Recording payroll overview
CCIS Payroll provides three methods to process live (check-writing) payroll. It imports time in an ASCII format such as output by time clocks, and pays a standard time card. It also records After the Fact payroll quickly and easily, and provides methods of reversing and adjusting previously recorded information. Since this is the module that you will use the most, we recommend that you read this chapter closely.
This chapter will teach you:
• How CCIS Payroll works
• How to record live payroll
• How to record after the fact payroll
• About the Current, Department and Check registers
• How to print paychecks
• How to Import and Export payroll data
• How to handle tipped employees
How CCIS Payroll records payroll
CCIS Payroll speeds payroll processing by incorporating high-speed "real time" data processing technology. This is the same technology used by banks and airline reservation systems. Unlike batch processing, all editing and correction is done on the computer window. When you accept the window by selecting Save, all of the employee's data, month, quarter and year to date, is immediately updated by physically writing it onto the safety of the hard disk.
Another advantage to real time processing is that all printed output, including checks, vouchers, etc, are only reports. Printing these reports has no effect on an employee's earnings. Even reprinting an entire batch of checks will have no effect on the earnings. Checks are simply a specialized report.
Advanced hashing technology is available to provide input controls that ensure that an employee is not skipped, and to catch transposition errors. Hash totals are automatically calculated based on Payroll ID, Social Security Number, and Gross Pay or Hours Worked.
The Payroll Recording Window
The Payroll Recording Window receives all of the input for recording pay. It is made to look like a standard paycheck.
How withholdings are computed
CCIS Payroll computes withholdings when doing live payroll. It annualizes all earnings and uses the exact calculation or percentage method to arrive at Federal, and State (and New York City) withholding amounts.
If a flat rate method of withholding is specified in the Employee Master Record, CCIS Payroll multiplies the Gross Pay by that rate. Extra withholdings can be specified as either fixed amount or percentage of gross. Withholdings are computed to the penny unless an authority specifies whole-dollar withholdings only, or you specify whole-whole-dollar withholding in the Tax Table.
Each taxing authority is assigned a tax table. All the information that pertains to withholding for a given taxing authority is contained in tables.
Local taxes are determined by multiplying the Local Taxable Pay by the percentage shown in the Tax Rate field of the column for the locality in the Local Taxes tab of the Employee Master Record for any given employee.
Local Taxable Pay can be changed. CCIS Payroll begins by assigning all earnings to every locality.
The value appears in the Amount column and can be changed.
To change Local Taxable Pay, type the desired value into the Amount column. CCIS Payroll will not change the value you type, no matter what other changes you might make to earnings.
Head taxes are computed in the first payroll for a month. Each employee is charged the head tax value from the Local Taxes tab of his or her master record.
Withholdings can be changed any time after they are first computed by pressing the Edit button.
FICA and Medicare can never be changed doing live payroll.
Payroll jobs
CCIS Payroll treats each of the recording functions as a "job". After the Fact is a job. Live payroll (whether Import, Automatic or Time Entry) is another job. Cancel Check is another job. And so on.
CCIS Payroll uses a scratch file for each job. A scratch file is analogous to a worksheet. It contains all of the information pertaining to the current payroll job, including the information needed to print checks.
Whenever you tell CCIS Payroll to begin a new job for the same client, it throws away the worksheet for the last job. Remember, all the data has been saved. Only the worksheet is discarded.
It is important to remember this concept. Once you tell CCIS Payroll to start a new job for the same client, you cannot return to the prior job. This is true even if the check date and period dates remain the same.
The payroll recording process
You begin the payroll recording process by choosing the calculations link. The Current Payroll Job statistics screen appears in one of two formats.
To continue a previous payroll job:
1. Select the Calculations link.
2. The Current Payroll Job statistics window appears.
• Current Payroll Job tells you what the current job is
• The three date fields tell you when it is recorded
• The Job Status area tells you the number of Employees Input in the job, whether or not you printed the checks, if you printed the register and Check Register.
3. Select:
• Continue this Job to continue working on the job. CCIS Payroll reloads all of the checks that are recorded so far. The Back button lights up and you are ready to add more checks, make corrections, print or view reports.
• Close this Job to close this job and start a new one. CCIS Payroll discards the work files for the last job and waits for you to choose a new job.
• Select Exit to exit Calculations.
To start a new payroll job:
1. If there is no current job available for this Client, or you have pressed the Close this Job button, the Current Payroll Job window displays with a message telling you to choose a job from the Enter Pay Menu:
2. Select Start a new Job, or select the Record Pay menu to begin.
3. Select the type of payroll job you want to perform. For more information about these selections see:
• Importing data for calculations, Page 72
• Automatic, Page 70
• Adjusting Payroll, Page 88
• Recording After the Fact Payroll, Page 62
• Canceling Checks, Page 88
• Time Entry, Page 71 4. Enter the recording dates.
5. Next, you record the Hash Totals (optional).
CCIS Payroll is now ready to record your data. Except for the automatic method, the recording of payroll data for each employee is a seven-step process.
1. Retrieve the employee to be processed
2. Enter the data and select the Compute button or choose F10.
3. CCIS Payroll does any required calculations, shows you the results and waits for your confirmation.
In order to allow you to override any deduction, the deductions are computed only the first time you choose Compute for an employee. This means that deductions that are based on earnings or time will not change when you change the earnings or time values.
To have the deduction re-computed, do not post the check.
1. Choose New, and then reload the same employee with the correct earnings and time values.
2. Review the information on the screen.
3. If it is correct, press the Post button or F10 to accept it.
4. If it is incorrect, navigate to and change the error, and press the Compute button again.
Payroll recording dates
The first step after choosing a new payroll job is setting the recording dates. CCIS Payroll is totally controlled by the Check Date that you enter here.
1. The Check Date determines when income is recorded for tax and reporting purposes. Even if you don't actually issue checks, the Check Date is required. The Check Date cannot be changed after a Job has begun, so please be careful when entering this date. You may record more than one payroll on the same date and each will be recorded separately.
2. The Period Begin and Period End are printed on the registers, checks and vouchers. The Period Begins date cannot be later than the Period Ends date. Also, Period Ends cannot be in a later month than the Check Date.
After your first live payroll job for any Client, CCIS Payroll tries to guess which dates are going to be used for the next job. It adds the difference between the pay periods to all the dates. For example, if there are 7 days between the start and end of the pay period, CCIS Payroll guesses that you are on a weekly cycle and adds seven days to all dates in future payroll jobs.
3. Select OK to accept the information in this window. If you chose to use Hash Totals, the next window accepts the values. Otherwise, you get to the Payroll Recording window.
Input controls - hash totaling
CCIS Payroll incorporates a sophisticated optional hashing scheme to help you avoid skipping employees, paying the wrong employees or paying the incorrect amounts during payroll input.
Hashing is a method of developing a control value using some component of the input other than the actual number of items. Three different totals can be created in CCIS Payroll:
• the sum of the Pay IDs
• the sum of the last four digits of the employee's Social Security Number, and
• the sum of either the number of Regular hours for Live Payroll, or the sum of Gross Pay.
Using any one of these methods gives you good protection against transposition errors and skipping employees. Using two or more methods provides even greater security.
CCIS Payroll monitors the values and will automatically end input when a hash total is reached.
If you end input and the computed hash values do not agree with those you keyed at the beginning of the job, the program halts and displays a message. The choice to use hashing is set in the Calculation Properties for a client.
To use hashing:
1. Calculate a total of the desired field, either the Pay ID, the last four- digits of the Social Security Number, the Regular Hours or the Gross Pay IN PENNIES.
2. Enter the value(s) into the Set Hash Totals box.
3. Select the OK button to proceed, or the Cancel button to cancel.
Current Payroll Register
The Current Payroll Register prints full details of everything in the current job. All non-zero values are printed in the details, even if a field has no label. Zero values are left blank. The Change in the Federal Tax Deposit Liability caused by this job prints at the end of the report.
You can print the Current Payroll Register as often as you like. It is a handy tool to use in proving your input before printing the checks, for instance. If you are using Hash totals both the computed and control hash values print at the end of this register.
To print the Current Payroll Register:
1. Select the Print button, or choose File | Print | Register.
You can print the register in three formats:
a. a register showing all employees b. a register showing only W-2 employees
c. a register showing only 1099 and Third Parties.
2. The first line of the register identifies the employee and shows summary information from Gross Pay to Net Pay. A column heading, some of which have been shortened, identifies each item. These abbreviated headings and their meaning are:
1. HS - The employee's Pay Method. The codes are:
a. For W-2 employees:
• HD = Hourly - Daily
• HW = Hourly - Weekly
• HB = Hourly - Biweekly
• HS = Hourly - Semi-monthly
• HM = Hourly - Monthly
• SW = Salaried - Weekly
• SB = Salaried - Biweekly
• SS = Salaried - Semi-monthly
• SM = Salaried - Monthly b. For 1099 nonemployees:
• 1S = 1099 – SSNA 1099 recipient using their Social Security Number.
• 1F = 1099 – FEINA 1099 recipient using a Federal Tax Identification Number.
• 1I = 1099 – ITIN A Foreign National using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number.
c. For third parties:
3P = Third Party - Other people you want to pay using this program. Third parties do not receive a W-2 or a 1099-MISC.
2. AT - The employee status, Active or Terminated.
3. |M /S /H-| - Marital status in this order: Federal, State 1 and State 2.
4. FD - Number of Federal dependents.
5. S1 - Number of dependents in state 1.
6. S2 - Number of dependents in state 2
7. The next 3 rows are the details of the earnings in this order:
a. First row = Field Label.
b. Second row = Dollar value.
c. Third row = Number of hours or units.
8. Next there are two rows each for deductions, and taxes. Total rows for Earnings and Deductions print at the end of the report and the totals for taxes are broken down by taxing authority.
The change in the employer's Federal tax deposit liability appears at the right of the totals. The TOTAL in the Change column is carried to the daily liability boxes of Schedule B, Form 941 and Schedule B, Form 943.
The Current Payroll Register is a vital part of your program. It forms a trail that can be used to track down any problems that should arise. You are warned if you try to close a current job before printing the register. We recommend that you always print this register.
Current Payroll Registers are lost whenever you start a new payroll Job.
Department register
The Department Register is a summary report that groups the employees processed in the current job by the department code contained in the Employee Master Record for each employee. The report is in alphabetical order by Department Code.
The content is identical to the Current Payroll Register except that no Company totals are given.
To print the Department Register, select the Print button, or choose File | Print from the Calculate Pay menu.
Select Dept Register to print the report.
Calculation Properties
You are likely to spend most of your time in the Calculate Pay area so we have set up a special group of properties that you can use to control how it interacts with you. Most of the properties control confirmation dialogs. You can disable them as you become more proficient (and they become more annoying).
The Properties window also contains check preferences in case you forgot to set them in Clients and don’t want to go there. This is where you specify the number of stubs to print on laser checks, and whether to use hashing.
Calculation Properties follow the Client, not the User. This means you can have different properties for each Client.
To change the Properties:
1. Select the Calculations link.
2. Choose File | Properties from the Calculate Pay menu.
The Check Preferences area is where you choose the type of check, how you want them to be sorted, and options for the check stub.
3. Select a style from the Check Format section. The available styles are:
• Business-size QuickBooks® format PPQ3L1 with the check on top and 2 blank vouchers.
• Complete current and YTD information is printed on a Phoenix Phive PP1L1 laser check with preprinted top stub and blank stub on bottom.
• Complete current and YTD information and associated titles are printed on a Phoenix Phive PP3L1 laser all purpose check that has a blank stub on top and bottom.
• The Voucher Only option produces vouchers to give to your employees using Phoenix Phive VOUCHERCONT (dot matrix) or tri-perforated VOUCHERLASER. This option is handy for those Clients who prefer to pay in cash, or to write their own checks.
• The MICR check option is used for our extra-cost MICR add-in.
4. Checks can be printed in four different ways. Choose the one you prefer from the Arrange checks by section. If you select Don’t sort, the program prints checks in the order that the employees were entered into the Employee Master file.
5. In the Stub Options area, choose one or any combination of these options:
• Print message causes CCIS Payroll to stop and request a message to print on the check stub or voucher.
• Print FEIN prints the Client’s FEIN on the check stub. This is required of certain agricultural employers.
• Print available Sick Hours and Print available Vacation hours causes the selected item to be printed in the message box on the check stub or voucher.
• Print 2 stubs (Laser Checks only) causes 2 stubs to print on a laser check.
6. In the Warning Messages area, select the options you want from:
• Warn me before I leave Calculations forces you to confirm leaving the Calculate Pay area.
• Warn me before I delete a check forces you to confirm a command to delete a check.
• Warn me before I change a posted check forces you to confirm that you want to change a posted check.
• Warn me before I close a job forces you to confirm that you want to close the current job.
7. The Set Hash Totals window appears at the start of a new Job, when the I want to use Hashing checkbox is checked.
8. Select Save to save the properties and close the window.
Using the Windows calculator
The Calculator button that appears when calculating payroll activates the Windows standard calculator. This allows you to do calculations while recording payroll. Some of its possible uses include adding up time cards, computing non-standard rates of pay, and commission payments.
Answers can be inserted directly into a field.
Calculator is one of the Windows basic tools. It has its own help that provides details on how to use the Calculator.
To use the calculator:
1. Select the Calculator button.
2. Perform any calculations.
3. Choose Edit | Copy from the Calculator menu to copy the answer onto the clipboard.
4. Choose Edit | Paste from the Calculations menu to paste the answer into the field.
5. Close the Calculator if you want.
Export
CCIS Payroll can create an ASCII coded file in a folder of your choosing. This file can be read into programs such as Excel, Lotus, Access, Quattro, Word, or any other program that reads standard ASCII files. (Excel calls ASCII files .CSV files.) Once in these programs, the data can be used to produce any kind of custom report or for any other purpose.
Some accounting programs can also use this file format. Please check the manual for your accounting software, or with your accounting software vendor.
The file name is CRNTxxx.ASC where xxx is the client number. The file for Client 345 would be CRNT345.ASC. The file contains the check number, Pay ID, Employee Name, Social Security Number, department, job class, status and every numeric field from the Current Payroll Register in
the same order as they appear in the register. To see a detailed list of the file contents, open the Export topic in the online help file.
To create an export file:
1. Choose the Calculations link.
2. Select Continue this job.
3. Choose File | Export from the Calculate Pay menu.
4. Select a location for the file from the window and choose OK.
Preparing payroll for Direct Deposit
Producing Direct Deposit payroll is a three-step process:
1. Record the payroll in check writing mode, Time Entry, Automatic, or Import.
2. Prepare the direct deposit work files.
3. Transmit the payments to NPC or your bank.
How to record Rents, Royalties etc
CCIS Payroll supports recording and payment of Rents, Royalties, Nonemployee Compensation, Other Income, and Attorney's fees on Form 1099-MISC. This support is for both paper and
CCIS Payroll supports recording and payment of Rents, Royalties, Nonemployee Compensation, Other Income, and Attorney's fees on Form 1099-MISC. This support is for both paper and