Recording After the Fact payroll
After the Fact payroll is payroll that has been done either by someone else, or by some other software.
The After the Fact option in Calculate Pay serves as a tool for entering this payroll into CCIS Payroll for purposes of reporting it to the various authorities.
The After the Fact payroll option is most often used by accountants to record information for payroll that was done by their clients. Its other uses include recording of year to date information when first installing the program or adding a client/payroll, recording a manual check, or to record any other increase in an employee's payroll information. After the Fact payroll also has a Gross-up option in the Real Time method.
CCIS Payroll provides two different ways to record A-T-F payroll, a Batch method, and a Real-time method.
• The Real-time method is the preferred method to use when you are making only a few postings for any employee, or when you want to post only the total of a group of transactions.
The employee’s permanent files are updated after each record.
• The Batch method is the preferred method to use when you want to record a detailed series of transactions for a group of employees over a period of time. Employees, checks and pay periods can be processed in any order. Productivity is increased by a special Copy Check function that duplicates an employee’s check. Editing transactions is facilitated by a Find feature that locates a transaction by check number, employee name, and transaction number.
Any transaction can be edited or deleted from the batch. A special Batch Input Register groups employees by last name, producing a form of "Payroll Card". The permanent payroll files are not updated until you post the batch.
Real-time A-T-F recording method
The real-time recording method is used to process payrolls on a pay-period-by-pay-period basis. All the checks are recorded and the registers printed before beginning a new period. Each employee’s files are updated in real time – as they are posted.
For cases when retaining the details of each transaction are not important, you can input totals you developed off-line using this method. It is even possible to post an entire year’s worth of data in a single posting as long as no single amount exceeds 21 million dollars.
How to record after the fact payroll using the real-time method:
1. Select the Calculations link.
2. Choose the Start a new Job button.
3. Select After the Fact | Real Time from the menu.
4. The Set Payroll Parameters window appears.
Note the frame labeled ATF Recording Period. It offers four choices:
• The Year assumes that all entries include the entire year. The Check Date is December 31, the Pay Period Beginning Date is January 1, and the Pay Period Ending Date is December 31. The Gross-up calculator does not change the entry.
• One Quarter assumes that all entries are for the specified quarter. The Check Date is the last day of the quarter, the Pay Period Beginning Date is the first day of the quarter, and the Pay Period Ending Date is the last day of the quarter. The Gross-up calculator multiplies all entries by 4 to annualize them.
• One Month assumes that all entries are for the specified month. The Check Date is the last day of the month, the Pay Period Beginning Date is the first day of the month, and the Pay Period Ending Date is the last day of the month. The Gross-up calculator multiplies all entries by 12 to annualize them.
• Another period tells the Gross-up calculator to base its calculations on the frequency in the Employee's master record. You manually enter the Check Date, Pay Period Beginning Date and Pay Period Ending Date.
5. Select OK when you're ready.
6. Set the Hash totals if desired.
The Payroll Recording Window is divided into three principal sections, Earnings, Taxes and Deductions. The Taxes and Deductions show YTD values as well as the current amounts.
For employees who receive income from two different states, State 1 appears in black, and State 2 is blue. The state codes are appended to the income labels as a further aid. The first four (4) Earnings apply to State 1, and the last 4 to State 2. In a similar fashion, the first Locality is in black, and the second is blue.
There are two Earnings fields that are non-standard. They are:
• Tax Def’d (= Tax Deferred Pay): This field is intended for those cases where you do not want to have taxes withheld from otherwise taxable income and really doesn’t apply to A-T-F payroll. Money recorded here will be reported as income on A-T-Form 941 and A-T-Form W-2. DO NOT USE THIS FIELD FOR REIMBURSEMENTS. This field is called TDW if the employee is tipped.
• Tips: Records tips from tipped employees. If you separate reported tips into tips, and tips deemed wages, record only the tip portion here. Put the tips deemed wages portion into the field labeled TDW. CCIS Payroll records the sum of these fields as FICA tips. This sum is shown in the Tip deduction.
To record real time after the fact Payroll:
1. Select the New button.
2. Retrieve the employee to be processed. If you don’t want to pay this employee, select New again.
3. Enter the Check Number (optional).
4. Record all of the Earnings, Taxes and Deductions.
5. Select Compute. CCIS Payroll automatically computes FICA and Medicare when you press Compute. If the result differs from the amount(s) you entered, the program pauses, showing this dialog.
6. Select the Yes button to have CCIS Payroll adjust FICA and Medicare to their correct values (recommended). The balance will be either added to or subtracted from the FIT withheld.
7. CCIS Payroll automatically computes SDI if applicable when you press Compute. If the result differs from the amount(s) you entered, the program pauses. Select Yes to accept the computed values (recommended). Any balance is posted to SIT Withheld.
8. CCIS Payroll waits for your confirmation.
9. Select:
• New if you do not want to pay this employee
• Post if the information is correct and you are ready to update the employee’s records.
• Computer after you make changes to any incorrect information
• Stop to end input
10. You can now print the Registers for you file.
Batch A-T-F Recording Method
The Batch method is the preferred method to use when you want to record a detailed series of transactions for a group of employees over a period of time. Employees, checks and pay periods can be processed in any order. Productivity is increased by a special Copy Check function that duplicates an employee’s check. Editing transactions is facilitated by a Find feature that locates a transaction by check number, employee name, and transaction number. Any transaction can be edited or deleted from the batch. A special Batch Input Register groups employees by last name, producing a form of "Payroll Card". The permanent payroll files are not updated until you post the batch.
The payroll is recorded as of the Check Date that you enter into each transaction. The pay period beginning and ending dates are adjusted automatically as you save a transaction. The Check Date is compared to the current range of dates. If the check date lies outside of this range, the range is widened to include the check date. A pay period always begins on the first day of the month, and ends on the last day.
To record after the fact payroll using the A-T-F Batch method:
1. Choose the Calculations link.
2. Select
• Work on this batch if you are continuing an A-T-F batch job, or
• Start a new job button to open a new payroll job.
3. Select After the Fact, the Batch from the menu.
4. Select Start a new batch | After the Fact | Batch Mode.
The Payroll Recording Window is divided into three principal sections, Earnings, Taxes and Deductions. The Taxes and Deductions show YTD values as well as the current amounts.
For employees who receive income from two different states, State 1 appears in black, and State 2 is blue. The state codes are appended to the income labels as a further aid. The first four (4) Earnings apply to State 1, and the last four (4) to State 2. In a similar fashion, the first Locality is in black, and the second is blue.
There are two Earnings fields that are non-standard. They are:
• Tax Def’d (= Tax Deferred Pay): This field is intended for those cases where you do not want to have taxes withheld from otherwise taxable income and really doesn’t apply to A-T-F payroll. Money recorded here will be reported as income on Form 941 and Form W-2. DO NOT USE THIS FIELD FOR REIMBURSEMENTS. This field is called TDW if the employee is tipped.
• Tips: Records tips from tipped employees. If you separate reported tips into tips, and tips deemed wages, record only the tip portion here. Put the tips deemed wages portion into the field labeled TDW. CCIS Payroll records the sum of these fields as FICA tips. This sum is shown in the Tip deduction.
There are four steps to Batch A-T-F recording:
• Add checks to the batch file.
• Verify the input.
• Make necessary changes, additions or deletions.
• Post the transactions to the permanent files.
Add checks to the batch file.
1. Retrieve the employee to be processed. If you don’t want to pay this employee, select New again.
2. Enter the Check Number (optional but highly recommended).
3. Enter the Check Date.
4. Record all of the Earnings, Taxes and Deductions or select the Copy button or F4 to copy the last check you saved for this employee.
5. Select Compute or F10.
6. CCIS Payroll automatically computes FICA and Medicare when you press Compute. If the result differs from the amount(s) you entered, the program pauses, showing this dialog.
Select the Yes button to have CCIS Payroll adjust FICA and Medicare to their correct values (recommended). The balance will be either added to or subtracted from the FIT withheld.
7. CCIS Payroll automatically computes SDI if applicable when you press Compute. If the result differs from the amount(s) you entered, the program pauses. Select Yes to accept the computed values (recommended). Any balance is posted to SIT Withheld.
8. Review the information on the window.
9. If you didn’t want to pay this employee, choose Stop.
10. If it is incorrect navigate to and change the error, and select Compute again.
11. If it is correct, press Save to add this transaction to the batch.
12. CCIS Payroll expects that you want to enter another check for this employee, so it returns to the Check Number field. Select
• New to end this employee and begin a new one, or
• Stop to end input.
Verify the Input
There are three ways to check your input:
1. By selecting the Forward and Back buttons and reviewing each transaction on the window, 2. By printing a Check Register, or an Input Register. Choose Print.
3. By viewing a register on the screen. Press View.
Make necessary changes, additions or deletions
1. You can retrieve the records by choosing the Back and Forward buttons, or by using the Find feature.
• The Find feature searches for transactions that either match a Check Number, a Transaction Number, or part of the Last Name. You activate Find by choosing Edit | Find, or by selecting the Find button.
2. Next choose the way you want to search, enter the search parameter and select OK.
3. To repeat a find, press F3.
4. With the record on the screen, select Edit and make the changes. Choose Compute, and then Save to save the change. Choose Stop or New to discard the changes.
5. If there is a transaction that you want to delete entirely, choose Delete with it on the screen. A message appears in the lower right side of the check indicating that the transaction has been deleted.
6. If you delete a transaction in error, retrieve it as above, and then select Undo. The delete message disappears.
Post the transactions to the permanent files.
Select the
• Stop button to return to the Current Job window.
• Post this batch button, or
• OK to confirm the decision if you told CCIS Payroll to warn you before closing a job.
All valid (= not deleted) transactions are added to the permanent records. When done, you see this message confirming what was done. On this screen, the term "Records skipped" refers to deleted transactions.
The batch is now closed. It can never be brought back.
Gross-Up calculations
Gross-up calculations are a way to get to a Gross Pay amount from a net payment. The net payment can be any value up to $1.5 million for the year, $350,000 for a quarter, $115,000 for a month and about a year's gross for other periods. It is handy for those times when an owner always pays him or herself a fixed amount, or for annual bonus or profit-sharing payments. It can even be helpful in reconstructing a payroll which has been lost.
How Gross-Up works
The Gross-up calculator is available doing After the Fact, real time calculations. The Gross-up calculator takes a net input value and performs backwards tax calculations until the resulting Gross
Pay yields the net value input. It can be thought of as a reverse of the Time-entry method of doing live payroll, but with limitations.
Gross-up calculations compute:
• Federal Tax
• FICA
• Medicare
• State tax
• State disability
• Local tax
• Deferred compensation (only if it is a percentage of gross pay) The limitations are:
• The earnings must be in only one (1) state.
• It does not compute any voluntary deductions other than percentage-of-gross deferred compensation.
• It stops when the difference between the computed net and the target net is less than $1.00 and adjusts FIT to make the difference be zero.
Correct payroll period essential
For the Federal and states that use anything other than a flat percentage method for determining withholding, the accuracy of the withholding developed during gross-up calculations, and hence the Gross Pay, depends entirely upon the proper selection of the payroll period being covered.
The gross-up calculator annualizes the net amount according to the selected payroll period. As will be seen later on, choosing the wrong period produces incorrect results.
How to use the Gross-Up calculator
:1. Start a new After-the-fact, Real time method job in Calculate Pay.
2. The Set Payroll Parameters window appears.
Note the frame labeled ATF Recording Period. It offers four choices:
• The Year assumes that all entries include the entire year. The Check Date is December 31, the Pay Period Beginning Date is January 1, and the Pay Period Ending Date is December 31.
The Gross-up calculator does not change the entry.
• One Quarter assumes that all entries are for the specified quarter. The Check Date is the last day of the quarter, the Pay Period Beginning Date is the first day of the quarter, and the Pay Period Ending Date is the last day of the quarter. The Gross-up calculator multiplies all entries by four (4) to annualize them.
• One Month assumes that all entries are for the specified month. The Check Date is the last day of the month, the Pay Period Beginning Date is the first day of the month, and the Pay Period Ending Date is the last day of the month. The Gross-up calculator multiplies all entries by 12 to annualize them.
• Another period tells the Gross-up calculator to base its calculations on the frequency in the Employee's master record. You manually enter the Check Date, Pay Period Beginning Date and Pay Period Ending Date.
3. Select OK when you're ready.
4. Retrieve each employee as usual.
5. When the employee appears on screen, choose the Gross up button on the toolbar.
6. Enter the Net Pay in the window that pops up and select Enter. The Net Pay can be any value up to $1.5 million for the year, $350,000 for a quarter, 115,000 for a month and about a year's gross for other periods.
7. The Gross-up calculator performs the calculations and shows you the results. Select Post or F10 to save them.
If you like you can edit the results of the gross-up using the same techniques that you use for any other payroll method.
If you should enter a value that is too large to be computed exactly, the Gross-up calculator does as much as it can and stops with a message. You can then edit the results.