Magnum One/Magnum One (Mid-American Digital) (Disc Manufacturing).iso/d6/payus31a.arc/PAYUS31E.ARC/WHATSNEW.TXT

Text File | 1991-04-04 | 26KB | 504 lines

                     ANTHISTLE SYSTEMS & PROGRAMMING LTD.
                              563 Patricia Drive,
                              Oakville, Ontario,
                                CANADA L6K 1M4

   Telephone [phone] (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