home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Shareware Overload
/
ShartewareOverload.cdr
/
busi
/
takehome.zip
/
TAKEHOME.DOC
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1989-03-11
|
37KB
|
896 lines
TakeHome Pay Calculation
Copyright 1989, All Rights Reserved
Programmed by R. G. Farnam
P. O. Box 333
Barker, TX 77413-0444
CompuServe 71350,1375
GEnie R.GFarnam
INTRODUCTION
TakeHome was created as a way determine a quick "what-if"
scenario when changing withholding exemptions. I wanted to know
what the tax withheld and the amount of take-home pay would be if I
were to make a change with my employer for withholding tax
purposes. Along these lines, it has developed into a tool for
individuals and businesses alike.
INDIVIDUALS
TakeHome can be used to create several "what-if" situations.
After you have entered your current payroll information taken from
your pay-stub, you can determine how much federal (and optionally
state and local) tax would be withheld from your paycheck. You
will be able to list up to 15 ranges on each listing (i.e. from
single or married with 0-15 exemptions, 16-31, etc.). With this
information, you can fine-tune your withholding allowances to meet
your tax liability without giving the government an interest free
loan of your tax money. There are benefit plans (401-K and Section
125) that will reduce your tax liability at the end of each year.
TakeHome will show you the effect of these plans on your monthly
income if you participate in them.
Getting a pay raise? TakeHome will let you see just how much
take-home pay you will get before you receive your first check!
Finally, you will be able to check up on your employer to make sure
that the proper amount of withholding is being taken out of your
paycheck each pay period.
SMALL BUSINESSES
TakeHome can take the headache out of going thru the tax
tables at payroll time. The program will even produce a customized
pay-stub for you to attach to the checks you give to your
employees. If you are operating with a manual payroll system,
keeping a ledger account on each employee for W-2 purposes, you can
produce more than one copy of the pay stub, either posting directly
yourself (if you keep your own books) or giving it to your
bookkeeper to post. TakeHome should help you breeze through your
payroll duties.
LARGE CORPORATIONS
Even though your payroll may be computerized, there are many
occasions (performance awards, vacation pay, bonuses, employees
terminating before the end of the pay period, etc.) when payments
will be made to employees between your normal payroll processing.
You can compute the employees' taxes and create pay-stubs for such
occassions by using TakeHome. Have you ever been plagued with
requests from employees wanting to know what effect various
exemptions would have upon their take-home pay? TakeHome is a
payroll department's dream solution. You can strategically locate
copies of TakeHome on computers throughout the company so that
employees can do their own "dirty work" and figure it out for
themselves! TakeHome is currently in use by a Fortune 500 company
and has been a beneficial relief to the Payroll Department.
TakeHome Payroll Program Page -2-
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Shareware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
System Requirements
Files Included
Installing TakeHome
Program Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Starting TakeHome . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Enter Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Gross Pay
Federal Exemption Status
State Exemption Status
Local Status
State Income Tax
Section 125 Deductions
401-K Deductions
Other Deductions
Change Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Clear Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Partial Command . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Exemption Command . . . . . . . . . . . 9
401-K Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Tables Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Print Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Help Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Register Command . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Shell Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Quit Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
TakeHome Payroll Program Page -3-
SHAREWARE
TakeHome is being distributed under the SHAREWARE
distribution method. You can try it before you buy it! You are
granted a limited license to use TakeHome for a two week period.
If after two weeks you are still using TakeHome or have future
plans for the occassional use of TakeHome, you are expected to pay
for it. Many hours of programming and de-bugging have gone into
this ShareWare version of the program. To register, simply choose
the register option within the TakeHome program. You will be asked
questions for the completion of the form and the completed form
will be printed out on your printer. Since TakeHome is marketed as
ShareWare, only your conscience can be your guide. "There ain't
such a thing as a `free' lunch anymore!"
WHAT DO YOU GET BY REGISTERING?
1. You will receive your own serialized copy of the latest
version of TakeHome which can by-pass ShareWare notices.
2. You will receive this printed manual for the program's
use.
3. You will be notified of future up-grades of TakeHome.
4. You will have the option (for a slight additional fee) of
having your TakeHome program customized for the automatic
computation of any state and/or local payroll taxes in
your locality (limited to the 50 United States).
5. You can be registered on the author's BBS where you will
receive product support, as well as, the latest version
of TakeHome and many other fine ShareWare, FreeWare and
Public Domain software products. (This is a 300 MEG RBBS-
PC system!)
6. Site-licenses are available at a reduced cost for putting
TakeHome on PC's throughout your company.
7. The author's eternal gratitude!
DISCLAIMER
TakeHome is being provided "AS-IS" with no product warranty,
either expressed or implied; including, but not limited to the
implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular
purpose. TakeHome is guaranteed by the author that the original
program is free of any known "virus" and/or "trojan horse" source
code; however, since tampering by third parties is always a
possibility with any public access software, in no event will the
author be responsible for any damages which may occur with the use
of this program. The source code for TakeHome is not and will not
be released to the public for program integrity reasons as stated
above. TakeHome has been tested on IBM (including the PS2 series),
Compaq, AT&T, and IBM Compatibles. Some video cards may not work
properly with TakeHome and the program should be aborted if this
occurs.
TakeHome Payroll Program Page -4-
GETTING STARTED
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
1. DOS Version 2.1 or higher
2. A minimum of 256K free memory to devote to TakeHome
3. Floppy disk drive (hard disk allows faster access)
4. Color (CGA, EGA, VGA) or Monochrome Monitor
5. ANSI Driver should be active in your CONFIG.SYS file.
(If the ANSI.SYS or equivalent is not present in your
computers environment, the title screen of TakeHome will
appear as so much garbage. If you do not have ANSI,
remove the file TAKE2.000 from your disk or directory.
You will receive a `File Not Found' error message, but
TakeHome will function normally after that.)
FILES INCLUDED WITH TakeHome:
FILE NAME SIZE DESCRIPTION
~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TAKEHOME.EXE 180,876 Main Program File
PAYCALCA.EXE 72,080 Main Program Support File
TAKE2.000 7,905 Title Screen
HARD.BAT 2,406 Hard Disk installation
TAKEHOME.DOC 37,138 This Document File you are reading
READ.ME Update since Doc file was written
(This file may not be present)
FILES CREATED BY TakeHome
PAY.BAT Created during hard disk installation
TAKEHOME.??? Temporary work file created and deleted
during the programs "CHANGE COMMAND"
INSTALLING TAKEHOME
TakeHome will run from either a floppy diskette or from a
hard drive. The use of a hard drive will speed up TakeHome's disk
access and will make the program run faster. The program comes
with a hard disk installation file (HARD.BAT) which will do the
following for you:
* Create a subdirectory called PAYROLL
* Copy the program files into this subdirectory
* Copy PAY.BAT into your root directory for starting TakeHome
from any directory on your disk
Optionally, TakeHome can be copied onto your hard disk in the
directory of your choice. The program only needs the TAKEHOME.EXE,
PAYCALCA.EXE, and TAKE2.000 in the same directory (DO NOT RENAME
PAYCALCA.EXE) for the proper execution of TakeHome.
That's all there is to it! You are now ready to run TakeHome
with either the command PAY, if you used the hard disk installation
or TakeHome if you copied the program to your hard disk or are
running the program from your floppy diskette.
TakeHome Payroll Program Page -5-
PROGRAM OPERATION
TakeHome was designed to be user friendly. Most users don't
care to read a long documentation file. If you are one of these
types of individuals, go ahead and start the program! TakeHome is
menu driven and there are many "help" screens along the way. When
all else fails, you can always read the manual! Data entry other
than Yes or No will present a maximum character input in the upper
right hand corner of your screen. If you have not pressed the
Enter key by the time the counter reaches 0, then TakeHome will
stop taking input and place what you have entered on the screen.
STARTING TAKEHOME
Start TakeHome from the DOS prompt by either typing in PAY,
if you used the hard disk installation, or TakeHome from the floppy
disk or directory that the program files are located in. After the
title screen, an opening screen will give you some ShareWare
information on TakeHome, press any key to continue. You will first
be asked if you are running the program with a color or monochrome
screen; select "C" for color or "M" for monochrome. This will take
you to TakeHome's main menu. Options on the main menu are produced
"Lotus" style at the top of the screen. Simply use your arrow
direction keys to select the option of your choice. (NOTE: Some
of the options will not function until payroll information has been
entered into the program under the "Enter" option.) Currently,
options cannot be selected by pressing the first letter of the
option desired. I hope to be able to incorporate letter selection
in future upgrades.
ENTER COMMAND
ENTER brings you to the pay information screen.
GROSS PAY is the first question asked by the program.
TakeHome will not compute the gross pay for an
individual (with the exception of a monthly salaried
employee who only works for part of the month). You
may enter any value up to $999,999.99 as the gross pay
that you are working with.
FEDERAL DEPENDENT STATUS is the next screen. Your
dependent status needs to be put into code form made up
of 3 characters. The first character is either S for
single (or married but withhold at the highter single
rate) or M for married. The second two must contain your
number of exemptions that you are claiming. These can
range from 0 to 99; both digits must be used. Therefore,
if you are claiming single with no exemptions, you would
enter S00 as the status code. Married with 3 exemptions
would be entered as M03.
STATE DEPENDENT STATUS (registered versions only) will be
asked next. The code is entered like the Federal
dependent status code above. This portion works on
"customized" registered versions only since there are no
state tax tables built into TakeHome's ShareWare version.
TakeHome Payroll Program Page -6-
ENTER COMMAND (Continued)
LOCAL STATUS (registered versions only) will present
itself if you have had the program customized for local
options. There may not be a local status entry depending
on which locality you have had the program customized
for.
STATE INCOME TAX (unregistered versions and registered
versions with no state tax customization). You will need
to manually calculate any state taxes you pay from your
state tax tables. (There are entirely too many state and
local taxes throughout the U.S. to be able to incorporate
all of the state and local tables into a ShareWare
product.) Enter the net dollar result of your calculation
at the state tax prompt. If you do not have a state tax,
press the enter key to continue.
SECTION 125 DEDUCTIONS are certain pre-tax benefit plans
that the employee does not pay FICA or Federal/State
taxes for contributions to these plans. Examples would
include group health insurance, dependent care, medical
payments not covered by insurance, etc. Your company
must have a fully Qualified plan before deductions can be
entered as Section 125 deductions. If your company does
not participate in such plans or you do not have any
Section 125 deduction, press the enter key to continue,
otherwise, enter your total Section 125 deductions here.
401-K DEDUCTIONS are pre-tax savings plans that some
companies offer to their employees. 401-K deductions do
not have Federal/State taxes, but they are fully FICA
taxable. Again, your company must have a fully Qualified
plan before an amount can be entered here. If your
company does not have such a plan or you do not
participate in the 401-K plan, press enter to continue.
If you do have this deduction, enter it here.
OTHER DEDUCTIONS are entered next. Press "Y" if you want
to record other deductions (i.e. Credit Union, Donations,
other health or savings deductions not covered under the
Section 125 or 401-K plans, Union Dues, etc) Press "N"
if you are finished and have no other deductions.
Assuming you pressed "Y", you will be taken to the
other deductions input screen. You may list up to a
total of 9 other deductions. The first item you will
enter is the name of the deduction. This is followed by
the dollar amount entry of the deduction. You may
continue putting in the other deductions until you have
put in the maximum entries or you can quit the other
deductions screen by pressing Enter at the deduction name
prompt after all of your deductions are input.
Any deduction that is entered as a negative amount
(for example, -10.59) will add the deduction amount to
the paycheck instead of subtracting it - AFTER taxes.
This is useful in case you are refunding a deduction that
was previously overcollected.
TakeHome Payroll Program Page -7-
After all the payroll information has been entered, you will be
returned to the main menu screen of TakeHome. The information that
was just entered will be displayed on the right hand side of your
screen. The bottom status line will have changed from "No Data
Input" to show you which tax table is being used to currently
calculate your taxes, your Federal status code for the tax
calculation, and your State status code (registered versions with
state customization options only).
CHANGE COMMAND
This command takes the place of the "enter" command after
payroll data has been entered. From this command, you will be
taken to a screen that shows your gross pay input, Federal
exemption code, State exemption code (registered versions) or
state tax calculated, Section 125 deduction, 401-K deduction
or total other deductions. Using the arrow keys, select the
entry that you want to change and you will be taken to a
change screen for that entry only so that you do not have to
re-enter all of the data. You may optionally select the
change all to re-enter all data. When you are satisified
with your changes, select the keep these values to return to
the main menu.
CLEAR COMMAND
The clear command will clear out all data that was input with
the enter command. If you want to enter a completely new set
of data, use the clear command first. This will reset all
values to zero and return the "enter" command prompt.
PARTIAL COMMAND
The partial command will allow you to compute what a monthly
salaried employee should be paid when they work for only part
of the month.
GROSS PAY should have the full monthly salaried rate entered
into it. After this amount has been entered you will be
shown the calculation of the employee's daily rate of pay.
WORKDAYS IN MONTH needs to then be determined. A set of
calendars (last month, this month, and next month) will pop
up to assist in your determination of the number of normal
workdays. In order for these calendars to be the correct
ones, you will need to make sure that the date set in your
computer is the current date. Paid holidays, sick leave,
vacation time-off, etc. are counted as workdays in this
computation, but weekends are not to be counted. There are
normally between 20 and 23 workdays per month which is all
that TakeHome will correctly compute the amount on.
DAYS ACTUALLY WORKED of the number of workdays in the month
will then be asked for by the program. The calendars will
remain visible until this entry has been made. Days entered
should be in half day increments; therefore, if the employee
worked until noon one day, the decimal .5 should be added to
the total number of whole days worked.
TakeHome Payroll Program -8-
TakeHome will then present you with its calculation of
the employees gross pay for the month. The calculation used
by TakeHome is based on 260 possible working days in any year
(this would include any holidays as work days and would there-
fore be taken into consideration wheather the employee was
paid for the holiday or not). This method averages out over
the period of a year and should be made applicable even if it
is February with only 28 days or July with 31 days.
OTHER DOLLAR AMOUNTS to be paid in addition to this amount
can be entered into TakeHome. This should be an entry, if
any, of the total overtime, vacation for days not taken,
severance pay or any other types of pay you want to enter.
If you have not previously entered the payroll data into
the program, TakeHome will give you the total amount computed
along with any other additional pay that you have entered.
This amount should be entered as your gross pay on the data
entry screen.
If you previously entered the payroll data, TakeHome will
return you to the main screen of the program, automatically
plugging in the new calculated value as the gross pay and
recompute the FICA, Federal and State (registered version
with options) taxes to be displayed.
EXEMPTION COMMAND
The exemption command was the original concept behind the
TakeHome program. This command can only be accessed after
data has been entered into the program. This section of the
program creates a "what if" situation. For example, what if
I claimed Married and 3 exemptions instead of Married and 2
exemptions? How much would be taken out of my paycheck for
Federal and State (registered versions) withholding taxes?
With this command, you can easily find out!
FEDERAL MARITAL STATUS of "S" for single or "M" for married
is entered at the first prompt. Any other characters will
cause an input error and TakeHome will ask you to re-enter
the marital status.
STATE MARITAL STATUS (customized registered versions only)
will then be prompted for an answer. You may use the same
status that you used for the Federal marital status, or you
can change to the other one (i.e. if you are claiming married
as your Federal status for the comparison, and you want more
State tax to be withheld than the state married tables will
calculate, then you could claim single for comparison
purposes).
STARTING POINT for the comparison of exemption ranges may be
from 0 to 99. Simply enter the number you want the
comparison to start at.
TakeHome Payroll Program Page -9-
ENDING POINT for the comparison. This can be any number from
1 to 15 above the starting point up to the number 99. A
limit of 15 is imposed by TakeHome since the screen will fill
with your tax information, but would scroll off if a larger
number were selected. If you need a larger comparison, just
run the comparison again.
The TakeHome screen will then clear and present you with
the information requested. For each exemption claimed, you
will be given the amount of Federal Withholding Tax, the
State Withholding Tax (only accurate in customized versions)
and your net take-home pay for each exemption. NOTE: The
take-home pay will only be accurate if you included all of
your payroll deductions in the first data entry panel. State
Tax calculations will be fixed at your set amount if you do
not have a customized version
If you received `**' next to the withholding exemptions,
this is an indicator that a copy of your W-4 form will be
mailed by your employer to the I.R.S. You will have gone
over their current limit on employer reporting to the I.R.S.
Your employer will still accept the number of allowances you
have claimed, but you may be hearing from `Uncle Sam' to
prove that you are entitled to that number of exemptions.
PRINT COMPARISON is the next question asked. If you want the
comparison data shown on your screen to be sent to your
printer, reply by pushing the "Y" key (make sure your printer
is turned on). Otherwise press the "N" key.
ANOTHER COMPARISON is the next prompt. If you would like to
enter another set of ranges for your exemption comparison,
press the "Y" key. Pressing the "N" key returns you to Pay-
Calc's main menu.
401-K COMMAND
401-K is another "what if" situation. Many companies now
offer 401-K plans, which are meant to be retirement savings
plans, to their employees. If your company offers such a
plan, this comparison will show you the tax savings from each
pay check that you would receive if you were to put your
savings into the 401-K plan instead of a regular savings
account. This command will only work if payroll data has
been entered previously into the program.
There are no other entries for this comparison. You will
be shown the payroll tax savings for each whole percent from
1 to 16 that you would benefit from if you participated in
your employer's 401-K plan.
TakeHome Payroll Program Page -10-
TABLES COMMAND
The tables command is used to change the tax tables that
TakeHome uses to compute your payroll taxes. You should
select your pay period from the tables for TakeHome to
accurately calculate your payroll taxes.
MONTHLY - If your taxes are calculated 12 times a year. This
is TakeHome's default mode. Some companies pay twice a
month, but the taxes are only calculated once a month with
the first check of the month being considered an advance.
SEMI-MONTHLY - If you are paid twice a month and your taxes
are calculated with each check.
BI-WEEKLY - If you are paid 26 times a year, receiving your
paycheck every two weeks.
WEEKLY - If you are paid 52 time a year, so that you receive
your check every week.
DAILY/MISC - If you are paid in a category that does not fall
in one of the above.
LUMP-SUM DISTRIBUTION - If you make a payment to an employee
over and above their normal payperiod, this method should be
chosen. This processes the Federal tax at a flat 20 percent
of the gross pay.
PRINT COMMAND
The Print command allows you to print a customized pay-
stub on your printer. Values used on the stub will default
to TakeHome's calculations, but may be over-ridden if it is
necessary.
[A] Use this option to enter the employee's name that you
want printed on the stub.
[B] This is to enter the employee's social security number
on the stub. Enter the full nine digits of the number
without any hyphens (TakeHome will place them for you on the
stub.
[C] The period ending should be entered in the manner of
either xx-xx-xx or xx/xx/xx for the month, day and year.
[D] Use this option to override the FICA tax on the stub. If
an employee has reached the FICA tax limit for the year,
this option should be set to zero so that no additional tax
is collected.
TakeHome Payroll Program Page -11-
[E] This option will override the Federal income tax being
withheld on the pay-stub.
[F] This option will override the State income tax being
withheld on the pay-stub.
[G] (Customized registered version only) This option will
override any local tax that TakeHome has calculated.
[H] This option will insert your company name on the pay-
stub. (This option is not activated on customized versions
that are registered in company names as the company name will
automatically appear on the pay-stub from the registration
information.)
[P] This option actually prints the stub(s). You may select
as many copies of the stub up to 99 as you have a need for.
Enter 0 copies if you decide you are not ready to print yet.
[X] Exits the Print menu and returns you to TakeHome's main
menu.
HELP COMMAND
Help gives you a brief set of instructions to use as a
quick reference for the main menu commands. Try looking at
this help facility before coming back to the doc file.
REGISTER COMMAND
By selecting the Register command, you can print out a
customized registration form for TakeHome. You will be asked
to enter such information as Company name, your name,
address, telephone number, customization options wanted (if
any) as well as giving you the current pricing structure for
TakeHome.
When you are finished entering the registration
information, the registration form will first be recorded on
your disk and then printed out on your printer. You may use
the disk file to make any corrections, additions, deletions,
etc. that you feel necessary before mailing the registration
form for your own copy of TakeHome. The disk file is an
ASCII file that can be read by any text/word processor.
Thank you in advance for using the Register Command.
TakeHome Payroll Program Page -12-
SHELL COMMAND
The Shell command can be used to keep TakeHome in your
computers memory while you access another program, provided
you have enough memory to run the other program. You may
need to look up some information to enter into TakeHome, but
don't want to lose the information you have already entered.
This is an example for the use of the Shell command.
Shell will return you to the DOS prompt. To go back to
TakeHome, type EXIT at the DOS prompt and you will return to
TakeHome's main menu with your information intact.
QUIT COMMAND
When you are finished with TakeHome, select the Quit
command. You will be given the total amount of time that Pay-
Calc has been running on your PC.
TakeHome Payroll Program Page -13-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
TakeHome was programmed using QuickBASIC Version 3.0.
Many thanks to Dave Evers for his Window Tools routines which are
used extensively throughout this program.
The following are Registered Trademarks used in this documentation:
IBM - International Business Machines Corporation
Compaq - The Compaq Corporation
AT&T - American Telephone and Telegraph
Lotus - Lotus Development Corporation
QuickBASIC - Microsoft Corporation
Fortune 500 - Fortune Magazine
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The author of TakeHome has been working in the Payroll area for the
past eleven plus years. He is currently a member of the American
Payroll Association. He operates a 300 MEG bulletin board service
in the Houston, Texas area. Registered users of TakeHome will be
given special access considerations to the BBS for product support
and future upgrades. Any correspondence should be directed to:
R. Gene Farnam
P. O. Box 333
Barker, TX 77413-0333
TakeHome Payroll Program Page -14-
