Business Assistant

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

/ Business Assistant / Business Assistant.iso / acctg / payus311 / whatsnew.txt < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1991-04-02 | 25.5 KB | 504 lines

ANTHISTLE SYSTEMS & PROGRAMMING LTD. 563 Patricia Drive, Oakville, Ontario, CANADA L6K 1M4 Telephone 416-845-7959 (Area Code will change to 905 Oct.4th. 1993) PAYROLL USA - SHAREWARE RELEASE V3.10 2ND. APRIL 1991 ===================================================== We have been very busy so far this year so are late getting this year's ShareWare version of PAYROLL USA out. We aim for an early March to mid March ShareWare release each year. This year's release has many new features but there has been no time to update the Slide Show or documentation files. The new features are self evident so we felt our major distributors and ShareWare users would rather have the program released now instead of waiting a few more weeks for revisions to the slide show etc. We may release an update to the slide show etc. later in the year. We trust you will find that PAYROLL USA continues to be THE VERY BEST PAYROLL SYSTEM ON THE MARKET - it certainly cannot be beaten on a price to feature comparison. NEW SINCE JANUARY 1991 ---------------------- There has been a complete restructuring of the program. Several large .EXE programs have been combined into just one program PAYUMAIN.EXE thus reducing the overall disk space taken by PAYROLL USA by eliminating the duplication of program code that was common to each of those old .EXE files. The new combined program makes more efficient use of memory by loading segments of code as needed from an overlay file PAYUMAIN.OVR There seems to be no loss of execution speed even when accessing the .OVR file from disk, and if you have expanded memory (EMS) which conforms to Vers. 3.2 or later of the Lotus/Intel/Microsoft Specifications the .OVR file will be automatically loaded into EMS for fast in memory transfers of program code. We have tested this on a machine with no EMS and it works fine without EMS. However, if it gives any problems on your particular machine the EMS access routines can be disabled by starting it with a command line parameter of NOEMS, example PAYUSA NOEMS or PAYUMAIN NOEMS - the NOEMS parameter should not be required unless there are problems as it automatically senses whether or not EMS is installed. The restructuring, and the new features, have required some minor changes in the menu choices. Note that although PAYUMAIN can be started directly from the DOS prompt you should avoid doing so. As in previous years, start up with PAYUSA which is the overall menu program which handles multiple configuration files, and which can start several other utility programs either automatically or from its menu, as well as being able to start PAYUMAIN as a menu choice from PAYUSA. In addition we have added the following new features since the January Registered User release: - Allowing PAYUSA to be started from any DOS prompt with \PAYPGMS\PAYUSA or by adding it to the DOS Path and just typing PAYUSA from any prompt. In other words you no longer need to change directory before starting it. To add it to the DOS Path just alter the PATH statement in your C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT file and re-boot the machine. Example if you currently have PATH C:\DOS\;C:\UTILITY\ and PAYROLL USA is installed on drive D: then change the above to PATH C:\DOS\;C:\UTILITY\;D:\PAYPGMS (Add a semicolon then the name of the drive and directory PAYUSA is installed on). This is a convenience feature, you do not have to use it, you can still access it the old way by changing directories first to where PAYUSA lives, example D: { OR C: etc. whichever drive it is installed on } CD \PAYPGMS PAYUSA - Prompting for change in dollar values of Sick and Vacation accruals when pay rate changes so as to offer the option of keeping the equivalent time off the same after the pay rate change as it was before. - Hours entry used to be hours and decimal parts of an hour, example 35.25 hours was 35 1/4 hours. It is now shown on the screen as 35:15 (hours:minutes) and can be optionally entered either way. If entered with a period the figures following the period are is assumed to be a decimal part of an hour, if entered with a colon it is assumed to be hours and minutes. - Optional recording of employee and company bank account information so that pay can be optionally deposited directly into the bank for bank transfer into the employee's account. The bank deposit/transfer list can also be printed. - LISTMAKER is a new report generator that will print a list of employees who had a particular pay or deduction item on their pay check. Example, if your health insurance carrier wants a list of who paid what premiums in the last pay (or for the year to date) then LISTMAKER will provide the answers. You can select any item, for current or YTD figures. - Adding new employees: There is a new check performed each time you add an employee to see if any of our test employees are still on file (because we have had several users who forgot to delete them before setting up their own employee file). If any test employees are found it offers you a choice of either deleting them, or deleting the entire employee file, or leaving them there (in case you are adding more test cases). There is also some on screen help on how to get out of the new add if you got there in error, and you can now page backwards through the screens during an add in case you realize you forgot something on a previous screen and do not wish to wait for completion of the add before you review it in update mode. NEW AS AT JANUARY 1991 ---------------------- Registered Users receive their updates early in January. The first year following Registration is free, future years are currently $50.00 per year. Example, Register for $149.95 in 1991, receive 1991 Registered User Version (adds Government Reporting capability) at time of Registration, -AND- receive free 1992 Registered User Version in January 1992. You will then be billed in November 1992 for the 1993 Registered User Version. The annual upgrade includes not just Federal Taxes for the new year but anything else that has been added that year so you always have the most current version. We have been offering this service since 1986 and our users so far have been very pleased with the value for money. We keep thinking that we are going to have a product so perfect that one year we are not going to be able to find anything new to add. We have thought that for several years, but each year so far there have been new features. We can't promise to continue making improvements, but odd's are good we will think of some more by the end of the year, and of course the Federal Government can be relied on to keep making changes to taxes (and possibly to the W-2) which will be included in the upgrades. For January 1991 we added: - Greatly expanded customization of dollar prompts, allowing almost all such prompts to be changed, with calculation capability to be attached to them, and allowing special tax treatment of most items to more adequately cover Deferred Compensation Plans and other tax saving schemes. We also added the capability of customizing which box they are to be shown in on the new 1990 W-2 form. - A completely rewritten W-2 print program to handle the new 1990 W-2 form, -AND- we allowed full screen editing (changing) of the W-2 forms before they are printed for those last minute changes and for special situations. All W-2's are totalled before printing so you can see if your changes have thrown them out of balance with your quarterly reports and tax deposits. You can even delete any W-2's that are not needed. Change them as often as you like, print them only when you are satisfied, change them again and re-print them if necessary. A number of users said this feature alone was a BIG time saver that transformed the annual headache of issuing of W-2's into a breeze. - Added optional LASER check printing - Provided faster I/O for various utility programs. Full details of the January upgrades were included in our release letter to Registered Users (which follows): 7th. January 1991 PAYROLL USA - JANUARY 1991 FEDERAL TAX UPDATE AND UPGRADE TO REGISTERED USER VERS 3.00 ============================================= Diskettes containing your Upgrade are enclosed. Insert Disk 1 in drive A. Commands to install it are: A: CD \ INSTALL A letter containing further information will be printed on your system printer during installation. { THIS IS THE LETTER REFERRED TO ABOVE } CHANGES FOR 1991 ================ PRINTING W-2's -------------- From the PAYROLL USA MAIN PAY MENU, select choice F4 PRINT GOVERNMENT REPORTS (REGISTERED USERS ONLY), then select choice F4 Print W-2 Forms (Annual) You will then be in the W-2 Menu which has the following choices F1 CREATE NEW W-2 PRINT FILE (DELETE'S ANY EXISTING) F2 EDIT EXISTING W-2 PRINT FILE BEFORE PRINTING F3 PRINT W-2's ON CONTINUOUS PIN FEED FORMS F4 INFORMATION - PLEASE READ AT LEAST ONCE The W-2 Print Routine has been completely rewritten for the new 1990 W-2 forms. It has many new features including the capability to modify or delete W-2's before printing. (Delete being handy to stop W-2's for 1099 workers, though we did not have time to do a 1099 print routine so those will still have to be prepared by hand). If you access the above menu and take choice "F4 INFORMATION - PLEASE READ AT LEAST ONCE" you can get all the details on screen or printed out. You can read that without having to print W-2's so don't be afraid to take a look at it as soon as possible, don't wait until the last day for W-2's to be filed. OTHER GOVERNMENT REPORTS ------------------------ We have not yet seen a 941 form with the 1991 Medicare split shown on it so we had to guess at what it might look like. Even if our guess is wrong, the required figures should be on the revised 941 worksheet that is printed so just use your imagination if we have the wrong line number or something like that which is inconsequential. In response to several suggestions received with the Order Form for the 1991 version we have modified the Quarterly State Unemployment Report. It is now sorted into alphabetical order and in addition to the wage for the quarter, it now also shows on an employee by employee basis the amount over the limit, and the net taxable wage. We also added an extra page at the end to show the amount of State and Local Income Tax to be remitted for that Quarter. FEDERAL TAXES ------------- The programs have January 1991 Federal Taxes. Because of the number of other enhancements in this release we are a little late in mailing the disks and it is possible you will have had some pay periods in 1991 already before receiving the new disks. If those pay periods had to be processed with the 1990 programs it will not matter. The major tax change as far as employers are concerned is the FICA (Social Security). The overall rate is the same, but the Medicare portion is to be shown seperately on the 941 and on (next year's) W-2 and the Medicare wage limit ($125,000) is much higher than the Social Security wage limit ($53,400). As with last year, the new programs have logic to play catch up with FICA and FUTA (though the FUTA rates did not change this year they might some other year). For all active employees processed with pay dates prior to 1st. March 1991 the 1991 programs will recalculate FICA and FUTA on a Year to Date basis and subtract what has already been calculated to arrive at the amount for this pay. March onwards the logic automatically returns to its normal pay by pay basis. The overall result is that even if the 1990 programs were used in early 1991 the 1991 FICA and FUTA rates will be applied for the entire year (except for employees who terminated before the first run of the 1991 program) thus keeping the 941 and 940 reports correct. This will result in an abnormally high Medicare Wage and Amount in the first pay processed with the 1991 program if earlier 1991 pays have already been processed with the 1990 version. There will also be an abnormally low Social Security Amount, but that is not an error it is the retroactive adjustment being processed to re- allocate what has already been done. The overall FICA withheld from the employee will not be substantially different. We will keep that logic in for future years to take some of the pressure off getting tax updates out during this holiday season. We cannot play catch up with Income Tax but the changes from year to year are usually fairly small and as it is adjusted anyway when the employee files his or her 1040 return the difference in Income Tax for just a few pays is inconsequential. As long as we get the annual updates to you in time to print the W-2's you do not need to worry. STATE AND LOCAL TAXES --------------------- Updating these is a user responsibility. However, we do have a lot of users in California, and we use California taxes as our default. If you are using California taxes and want the program to update your State tax to 1991 for you then access the Configuration option, and select State Taxes. Once you get past the introductory screens, if the program detects that your State Name begins with CA and the tax method selected is also CA then it will pop up a screen offering to update them for you, you can reply Y or N. Once you reply Y you will not see that particular screen again. This is for California users only. It will not affect other State's. We cannot promise to do this every year, it depends if our California manual arrives on time. Because of the number of States we do not plan to extend this feature to other States at this time. CUSTOMIZABLE PROMPTS -------------------- There has been a major change here, though the new items have been defaulted so that if you ignore the change Payroll USA will continue to function as before (so you do not need to delay your next pay until you have had time to study the new features). However, we do suggest you take a look at the new screens to get all the information on this (explaination is on the screens) From the PAYROLL USA MAIN PAY MENU select F5 CONFIGURATION & OTHER UTILITIES, then select F4 CHANGE CONFIGURATION - DISKS, PROMPTS, TAXES, ETC., then select F3 Colors , Disk, Printer, Prompts, then select F4 Customize Prompts, Auto Calc, Taxable, W-2 From the menu that then appears select each group of prompts in turn (example PAY ITEMS, FRINGE BENEFITS, DEDUCTIONS, REIMBURSEMENTS). You will find that now almost all prompts can be customized, can have calculation capabilities attached to them, can be changed in the way they affect various taxes, and in where that item is to appear on the W-2. We have even opened up some of the pay items so you can now have other pay items that are calculated as a percentage of Salary or Regular Wage. These changes allows for processing of many special situations and give greatly increased flexibility. In particular, if you operate any tax saving plans you really must take a look at these new set up screens. EMPLOYEE ENTRY SCREENS ---------------------- On the individual employee tax set up screens the items which are no longer applicable have been deleted. These include the old W-2 Box 16 Line 1 and Line 2 entries (replaced on the new W-2 form and now handled from the customized prompts), and the entire continuation tax set up screen (for FICA / FUTA / SUTA adjustments by users with tax saving plans) has been eliminated. (Now handled from the customized prompts). Certain Prompts on the dollar entry screens have had minor descriptive changes. Taxable Pay may no longer equal Actual Pay + Fringe Benefits if Deferred Compensation Plans are identified in the Configuration Prompt set up. In 1990 "Other" items with automatic calculation specified in the Configuration were calculated even if Computer to Calc Pay was set false. Now that feature has been greatly expanded we have had to change that. They will now ONLY be calculated if Computer to Calc Pay is set to True. Be careful if you were using this for SDI and you want to manually calculate a pay, you will then also have to manually calculate the SDI. (SDI will of course still be calculated if the computer calculates the pay). If the cursor skips over an item on the entry screen it is because that item is one that will be calculated - if it skips over something you think it shouldn't then check the Prompts Configuration. If you were previously keeping track of Allocated Tips (not real tips but the IRS guidline to make real tips up to minimum 8% of sales) in Payroll USA you should discontinue that practice and instead record them manually for adding to the W-2 in the W-2 Edit at year end (they are not subject to withholding). Payroll USA can still be used for real (reported) tips though (which are subject to withholding). See the prompt configuration for name changes of reimbursement items, and the W-2 Print routine, for additional information on Allocated Tips. PAY CYCLE --------- No visible changes here, but with the new and expanded prompt customization allowing percentage calculation for almost anything and the capability of individual taxes being customized for each item then there is much more work for the pay and tax calculation routines to do. This may slow down the pay cycle a little, probably not enough to be noticable unless you have a large employee file. PAY CHECKS ---------- We have added an option to print LASER checks. As far as we know, other reports will print O.K. as is on a Laser Printer (please tell us if that is not so) but checks are different because they use a form that has to be lined up by moving the image rather than by moving the paper, and which is a single sheet rather than pin feed so it needs a form feed code after each check. As Laser Printers are now becoming more popular we thought we had better include them for checks. If you have a Laser Printer give it a try. The special check form number and form ordering information will be displayed when you select this routine. Try it out on plain paper before ordering forms to ensure it works O.K. with your particular Laser Printer (it should as it works by inserting extra empty lines and by inserting extra spaces in the left margin rather than by using individual printer manufacturer's control codes to move the origin). If you do not have a Laser Printer then select the REGULAR check print option. UTILITIES --------- The utilities for setting up the files for special "Adjusting" pay cycles, and for changing Social Security Numbers, processed the file one record at a time making for lots of disk accesses and disk head movement. We have speeded up the disk I/O for these utilities by reading and writing large blocks of data at a time and getting the individual records from the block while it is in the computers memory. We have included a new utility which is not on the menu as it is not our program. It is a public domain program (which means you can legitimately use it without payment) from Terry Lahman of PC Magazine called PCREMOTE which permits accessing and operating an off-site computer (which also must have a copy of PCREMOTE) from your own keyboard by using a modem link. We thought it might be useful in rare circumstances where you might want us to access your computer to look at a problem you might be having with Payroll USA (assuming of course that you have a modem and are prepared to pay for the phone call, also our excess time charges if it gets very involved). This does not compromise your security as we cannot use it unless you first run the PCREMOTE program and connect your computer's modem to the telephone line. You might find other uses for this program which do not involve us, such as running your home computer from the office or vice versa. For more information on this print out the PCREMOTE.DOC file as follows C: { or whichever drive it is installed on } CD \PAYPGMS COPY PCREMOTE.DOC PRN DOCUMENTATION ------------- The documentation files have not yet been updated for the new version, we ran out of time. However, users who registered prior to early March 1990 should note that the Slide Show was completely re-done at that time and can be printed out with an index suitable for punching with a 3 hole punch and filing in a standard binder to form a handy desk reference. It largly superceeds the old documentation files. If you registered prior to early March 1990, or if you are a new user in 1991, the slide show will be included with your 1991 disks. Users who registered March 1990 to end 1990 will already have received the Slide Show when they Registered, or if you had the 1990 ShareWare Version of Payroll USA you will also have already had the slide show. If you have been wishing you had a Payroll USA manual then print out the slide show, or at least take a look at it on the screen. It can be reached from the Main PAYUSA Menu, or it can be run from DOS with C: { or whichever hard disk it is on } CD \PAYSLIDE RUNSLIDE SUGGESTIONS ----------- I would like to thank all those who responded to our request for suggestions for further improvement when returning their Order Form for the 1991 Upgrade. Some suggestions were used, others had to be saved for later consideration as we just plain ran out of time. However, be assured they have not been thrown out, they are all preserved in a file for the future. ANNUAL UPGRADE FEE INCREASE TO U.S. $50.00 ------------------------------------------ Despite substantial program upgrades over the years the annual fee has remained unchanged since 1986. It covers not only upgrades and Federal Tax changes but also up to 30 minutes of telephone advice - and we do still get calls from people who have been registered for several years who need advice on a particular situation. Our annual upgrade service has not been profitable and is being subsidized by new registrations so this year we feel justified in increasing it to $50.00. Still a modest sum, and still excellent value for money as it ensures you always have the latest version of the program and that your Federal Taxes withheld are up to date. Consider what you got in this upgrade - it was worth a lot more than $50.00. If Payroll USA was sold through Computer Stores you would be paying $400 or $500 to start the program and $200.00 a year for the upgrades and would probably still consider it a bargain. RUNNING PAYROLL USA ON MORE THAN ONE COMPUTER REQUIRES ADDITIONAL REGISTRATIONS AT U.S. $149.95 EACH ------------------------------------------------------ Please note that your PAYROLL USA Registration is for one computer only (or for one network file server only), if you are using PAYROLL USA on more than one computer (or on more than one network file server) you will need one additional $149.95 Registration for each additional computer or network file server. If the 1991 version is installed on more than one computer the additional copies will complain after a 2 month grace period and stop working after 4 months so you may as well set it up right at the outset and avoid any panic situations. Note that you can still process payroll for multiple companies if they are all done with one copy of PAYROLL USA installed on one computer or one network file server - what we are enforcing is additional registrations for additional installations (such as, but not limited to, branch offices, client premises, partner's or associate's office, etc.) This is not a new requirement it is just that it was never enforced before. This is also part of our new policy in enforcing payment for telephone orders and bounced checks. On new orders the full program is sent out immediately, but the override for the 4 month expiry is not sent out until the check clears the bank. Unfortunately in 1990 we had a big increase in slow payers, non payers, and bad check artists. They are all more trouble than they are worth so now we just stop their payroll from working if they do not pay - it is quite effective in getting results as it is cheaper to pay up than to set up the payroll all over again on a different (and probably inferior) payroll system. SPREAD THE WORD =============== Personal recommendations count for a lot in the business world. Probably 90% or 95% of businessmen have never heard of ShareWare and so will not otherwise be aware of the existence of PAYROLL USA until we make it available with a glossy manual in a pretty box in computer stores (at much higher prices). If you have any friends who might need a payroll system please pass on our name and phone number. You can, if you wish, give them a copy of the current Slide Show or the 1990 (or earlier) programs to try. Do not, however, give them a copy of the current enclosed (January 1991) programs. Suggest that if they like the product they give me a call to arrange for Registration of a copy. Christopher Anthistle, President, 7th. January 1991