this menu, normally the journal entries, and the checks (or payslips). More information will be provided as you access these features. When you are finished printing, press Esc to get back to the pay cycle sub menu, and Esc again to return to the main "Pay Menu". Move the bright bar to Exit to Dos and press Enter. Have a coffee, and take a few minutes to review what you have done. Repeat the whole thing if you have time, else do it again another day. The second time you do it, reply to the copy prompt that it is O.K. to copy the results of the pay cycle and make a backup. Have a look at the summary screens in the Employee Update program. Your pay cycle should be on them. The hourly paid people will have no hours now (ALL PAY AND TAX ITEMS ARE SET TO ZERO AFTER A PAY CYCLE, BUT TAXABLE BENEFITS AND DEDUCTIONS CONTINUE UNLESS CHANGED) so put some in some hours before you do another test pay cycle. Also note that ONLY employees whose status is A (Active) are paid. Try the effects of changing the Empl. Status code (1st Basic Employee Info Screen) before the next test pay cycle. Change it to a space to see the pop up valid values. Also try changing the PAY ALL VAC ACCRL switch (on the current hours screen) from FALSE to TRUE before the next test pay cycle. Setting up Your OWN Employees ----------------------------- When you are finished getting the feel for the system with our test employees you can get rid of them from the DOS prompt with ERASE \PAYIN ERASE \PAYOUT The next time you access the employee update program it will tell you there is no file found, then it will create a new file. This new file will contain only your employees. Add your employees and transfer the YTD information as outlined above. When all employees are added, but BEFORE you run the first pay cycle, exit back to DOS and from the DOS prompt for \PAYPGMS type INITLBAL and press Enter. Your printer should be on line. A grand total of what you entered will be printed. You can use this to check that it balances to the grand total of your existing system, identify and fix the YTD for incorrect employees if it does not balance to your existing. Repeat as often as necessary until it does balance. Do not run a pay cycle until it does balance because the pay cycle will lock the YTD screens and you will no longer be able to change them. We recommend you run in parallel with your existing system for a few weeks, OR reprocess previous pay periods, to get familiar with PAYROLL USA and to ensure there are no unexpected problems because of some little peculiarity in your way of doing things. Setting Up State Tax Tables --------------------------- Note that the default State (California 1989) and Local (New York City 1987) Taxes can be changed to your State from the Configuration Menu and in particular change the SUTA to your particular rate (experience rated in most States). If you are in California check the Configuration Other Prompts screen and turn on the SDI calculation. When setting up State Taxes follow the instructions on the screen very carefully. Although the system will calculate taxes for any pay period, they are set up on an Annual Basis. Your State Tax Manual should have a page describing the formula for Annual Exact Calculation Method. If it only has say a Monthly formula then multiply the dollar value of deductions and exemptions by 12 to annualize them. Most States have a graduated tax table. Many show the table exactly as it appears on the screen, some show something like: 1000 1.5% 2000 2.0% 3000 2.5% etc. What they usually mean is the first $1000 of annual taxable income (after exemptions) is at 1.5%, the next $1000 is $15.00 (the 1.5% of the first $1000) plus 2.0% of the balance over $1000, the next $1000 is at $35.00 (for the 1.5% on the 1st $1000 + 2.0% on the 2nd. $1000) plus 2.5% on the balance over $2000, and so on through the table. Please bear this in mind when setting up the tables. Print the default tables (Shift PrtSc) as a guide before you change them. The logic the computer uses is to annualise the taxable pay, subtract any exemptions, then compare the result to the highest earnings level in the State tax table. If pay is higher it charges the dollar value shown for that level in the State Tax table plus the percentage shown for that level applied to the amount by which pay exceeds that level of earnings in the State Tax table. If pay is less than the highest level in the table then it reduces the level by one and tries again. It continues doing this until it finally finds a level in the State table that is equal to or less than the pay. The resulting annual tax is then divided by the number of pay periods per year to arrive at the per pay tax. Once you set up the State tables test them by going back to Pay Menu and running the employee update program. Pick an employee, go to the current pay screen and use F8 to do an on screen calculation of pay. Check the State Tax is close to what it should be (it may not be exact as the manual per pay period table look up method is in ranges and only accurate in the middle of the range, whereas the computer should be right on to the penny). Test it again with other employees at different income levels, marital statuses, etc. Printed Documentation / Packaging --------------------------------- To keep the price reasonable we are not supplying pre-printed documentation or any fancy packaging at the ShareWare price. These only push the price up without adding anything to the usefulness of the programs. The various documentation files on these disks, and the Slide Show, together contain far more information than would be in any pre-printed manual. Because of the high set up costs involved in printing, manuals tend to get carved in stone and not be updated as often as they should be. (Which program author wants to throw out a couple of thousand expensively printed manuals everytime a minor change is made). Keeping them on disk allow us the flexibility to quickly make changes to the documentation as new enhancements are added. HOW TO USE MULTIPLE EMPLOYEE DATABASES -------------------------------------- Some purchasers may wish to use one set of PAYROLL USA programs to handle several different sets of PAYUSA.DTA files. For example, Accountants doing client payroll may have several sets of .DTA files, one for each client. Also, if employees are taxed in different States, or paid on different dates or at different intervals, you will need to seperate them into different .DTA files. We suggest you do this by creating seperate data directories for each set of files. The whereabouts of these directories and the custom information about the employees in them is contained in the PAYUSA.CNF file which is created by the Configuration section of PAYROLL USA and resides on the program directory. There is only one .CNF file, and you need many, one for each set of employee files. The solution is to rename the PAYUSA.CNF to something meaningful to you, eg. if the clients name is Jones rename it to JONES.CNF . Do this immediately the file is first created. To do Jones's payroll execute a DOS batch file on the program directory. Let us call it JONES.BAT . This batch file need have only a few simple commands in it: RENAME JONES.CNF PAYUSA.CNF PAYUSA RENAME PAYUSA.CNF JONES.CNF Doing it this way you can have as many sets of files as you need and starting PAYUSA is as simple as typing the clients name. WHY WE TIME LIMITED THE WORKING PROGRAMS ======================================== The Slide Show is not limited in any way, but you should be aware that IF you only have the ShareWare trial version of the working programs, which are otherwise fully functional, they will stop working if either the current date or the pay date are beyond the expiry date (end March 1991). We feel this is necessary for two reasons: 1. Not enough people voluntarily pay for "ShareWare". ---------------------------------------------------------- Unfortunately the advertising of some of the Disk Copying Services encourage this by emphasising words like "FREE" or "$5.00 a Diskfull". Please do not confuse ShareWare with Public Domain (P.D.). P.D. software is free, but there is little of that for business use and to the best of my knowledge there are no P.D. Payroll programs for the IBM PC. ShareWare is Copyrighted Programs which you can try for free and purchase for less than Commercial prices. It can be low cost, but never that low. The money you pay to Disk Copying Services for disks is solely for their copying time, materials, postage, handling, other overheads and profit. It does not pay for the ShareWare programs on those disks. It only pays for the opportunity to try them out. Do not be misled into thinking otherwise. The program developers receive no payment from the Disk Copying/Distribution services, the arrangement exists only because it provides a distribution channel to get those programs into the hands of people who want to use them and are willing to voluntarily pay the modest Registration Fee asked rather than 3 to 5 times that amount through regular sales channels. Please consider that when you buy a program through regular channels you are paying more for the Distribution Costs, Advertising, and Packaging, than for the program itself. Because of various abuses several ShareWare authors no longer release new programs as ShareWare. The future of ShareWare depends on the willingness of end users to pay for programs they use regularly, if it dies it will be a pity because it was a good idea for program developer (free distribution) and end user (try before you buy, low cost) alike. 2. To protect the future commercial marketability of this system. -------------------------------------------------------------- Payroll is strictly a business application. It may be that ShareWare does not reach enough business users, if so we will have to use more conventional sales methods (at a higher price to cover sales costs.) We do not think we would still have that option if the system were available for free and with no restrictions in the ShareWare market. We have to protect our huge investment in development costs. We cannot replace the expired programs overnight, so allow a month for postal etc. delays and mail your payment in plenty of time before a federal tax update or program expiry. Federal deductions will be obsolete 1-1-1990 and the price may increase April 1990 so please do not leave it until the last moment to pay. As soon as you decide you wish to use the system put a check in the mail. The sooner we get you on our mailing list the sooner we can start advising you of enhancements etc. If you do not Register, we do not know you exist and if something comes up you should know about we cannot tell you. Because of the way ShareWare is passed around we may not even be aware that the BBS or Disk Copying Service that you got if from have it, so we cannot tell them either. If you want to tell us where you got it from when Registering it would help us to know where to send revisions, and to build records of who is selling the most copies for possible future business development plans. We cannot afford to provide you with free software. We are giving you the advantage of trying the system out for the cost of disks and postage, or download time, before you decide whether or not you like it enough to pay in full for it, but we are not giving it away. We think that is fair - don't you. EMPLOYEE TERMINATION ==================== When an employee terminates the employee status code should be changed (1st basic info. screen) and the end date and reason terminated (2nd. basic info. screen) filled in. Once this has been done the automatic calculation of pay and taxes, and selection for the pay cycle, will cease. Therefore, if the employee terminates at the end of a regular pay period you probably will not want to set his records to terminated until after the pay cycle is done (because if you terminate too early the final pay will not be done - only Status "A" are paid). If the employee terminates in the middle of a pay period you may wish to use F8 to calculate the final pay then (if you must have a check immediately) manually issue a check for it based on the figures on the screen. AFTER using F8 turn off the automatic pay calcs / tax calcs as appropriate to prevent any possibility of the pay cycle changing your calculations, but leave the employee status etc. alone until after the next pay cycle to ensure inclusion on the payroll register, update of YTD, etc. Because the status was not changed the final pay check will be printed as usual, so if you issued a manual check then make a note to retrieve and void the computer issued one. Terminated employees are automatically purged from the PAYUSA.DTA file at year end. We have to keep them until then for production of the W-2 file. The Index ========= If the employee file has no index then one is created (PAYUSA.INX) . This only takes a few minutes so we recommend that if you have any doubts about the index you delete it. (eg. In case there had been a power failure, the plug was pulled, or the computer switched off, while the program was running). The index is read in at the start of each session, updated in memory during the session, then rewritten out to disk when you select the End Run choice from the main menu. A complete employee record consists of several seperate records each with its own ID. The indexing method allows them to be anywhere in the file, not necessarily placed all together. This was done so that the file does not have to be rewritten to make room for new records, eg. if a comment is added to an existing employee it is simply appended to the end of the file and the index is altered to link it to the previous records for that person which will be somewhere in the middle of the file. If you update a record, eg. change a name, the original record is located and rewritten in the same spot on the disk. It is vitally important that the index keeps in step with changes to the employees. In normal circumstances there will be no problems, but if there is a power failure, or the computer is switched off, etc. in the middle of an update session the updated index will not have been written out. If this happens, or if you have any other reason to doubt the integrity of the index, then just erase it (from DOS, ERASE \PAYIN\PAYUSA.INX ). If it is missing a new index will be created next time it is needed. (Just to be on the safe side this is in fact done when you run a Pay Cycle). The \PAYOUT\PAYUSA.DTA file is physically re-organised when a pay cycle is run, and at that time all records for one employee are put together and a new index is created. "Fields" Included in the PAYUSA.DTA Employee Database ===================================================== The PAYUSA.DTA file is a Turbo Pascal internal data format file. It is unlikely that you will be able to read it with any program other than those in the PAYROLL USA system. The records are fixed length but you should be aware that Turbo keeps its data in a different format to that used by the BASIC language. Strings are preceded by length bytes, Reals are longer than Basic's Reals, etc. This is for speed, accuracy, and efficiency, but it has a side effect of hiding your sensitive Payroll Data from most prying eyes using DOS DEBUG or Buergs latest LIST, etc., to do HEX Dumps of your file. It isn't guaranteed to hide it from everyone, a Hacker with a knowledge of Turbo could probably decode those Reals into readable numbers, but the dollars and cents are hidden from most. For your information, though, I am listing here, with comments, what the format of those fields are. It might help you decide what to put in them. As a general rule, IF the PAYROLL USA system allows you to put whatever you want in a field, or to leave a field empty, then it doesnt much matter what is in there (from a system viewpoint - it matters to you of course). Where the system has to have a choice of known quantities in a field, and you enter something which is unknown, then a window will pop up when you enter it and give you a list of the possibilities. Use the function keys, or the arrow keys plus Enter, to make a choice. I won't comment on every field, some are self explanatory from their name. Where no indication of the type of data is given it is Real (i.e. whole numbers and/or decimals, usually dollars and cents). We have provided a test PAYUSA.DTA file with 10 fictitious employees for you to play around with. You can try changing (or erasing - use Ctrl Y ) some of these fields in that file to see the effect. F8 will do an on screen calculation of the pay from the current pay screens when in update mode. SSN - Alpha or Numeric, up to 11 characters long. The Social Security Number, requires embedded hypehens to break the number into more readable groups in the standard way. With employee number (next) forms the key to the file. Combination of SSN/Empl Num must be unique, and because it is key information once entered it cannot be changed, so be extra sure to get it right first time. Empl Num - Alpha or Numeric, up to 10 characters long. The Employee Number, you assign this as you do now. See also SSN, above. Made part of the key so you can set up a new record (with new Empl. Num.) if a terminated employee is re-hired (because the SSN would be the same). Prev Empl Num - Alpha or Numeric, up to 10 characters long. If an employee was re-hired with a new number, then you can put the old number here to remind yourself where to look. Sur Name - Alpha or Numeric, up to 16 characters long. May not be blank. First Name - Alpha or Numeric, up to 16 characters long. May not be blank. Street - Alpha or Numeric, up to 33 characters long. May not be blank Phone - Alpha or Numeric, up to 14 characters long. Town - Alpha or Numeric, up to 33 characters long. May not be blank State - Alpha or Numeric, up to 22 characters long. May not be blank Zip Code - Alpha or Numeric, up to 10 characters long. If not blank, this is edited to see it is in an acceptable format. Sex - One Alpha Character. M = Male, F = Female Married - One Alpha Character. S = Single, M = Married, H = Head of Household, O = Other. Which of these are valid for you depends on your State Tax Tables (you may change the selection from the Config. Menu) Yr Born- The full 4 digit Yr, eg 1986 Mo Born - Numeric, 1 or 2 digits. Day Born - Numeric, 1 or 2 digits. Age - Numeric, 1 or 2 digits. This is continuously recalculated from the birth date and the current date. Occupation - Alpha or Numeric, up to 20 characters long. Employee Type - Alpha or Numeric, up to 3 characters long. This is for Box 5 on the W-2 Form. STA = Statutory Employee DEC = Deceased LEG = Legal Rep. 942 = 942 Employee REG = Regular (not Above) Employee Status - One Alpha Character. Tells us whether to pay him/her or not. Must be "A" to be paid. A = Active - Normal Pay V = On Vacation - Stop Pay L = Laid Off - Stop Pay T = Terminated - Stop Pay Yr Last Review - The full 4 digit Yr, eg 1986 For Salary and Performance Reviews. Mo Last Review - Numeric, 1 or 2 digits. Day Last Review - Numeric, 1 or 2 digits. Yr Next Review- The full 4 digit Yr, eg 1986 You will be notified when current date is close to this date. Mo Next Review - Numeric, 1 or 2 digits. Day Next Review - Numeric, 1 or 2 digits. Pay Method - One Alpha Character. How the pay is calculated. S = Salaried H = Hourly Pay C = Commission A = Salary And Commission P = Hourly Plus Commission Salary Territory - Alpha or Numeric, up to 3 characters long. This and next two fields are for those who use a structured Grade/Step Salary Table. Can be left blank if you don't use one. Salary Level - Alpha or Numeric, up to 2 characters long. Salary Performance - One Alpha or Numeric Character. Annual Salary If Annual Salary > $80,000.0 then you will be notified, but not stopped, to reduce possibility of too many zeroes due to keying errors Hourly Rate If Hourly Rate > $40.00 then you will be notified, but not stopped, to reduce possibility of too many zeroes due to keying errors Even Salaried employees will have an hourly rate which is system calculated (see PAYUSCNF.EXE Configuration Menu) from Salary for use as a base for any overtime. Pay Freq How many pays per year. 52 = Weekly 26 = Biweekly 24 = Semimonthly 12 = Monthly 4 = Quarterly 2 = Semiannually 1 = Annually 260 = Daily 10 = 10 Pay Teachers 13 = Every 4 Weeks 22 = 22 Pays ea. Year Overtime Permitted - Either TRUE or FALSE. Vacation Accrual PCent If you want the system to set aside a percentage of earnings in a vacation accrual fund then enter the percentage here, else leave it set to zero. Vacation Allow - Alpha or Numeric, up to 5 characters long. Your notes to yourself on how long the person gets. Vacation Taken - Alpha or Numeric, up to 5 characters long. Your notes to yourself on how much a person already had. Sick Accrual PCent Same comments apply to this and next 2 fields as applied to the corresponding vacation fields above. Sick Allow - Alpha or Numeric, up to 5 characters long. Sick Taken - Alpha or Numeric, up to 5 characters long. Start Year- The full 4 digit Yr, eg 1986 When employment started. Start Mo - Numeric, 1 or 2 digits. Start Day - Numeric, 1 or 2 digits. End Year- The full 4 digit Yr, eg 1986 When employment ended. End Mo - Numeric, 1 or 2 digits. End Day - Numeric, 1 or 2 digits. Reason Terminated - One Alpha Character. Why the person no longer works for you. A = Shortage of Work B = Strike or Lockout C = Return to School D = Illness or Injury E = Quit F = Pregnancy G = Retired H = Work Sharing J = Apprentice Training K = Other - Note on Comment Scn. Exempt Fed Tax - Either TRUE or FALSE. If set TRUE the Federal Tax calculation will be skipped. Intended for rare cases where this is permitted by law, eg. certain ministers of religion, etc. Do not set this to true just because earnings are too low - that will be determined automatically in the tax routines. There are several other EXEMPT switches like this for other types of taxes. The same principles apply. If they are true then that particular tax routine will be skipped and no such tax will be charged. Be sure you only set them true if you are legally allowed not to withold that tax for that particular employee. If earnings are more than $10,400.00 you will be reminded of your obligation to notify the IRS. Num Of Fed Exemptions If more than 10 exemptions you will be reminded of your obligation to notify the IRS. Taken from the W4 Form. Vol Fed Addtnl Wholdg EIC W5 Filed - Either TRUE or FALSE. EIC W5 Spouse Filed - Either TRUE or FALSE. W2 Box 16 Line 1 Desc - Alpha or Numeric, up to 15 characters long. Whatever is in here at year end will be printed on the W-2. Leave it blank if nothing is to be printed in Box 16. W2 Box 16 Line 2 Desc - Alpha or Numeric, up to 15 characters long. See above Exempt Soc Sec - Either TRUE or FALSE. See comments under Exempt Federal Tax. Medicare Qualified Fed Empl - Either TRUE or FALSE. Sets rate of Social Security Taxes. Exempt FUTA - Either TRUE or FALSE. See comments under Exempt Federal Tax. Exempt State Tax - Either TRUE or FALSE. See comments under Exempt Federal Tax. Num Of Reg. State Exemptions In many States this will be the same figure as the equivalent Federal W4 exemptions. However, it can be different, and in California the total Federal Exemptions are split into regular Exemptions and Additional Exemptions for Estimated Deductions. Num of Addl. State Exemptions See previous field. Vol State Addtnl Wholdg Exempt SUTA - Either TRUE or FALSE. See comments under Exempt Federal Tax. Exempt Local Tax - Either TRUE or FALSE. See comments under Exempt Federal Tax. Set this to true if there are no local taxes in your area. Num Of Local Exemptions Non Resident for Local - Either TRUE or FALSE. Pay Yr - The full 4 digit Yr, eg 1986 Pay Mo - Numeric, 1 or 2 digits. Pay Day - Numeric, 1 or 2 digits. If the difference between the current date and the pay date exceeds the lessor of 1 and 1/2 pay periods or 45 days you will be notified of a potential keying error. GL Account - Alpha or Numeric, up to 10 characters long. This and the next two fields determine where sub totals are taken on the printed Pay Register. Branch Code - Alpha or Numeric, up to 3 characters long. Dept Code - Alpha or Numeric, up to 3 characters long. Charge Project - Alpha or Numeric, up to 10 characters long. Computer To Calc Pay - Either TRUE or FALSE. If for some strange reason you do not want the computer to calculate the pay then set this to false. You may then enter your own calculated amounts and they will be used instead. Computer To Calc Tax - Either TRUE or FALSE. If for some strange reason you do not want the computer to calculate the tax then set this to false. You may then enter your own calculated amounts and they will be used instead. Sick Hrs To pay for time not worked. If you are using the sick accrual fund feature, it will be reduced by the dollar value of these hours. Legal Hol Hrs To pay for time not worked. Usually for Hourly Paid people only. Vacation Hrs To pay for time on vacation. If you are using the vacation accrual fund feature, it will be reduced by the dollar value of these hours. You must keep the employee status active for pay to be calculated. If your employees are salaried you may prefer not to use the accrual fund but just pay them as usual while they are on vacation, in that case no alteration to the record is needed, and if advance pay is not required then no entry need be made on this line. Play around with F8 to see how this works. If you wish to stop pay being generated while the employee is on vacation then the Employee Status Code must be changed to "V", but not until after the pay cycle in which the Vacation pay itself has to be generated (remember, only Status "A" get paid). It is not enough just to omit entry of hours else a negative pay will result as the non Government deductions continue. Reg Pay Hours For Hourly paid people - no entry needed for Salaried people. R Day Shift Prm Hrs This and other Shift items can be left blank if employee not on Shift Differentials. If on shifts, show how many of Reg. Pay Hours, Overtime Hours, etc. were in each shift for proper addition of the shift premium. R Aft Shift Prm Hrs R Night Shift Prm Hrs R Grave Shift Prm Hrs Otime 1 Hrs O1 Day Shift Prm Hrs O1 Aft Shift Prm Hrs O1 Night Shift Prm Hrs O1 Grave Shift Prm Hrs Otime 2 Hrs O2 Day Shift Prm Hrs O2 Aft Shift Prm Hrs O2 Night Shift Prm Hrs O2 Grave Shift Prm Hrs Otime 3 Hrs O3 Day Shift Prm Hrs O3 Aft Shift Prm Hrs O3 Night Shift Prm Hrs O3 Grave Shift Prm Hrs Salary Normally System Calculated Reg Wages Normally System Calculated from above entries Otime 1 Amt Normally System Calculated from above entries Otime 2 Amt Normally System Calculated from above entries Otime 3 Amt Normally System Calculated from above entries Shift Premium Normally System Calculated from above entries Sick Pay Normally System Calculated from above entries Legal Hols Normally System Calculated from above entries Production Bonus Annual Bonus This receives special tax treatment, taxed by adding it to the annual income instead of the pay period income. Assumed non recurring item and this reduces overpayment of tax, especially for lower paid people. Commission Other Pay 1 Other Pay 2 Other Pay 3 Vacation Normally System Calculated from above entries Tot Actual Pay Normally System Calculated from above entries Tips N.B. These are regular tips reported by or distributed to the employee. This will not be summed into the pay check , neither will the fringe benefits, they are for tax purposes only. We have not made any provision for "Tips deemed to be Wages", collected by employees earning less than the minimum wage, in this release. Fringe Ben Auto Fringe Ben Other 1 Fringe Ben Other 2 Fringe Ben Other 3 Taxable Pay Federal Tax State Tax Local Tax FICA Soc Security State Unemployment System calculated if you have set the Configuration File to indicate that in your State the employee pays some or all of the SUTA. Deduct IRA Deduct Charity 1 Deduct Charity 2 Deduct Union Deduct Medical Deduct Dental Deduct Other Health Deduct Life Insc Deduct Accident Deduct Social Club Deduct Xmas Club Deduct Automobile Deduct Other 1 Deduct Other 1 thru 4 can be either fixed dollar amounts or can be set to a percentage of either Actual Pay (ex. Fringe Benefits) or of Taxable Pay (incl. Fringe). Settings are controlled from the Configuration Menu. California Companies may wish to use Deduct Other 1 for SDI with percent calculation turned on. If percent is on the cursor will not go to these fields on the employee screens. Deduct Other 2 Deduct Other 3 Deduct Other 4 Total Deduct Net Pay Advance EIC Allocated Tips Tips you want added to the pay check . Also see previous note on tips added to taxable income. If you are paying the tips to the employee by including them in this pay check and tax is also to be deducted then the amount will need to be entered twice, once in each location. Non Tax Reimbourse 1 Employee Expense Items, e.g. Gas, Uniforms, etc. If you wish to add them to the pay check rather than issuing a seperate check . Non Tax Reimbourse 2 Non Tax Reimbourse 3 Non Tax Reimbourse 4 Issue Check For Sick Accrual This and the remaining fields do not appear on the employee pay check or statements, they represent your liabilities to the employees or to the Government. Vacation Accrual Futa Wage Futa Liab Futa State Credit Avail Suta Wage Suta Liab Txble 941 Soc Sec Wages Txble 941 Hosp Insc Wage Txble 941 Tips Txble 941 Total Amt Soc Sec On Wages Amt Soc Sec On Hosp Insc Amt Soc Sec On Tips Amt Soc Sec Total NOTE: ==== To avoid a lot of duplicated verbiage, I omitted to comment over and over again, that all tax items including Advance EIC are normally system calculated, the dollar amounts are summed by the system, and all fringe benefits and non Government deductions, once entered will be copied into later pay records. For example if you show an employee contributing $5 to the Xmas Club, it will be $5 every pay from that point on unless you change it. Note that Hours and other pay items are not copied in this way - they are set to zero after a pay cycle to avoid the possibility of inadvertantly paying too much. Documentation Originally written 30th. July, 1988 Minor Modifications made by Author 14th. Feb. 1989 Christopher Anthistle, F.C.I.I. President, Anthistle Systems & Programming Ltd., 563 Patricia Drive, Oakville, Ontario, CANADA L6K 1M4 Telephone: (416) 845 7959