Payroll PRCTLMNT Help - Elliott Business Software


Utilities Setup

Utilities Setup

PR Setup

Application Overview

 

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.

Run Instructions

 

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

 

 

 



Elliott Business Software
| Add-ons | Services
3rd Party Solutions | News & Events
Technical Support | Company Profile