Utilities Setup
The Payroll Setup
application allows you to enter data, which remains relatively constant
throughout the Payroll package over an extended period of time. It also
allows you to customize your Payroll package to some degree. This is
the first Payroll application you should run after you have initialized
(or converted) the Payroll data files and have set up the Company File.
The responses you provide here will
affect processing in nearly all of the programs in the Payroll package,
so consider them carefully.
NOTE: As the various General
Ledger account numbers are being entered, there is no validation done
against the Account File. It is therefore very important that these account
numbers be entered accurately. The account numbers should also be entered via
the Account File Maintenance application so that their descriptions will
appear on distribution reports. If you desire to have profit center and departmental
accountability revert to the employee's profit center and department for all or
specific liabilities, the profit center and department portions of the
liability accounts entered here should be entered as all 9s.
Once the Payroll package
is in operation, if the answers to screen items 14, 16, 18, 19 on the first
screen are changed from Y to N, or N to Y, the
logic in the programs connected with these questions will automatically be
deactivated or activated. No data already in existence in the package will be
lost by changing the answers to these questions. However, if the Distribute
Pay To G/L ? has its answer changed from A to S or from N
to S, the distribution flag for each employee on file will have to be
changed individually for all those employees for which you now want to do
detailed General Ledger distribution.
Select PR Setup from the pull down PR Util_setup
window. The following screen will then be displayed:

Payroll
Setup Entry Screen
The following options are available:
* Select
the desired mode from the PR Setup menu bar
* Enter the
data requested on the screen
To return to the menu bar, press the ESC or F10
key. To leave this application, press X for EXIT when positioned
at the menu bar.
Entry Field Descriptions
First Screen
Name
|
Type
and Description
|
1. Employer Name
|
25 alphanumeric characters.
This is the employer name
that will appear on the Year‑end W‑2 and Quarterly Report forms,
which are automatically printed by the Payroll program. The following
address (2‑4) is also used for the same purpose.
|
2. Address ‑ 1
|
25 alphanumeric characters.
|
3. Address ‑ 2
|
25 alphanumeric characters.
|
4. Address ‑ 3
|
25 alphanumeric characters.
|
5. Federal Id No
|
11 alphanumeric characters.
This is the employer's
federal identification number that will appear on the Year‑end W‑2
forms and Quarterly Payroll report.
|
6. Emplr Soc Sec Pct
|
4 digits, with 2 decimal
places (99.99).
The employer and employee
Social Security percents are subject to change by the federal government at
the beginning of each year. Their current values can be found in the IRS
Circular E ‑ Employer's Tax Guide.
|
7. Empl Soc Sec Pct
|
4 digits, with 2 decimal
places (99.99).
See the description for item
6 above.
|
8. Max Soc Sec Wages
|
7 digits, with 2 decimal
places (99,999.99).
The maximum Social Security wages is the cut‑off
maximum limit of an individual employee's taxable gross wages upon which the
Social Security deduction is calculated. This value can also be found in the
current IRS Circular E.
The maximum is the same for
both the employer's Social Security and the employee's Social Security.
However, if the employer is a restaurant, the employee's reported tips are
included as a part of the gross wages for the employee Social Security, but
not for the employer.
|
Max Soc Sec Wages (continued)
|
Meals are included in the taxable gross for both the
employer and the employee for Social Security computation. Tip credits are
included in the taxable gross for the employer for this calculation also.
|
9. Medicare Fica Pct
|
4 digits, with 2 decimal
places (99.99).
The Medicare percent is
subject to change by the federal government at the beginning of each year.
The current value can be found in the IRS Circular E-Employer's Tax Guide.
|
10. Medicare Max Wages
|
8 digits with 2 decimal
places (999999.99).
The maximum Medicare wages
is the cut-off maximum limit of an individual employee's taxable gross wages
upon which the Medicare deduction is calculated. This value can also be
found in the current IRS Circular E.
|
11. Federal Unemp Pct
|
5 digits, with 3 decimal
places (99.999).
The federal unemployment
(FUI) percent can also be found in IRS Circular E. It is used on the
Quarterly Tax Report to calculate the employer's FUI liability. However,
this may be reduced in some states that require State Unemployment Insurance
(SUI) payments.
|
12. Federal Unemp Max
|
7 digits, with 2 decimal
places (99,999.99).
The federal unemployment
(FUI) maximum wages are also found in IRS Circular E. It is the cut‑off
maximum limit of an individual employee's taxable gross wages upon which the
employer's FUI liability is calculated.
|
13. Fed Minimum Wage
|
5 digits, with 3 decimal
places (99.999).
This is the federal minimum wage per hour set by
federal law.
The federal minimum wage is used to calculate tip
credit for restaurants. The tip credit for an eligible employee would be
the hours worked below the federal minimum wage times the difference between
the wage paid and the federal minimum wage.
There is no check made
anywhere in the Payroll package to prevent paying an employee less
than the minimum wage. Paying the proper wage to employees is the user's
responsibility.
|
Fed Minimum Wage (continued)
|
However, if the restaurant question is answered Y
and the employee is eligible for tip credit, a message will appear on the
Payroll Register warning that the employee has not been paid the federal
minimum wage. A change can be made through Payroll Time Transaction
Processing, or the system will automatically post the required dollar
amount to an excess pay field for the employee.
|
14. Sick Pay Exempt?
|
Y or N.
Under special circumstances,
compensation the employer gives, as sick pay is exempt from FICA taxation.
If the answer to this question is Y, FICA will be calculated on
taxable gross wages minus sick pay, for both the employer's and employee's
share of FICA. All other tax calculations will include sick pay as part of
taxable gross wages.
|
15. Distribute Pay To G/L?
|
1 alphabetic character.
Valid responses are:
N = Never
Distribute
A = Always
Distribute
S = Selectively
Distribute
General Ledger distribution is always
automatically included as a part of the Payroll package, no matter
what the user responds to this question. It is the detailed distribution of
an employee's wages to selected General Ledger accounts that is
controlled by the response to this question. If the answer to this question
is N (never distribute), all employees' wages for regular hours or
salary, overtime hours, and special hours will be automatically distributed
to the employee's wage account as given in the employee record.
Vacation, holiday and sick
hours will be distributed according to the expense accounts indicated in this
Payroll Setup. If the answer to this question is A (always
distribute), then in both the Payroll Time Transaction Processing
application and Manual Trx Processing application, the operator will
be requested to distribute the employee's regular pay or salary, supplemental
pay, overtime pay, vacation pay, holiday pay, special pay and sick pay in
detail to selected General Ledger accounts.
|
Distribute Pay To G/L (continued)
|
If the answer to this question is S (selectively
distribute), the operator will be requested to enter a detailed General
Ledger distribution only for employees that have been flagged for
distribution on the employee record (see the Employee File Maintenance
application).
|
16. Restaurant?
|
Y or N.
If the employer is a restaurant, the Payroll
package will perform the basic accounting functions necessary to handle an
employee's reported tips and any meals provided by the employer, as well as
tip credits. Meals in this case are always considered a part of the
employee's taxable gross wages. Meals are not, however, automatically posted
to a General Ledger account. Any such posting must be done manually
in the General Ledger package. To aid the user in doing this, an
Employee Meals Report is available as part of the Print Employee Reports
application.
Tip credits are calculated
when an employee is flagged as eligible for tip credit in the employee
record. When a payroll transaction is entered for an employee, if the
employee's wages (hourly rate, plus reported tips) are less than what that
employee would get if he were getting the federal minimum wage for the hours
reported, the tip credit is calculated by subtracting the federal minimum
wage from regular, overtime or special rate, plus reported tips (if these
are below the federal minimum wage) and then multiplying this amount by the
number of worked hours hours worked at the substandard rate. Tip credit is
not computed for vacation pay, sick pay, or holiday pay.
|
17. Tip Credit Percent
|
5 digits, with 2 decimal
places.
The maximum allowable
percentage of the federal minimum wage that the employer may use as the tip
credit.
|
18. Reconcile Checks?
|
Y or N.
If check reconciliation is
selected, then all regular payroll checks and all manual checks (when the net
pay is more than zero) will be automatically kept on file for later
reconciliation using the Payroll Check Reconciliation application.
|
19. Use Job No’s?
|
Y or N.
The Payroll package allows for the detailed
accounting of wages paid to employees by job number. In order to distribute
an employee's wages to selected jobs, the employee must be flagged for
detailed distribution of his wages to General Ledger. For such an
employee (which may be all employees), when the operator is doing the
detailed distribution of a regular payroll transaction, or of a manual
payroll transaction, to General Ledger,
he will also be requested to enter a job number to
which this distribution applies. He may leave the Job Number field blank if
he does not wish a particular distribution to be applied against a job.
Tracking wage expense by job number in the Payroll
package is distinct from tracking job expenses in the Job Costing
package. Wage expense is fed into the Job Costing package via the Labor
Performance package.
The field may not be Y
if the entry for field 15 is N.
|
20. Last Check No
|
6 numeric digits, no decimal
places (999999).
The last check number used is automatically updated
during the Print Payroll Check application. Once check number 999999
is used, the next check number used will be 1.
Note that check numbers
entered in the Manual Transaction Processing application are not used
to update this field.
|
Fields 21 through 27
The number of hours in the
various time periods are used in payroll calculations in several different
programs. They should correspond exactly to the number of hours used by the
employer as the basis for paying his employees. Their default values are as
follows:
Default
Hours in Day 8.00
Hours in Week 5
x Hours in Day
Hours in Bi‑week 2
x Hours in Week
Hours in
Semi‑month 2.17 x Hours in Week
Hours in
Month 4.33 x Hours in Week
Hours in
Quarter 13 x Hours in Week
Hours in Year 52
x Hours in Week
Name
|
Type
and Description
|
21. Hours in Day
|
4 numeric digits, with 2
decimal places (99.99).
Default is 8.00.
|
22. Hours in Week
|
4 numeric digits, with 2
decimal places (99.99).
Default is 5 x Hours in Day.
|
23. Hours in Bi‑Week
|
5 numeric digits, with 2
decimal places (999.99).
Default is 2 x Hours in
Week.
|
24. Hours in Semi‑Mon
|
5 numeric digits, with 2
decimal places (999.99).
Default is 2.17 x Hours in
Week.
|
25. Hours in Month
|
5 numeric digits, with 2
decimal places (999.99).
Default is 4.33 x Hours in
Week.
|
26. Hours in Quarter
|
6 numeric digits, with 2
decimal places (9,999.99).
Default is 13 x Hours in
Week.
|
27. Hours in Year
|
6 numeric digits, with 2
decimal places (9,999.99).
Default is 52 x Hours in
Week.
|
Fields 28 through 33
The number of the various
possible pay periods in a working year are used in tax calculations in order to
annualize an employee's pay, so that the annual Federal Withholding Table can
be used to calculate withholding tax, no matter what the employee's pay period
is. The default values are as follows:
Default
Yearly Days 260
(per IRS Circular E)
Yearly Weeks 52
Yearly Bi‑weeks 26
Yearly Semi‑months 24
Yearly Months 12
Yearly
Quarters 4
Name
|
Type
and Description
|
28. Yearly Days
|
3 numeric digits (999).
Default is 260.
|
29. Yearly Weeks
|
2 numeric digits (99).
Default is 52.
|
30. Yearly Bi‑Weeks
|
2 numeric digits (99).
Default is 26.
|
31. Yearly Semi‑Mon
|
2 digits (99).
Default is 24.
|
32. Yearly Months
|
2 digits (99).
Default is 12.
|
33. Yearly Quarters
|
1 digit (9).
Default is 4.
|
34. Emp Audit Trail ?
|
Y or N.
Your answer here will
determine whether or not changes to the Employee file will be recorded
for later audit.
|
35. Change Protected Fields ?
|
Y or N.
Enter Y here if you
want the ability to change F6 protected fields in the Payroll
system. The default value is N.
|
Second Screen
Name
|
Type and Description
|
1. Overtime
Pay Factor
|
4 numeric digits, with 3 decimal places (9.999).
This value is used when entering employee's rates of pay in the Employee
File Maintenance application. The overtime pay rate will default to the
regular pay rate times this overtime pay factor. This rate can be manually
overridden during Employee File Maintenance.
|
2. Special
Pay Factor
|
4 numeric digits, with 3 decimal places (9.999).
This field is used when entering the employee's rates of pay in the Employee
File Maintenance application. The special pay rate will default to the
regular pay rate times this special pay factor. This rate can be manually
overridden during Employee File Maintenance.
|
3. Sup Pay
Fwt Pc
|
4 numeric digits, with 2 decimal places (99.99).
During the Time Transaction Processing application,
supplemental wage payments may be entered (for such things as bonuses, commissions,
etc.). The normal federal withholding tax calculations need not be done on
such payments, if the time transactions contain only supplemental pay.
Instead, FWT can be calculated as a flat percentage of the supplemental
payment, given by this field. If this entry is zero, then supplemental
earnings will have FWT calculated in the usual way.
|
Sup Pay Fwt
Pct (continued)
|
Note: State taxing authorities also allow this flat percentage method of
calculating withholding on supplemental wage payments. This is provided for
in the state tax calculation routines (see the State/City Tax Codes
Maintenance application).
|
Fields 4 Through 6
After checks are
printed in the Print Payroll Check application, and when manual payroll
transactions are being posted, if the user does not manually distribute these
amounts, vacation pay, holiday pay and sick pay will be posted as a debit to
the expense account whose main account number is the value entered in these
fields, and whose profit center account number is the same as the profit
center account number of the wage account entered for the particular employee
in the employee record. If, however, any one of these expense accounts is entered
as all nines, then all pay of this type (vacation or holiday or sick) will be
distributed to G/L as a part of every employee's regular wages, to the
employee's wage account.
Name
|
Type
and Description
|
4. Vaca Pay Exp Act
|
Up to 8 alphanumeric
characters.
This is dependent on the
format of G/L account number specified in the Company file.
|
5. Hol Pay Exp Act
|
Up to 8 alphanumeric
characters.
See description in Item 4
above.
|
6. Sick Pay Exp Act
|
Up to 8 alphanumeric
characters.
See description in Item 4
above.
|
Fields 7 Through 16 And 20 Through 21
If the profit center portion of
these account numbers is entered as all nines, the profit center from the
employee's wage account will be used when posting distributions to the PR
Distribution File.
If the department portion of
these account numbers is entered as all nines, the department from the
employee's wage account will be used when posting distributions to the
Distribution File.
Fields 7, 8 and 9
The employer's share of FICA and
FUI payments are not deductions from the employee's pay. Therefore, to keep
the General Ledger in balance, two accounts are provided for each of
these: an expense account and a liability account. Only the main account
number is entered for the expense accounts. The profit center account number
and department account number is always the same as the profit center account
number of the employee's wage account.
Note: The Manual Transaction
Processing application posts the employer's share of FICA to the General
Ledger but does not automatically post the FUI amounts. These amounts are
posted in the normal check printing, but for checks entered in Manual
Transaction Processing, amounts will have to be calculated as distributions
or adjustments and entered manually into the General Ledger package.
If you wish no automatic posting
of FUI or employer FICA to be made to the General Ledger during the
Payroll check-printing run, but wish to do this manually over longer time
intervals, then leave these fields (or either one) blank. If you do this, then
you will not be requested to enter the corresponding liability account number
(fields 9 and 10).
Name
|
Type
and Description
|
7. Fui Expense Act
|
Up to 8 alphanumeric
characters.
This is dependent on the
format of G/L account number specified in the Company file.
|
8. Empr Soc Sec Exp Act
|
Up to 8 alphanumeric
characters.
See description in Item 7
above.
|
9. Empr Medicare Exp Act
|
Up to 8 alphanumeric
characters.
See description in Item 7
above.
|
10. Empr Medicare Liab Act
|
An account number in the
standard account number format.
This is the credit account
that counter balances the debit (expense) account in field 9. If field 9 is
blank, then this field will not be requested.
|
11. Emp Medicare Liab Act
|
An account number in the standard account number
format.
|
12. Fui Liab Act
|
An account number in the
standard account number format.
This is the credit account
that counter‑balances the debit (expense) account in field 7. If field
7 is blank, then this field will not be requested.
|
13. Emplr Soc Sec Liab Act
|
An account number in the
standard account number format.
This is the credit account
that counter‑balances the debit (expense) account in field 8 above. If
field 8 is blank, then this field will not be requested.
|
Fields 14, 15, 17, 18, 19
The employee's share of FICA,
federal withholding tax and any amounts for savings bond deduction, loan
repayment deduction and garnish deduction all come out of the employee's
wages. The liability accounts entered here provide the counter‑posting
accounts to the various employee wage accounts.
Name
|
Type
and Description
|
14. Emp Soc Sec Liab Act
|
An account number in the standard account number
format.
|
15. Fwt Liab Act
|
An account number in the standard account number
format.
|
16. Eic Advance Act
|
An account number in the
standard account number format.
Earned Income Credits (EIC)
are posted to this account as a debit and to the checking (cash) account as a
credit. EIC payments are a reduction in a liability instead of an expense so
multiple profit center accounts are not allowed.
|
17. Sav Bond Liab Act
|
An account number in the standard account number
format.
|
18. Loan Repayment Act
|
An account number in the standard account number
format.
|
19. Garnish Liab Act
|
An account number in the standard account number
format.
|
20. Check (Cash) Act
|
An account number in the standard account number
format.
|
21. Accrual Act
|
An account number in the
standard account number format.
This is the account used to
accrue the employer's liability for employee's wages. Distributions will be
created for this account when prorating an employee's pay over two accounting
periods. If no accrual account is entered or all zeros are entered, accrual
distributions will not be generated by the Post Payroll Checks
application.
|
Third Screen
This screen contains all the
information needed to calculate Federal Withholding Tax and EIC payments during
the payroll calculation run, based on each employee's marital status, FWT
number of exemptions, and number of EIC certificates as recorded on the
Employee record.
The table entered here should be
the ANNUAL tables as found in IRS Circular E.
Name
|
Type
and Description
|
1. Fed W/H Allowance
|
6 numeric digits, with 2
decimal places (9,999.99).
This is the value of one
withholding allowance for the year.
|
Single W/H Table
Name
|
Type
and Description
|
Fields 2‑8
|
The values are taken from the IRS Circular E.
|
Over
|
6 numeric digits.
This is the over amount, and
defines the lower limit of each tax bracket.
|
Tax‑Amt
|
8 numeric digits, with 2 decimal
places (999,999.99).
This is the flat tax amount
for the particular tax bracket, before any percentage of the excess of wages
over the lower limit (the over amount) is taken.
|
Plus‑%
|
4 numeric digits, with 2
decimal places (99.99).
This is the percent to be
taken on the excess of wages over the lower limit (over) amount, which is
then added to the Tax‑Amt to give the total tax.
|
Single EIC Table
Name
|
Type
and Description
|
Fields 9‑11
|
The values are taken from
the IRS Circular E.
The values entered here have
the same significance as those described above for the Single W/H Table,
except that the second amount (CR‑Amt) is a credit rather than a tax
(Tax‑Amt). Also, note that the last entry for the Plus‑% is
negative (field 11).
|
Married W/H Table
Name
|
Type
and Description
|
Fields 12‑18
|
The values are taken from
the IRS Circular E.
The values entered here have
the same significance as those described above for the Single W/H Table.
|
Married EIC Table
Name
|
Type
and Description
|
Fields 19‑21
|
The values are taken from the IRS Circular E. The
values have the same significance as those described above for the Single
EIC Table.
|
Fourth Screen
This screen is used to define
the ways that vacation and sick hours may be accrued for your employees. Each
employee is assigned a Vacation Accrual code and a Sick Pay Accrual code (on
the Employee record). If an employee has a blank value for either of these
codes, then no accrual will be done for that type of benefit (vacation or sick)
and any desired values for vacation hours due or sick hours due for such an
employee must be entered manually. Otherwise, whenever a payroll check or a
manual payroll transaction is posted for an employee, vacation and sick hours
are accrued to that employee based on these codes.
Vacation Hour and Sick Hour Accrual Codes
Fields 1‑10
Name
|
Type
and Description
|
Accrual Amount
|
6 numeric digits, with 4
decimal places (99.9999).
These are the number of
fractional hours to accrue (add to) the Vacation Hours Due or Sick Hours Due
field on the Employee record.
|
Accrual Period
|
3 alphabetic characters.
Valid values are:
HR = Per
Hour
DAY = Per
Day
WK = Per
Week
MON = Per
Month
This is the period of time
the employee must work in order to get the accrued hours described in the
previous field. For example, if the value here is DAY and the employee works
one week, which is 5 days, then he will accrue 5 times the hours specified in
the Accrual Amount field of vacation or sick hours due to him.
|
Maximum Accrual
|
4 numeric digits (9,999).
This is the maximum value
that the employee can have due at any particular time. If you do not set a
maximum on sick or vacation hours accrued for your employees, then enter 9999
for this field.
|
11. Max Vac Hours Carried Past Year‑End
|
3 numeric digits (999).
This is the maximum number
of vacation hours for any employee that can be carried forward from one year
to the next. When the employee totals are cleared at the end of the year, by
the Clear Employee Totals application, if an employee's vacation hours
due are greater than this amount, it will be set equal to this amount, if
field 13 below is C for calendar year.
|
Max Vac Hours Carried Past Year‑End
(continued)
|
Otherwise, if field 13 below is H for Hire‑Date
Anniversary, the program that posts payroll checks will detect when this
field needs to be used to set down the vacation hours due to the maximum
allowable.
|
12. Max Sick Hours Carried Past Year‑End
|
3 numeric digits (999).
This is the counterpart of
the previous field, for accrued sick hours. However, this maximum is always
applied at the end of the calendar year.
|
13. Calndr Year‑End or Hire‑Date
Year‑End?
|
1 alphabetic character.
Valid values are:
C = Calendar Year
H = Hire‑Date Year
This field determines when
the maximum in field 11 above will be applied. If this field is C,
the Clear Employee Totals application run at year‑end will set
the accrued vacation hours due to no greater than the maximum. If this field
is H, the Payroll Check Posting program will detect if this is
the first pay period after the anniversary of the employee's hire date, and
if so, it will apply the maximum amounts in field 11.
|
14. Garnish By % Of Net Pay
|
Y or N.
Defaults to N.
If garnishment percentage is
taken from net pay, the calculation using the percentage entered at Garnish
Ded (field 11 screen 2, Employee File Maintenance) will be performed
after all other deductions have been taken out during Payroll Calculation.
|
15. Validate Accounts From PR Or G/L?
|
1 alphabetic character.
Valid Values are:
P = PR
Account File
G = G/L
Account File
Defaults to P.
|
Employee Notes
Name
|
Type
and Description
|
1. Employee Note Literal 1
|
10 alphanumeric characters.
This field serves to label
the first description line of the Notes field information. You may
enter any expression that suits your needs.
|
2. Employee Note Literal 2
|
10 alphanumeric characters.
This field serves to label
the second description line of the Notes field information. You may
enter any expression that suits your needs.
|
3. Employee Note Literal 3
|
10 alphanumeric characters.
This field serves to label
the third description line of the Notes field information. You may
enter any expression that suits your needs.
|
4. Employee Note Literal 4
|
10 alphanumeric characters.
This field serves to label
the fourth description line of the Notes field information. You may
enter any expression that suits your needs.
|
5. Employee Note Literal 5
|
10 alphanumeric characters.
This field serves to label
the fifth description line of the Notes field information. You may
enter any expression that suits your needs.
|
6. Employee Date Literal
|
10 alphanumeric characters.
This field serves to label
the date line of the Notes field information. You may enter any
expression that suits your needs.
|
7. Employee Amount Literal
|
10 alphanumeric characters.
This field serves to label
the amount line of the Notes field information. You may enter any
expression that suits your needs.
|
8. Print A/R Job Info?
|
Y or N.
If you answer Y, Job
History file information generated from Accounts Receivable will be
printed on the Job Analysis Report and Job Distribution Report. If you answer
N, Job History file information generated from Accounts Receivable
will not be printed on the Job Analysis Report.
|
9. Print A/P Job Info?
|
Y or N.
If you answer Y, Job
History file information generated from Accounts Payable will be
printed on the Job Analysis and Job Distribution Reports. If you answer N,
Job History file information generated from Accounts Payable will not
be printed on the Job Analysis and Job Distribution Report.
|
10. Print Checks On Laser?
|
Y or N.
Enter Y to print PR
checks on laser forms. Enter N to print checks on standard
(continuous) forms.
|

Screens
Payroll Setup Screen 1

Payroll
Setup Screen 2
Screens

Payroll
Setup Screen 3
Screens

Payroll Setup Screen 4

Payroll Setup Screen 5
|