Calculate Payroll

Application Overview

Calculate Payroll application should be run after the Time Transaction Processing application is complete to calculate payroll earnings, deductions, and withholding taxes as a necessary preparation for printing payroll checks.  This application prints the Payroll Time Register, Payroll Register and Deductions Register.

General

Each period's pay calculation includes deductions or earnings specified on the Employee File record if and only if the frequency of the deduction or earning specified on the Employee File matches one of the Frequency codes entered for the pay period involved (i.e. current, or advance vacation).

The Payroll package will generate additional checks (one for each advanced vacation week) for employees for which advanced vacation pay was specified.

The advanced vacation checks are calculated on the basis of a normal working week's pay at regular hourly rate even if the employee is usually salaried or is usually paid at a frequency other than weekly.

Supplemental Wage Payments

Supplemental wage payments are entered in Time Transaction Processing.  This payment method can be used when an employer or employee wishes to have the tax on something such as a bonus etc. calculated by the Federal withholding tax supplemental earning percentage method.  This method is mentioned in Circular E of the Employer's Tax Guide. This publication says one can withhold tax from supplemental wage pay­ments at a flat percent rate times the supplemental wage payment if the supplemental payment does not accompany the employee's regular pay.  The percentage is obtained from Payroll Setup for the federal tax; and if the state or city allows a similar sort of method there is a field in the State and City Tax Code file for state or city supplemental wage withholding percent.  If any of these percentages are zero, then the particular withholding tax is calculated in the usual way.

Temporary Deductions or Earnings

Up to three temporary deductions or earnings can be entered in the Time Transaction Processing application.  The temporary deduction or earning code must be on file in the Deduction/Earnings Code file. These can be either earnings type (E), meals (M), tips (T) or deductions (D).  In the case of earnings, these would always be added to an employee's check.  A deduction is subtracted from the check if there is enough pay remaining for the deduction, or some portion of it, to be taken.  If the deduction cannot be taken fully, then the portion that was taken is reported.  If the deduction entered cannot be taken at all, then zero is shown for the amount taken for that temporary deduction.

Calculating Salary

If you wish to pay an employee salary, answer Y to the pay salary question in Time Transaction Processing.  The salary amount is taken from the Employee file.  If the Time Transaction record for a salaried employee includes any holiday, vacation or sick hours, and the Adjust Salary flag is set to Y, then the actual salary amount is computed by first calculating the holiday, vacation and sick pay for the employee, and then subtracting these from the employee's regular salary.  This field is zero for vacation checks for a salaried employee, since the employee is paid based on the number of hours in a week at the employee's regular rate and not based on his salary.

Calculating Regular Pay

This pay is calculated in one of two manners.  For employees whose pay is not distributed, the pay is equal to the regular hours times the employee's regular hourly rate.  For distributed employees the regular pay is calculated at the rate that was entered in the individual wage distributions during Time Transaction Processing, times the number of hours entered for that distribution.  If no rate is entered during Time Transaction Processing, then the system will take the rate that is on file in the Employee file.  The regular pay would be the total of all regular distributions entered for the employee.  This would be done for hourly employees only.

Calculating Overtime Pay

This pay is calculated in one of two manners.  For employees whose pay is not distributed it is equal to the overtime hours times the employee's overtime hourly rate.  For distributed employees the pay is calculated as the total of all overtime pay distributions for an employee.  Each distribution is calculated at the rate for the distri­bution times the distribution hours.

Calculating Special Pay

This pay is equal to the special hours entered times the employee spe­cial hourly rate in the case of employees whose pay is not distributed to General Ledger accounts.

For distributed employees the pay is the total of all special pay dis­tributions for that employee, computed in the same way as overtime pay, described above.

Holiday, Vacation and Sick Pay

These are calculated in the same way as overtime pay, except that for non‑distributed employees, the employee's regular hourly rate is used.

Calculating EIC Pay

This pay is calculated based on the EIC tables entered in Payroll Setup.  If the Employee record shows 1 EIC certificate, the EIC Single Table is used; if it shows 2 certificates, the EIC Married Table is used.  See IRS Circular E for the exact way in which these tables are used.

Calculating Total Deductions

This is the total of Savings Bond, Loan, Union, Garnish and all tem­porary (entered in Time Transaction Processing) or permanent (from Employee's record) deductions.  This figure will contain the actual amount that was taken from the check.  This is mentioned because an employee might receive zero net pay and still have more deductions left to be taken, but not actually taken.

Total Meals

This is the total of all temporary earnings entered through Time Transaction Processing, for meals (type M).

Calculating Tip Credits

The employee must be tip credit eligible and paid by the hour, and the company must be a restaurant.  The tip credits are computed if the employee worked below federal minimum wage during the work period.  This holds true for regular pay, overtime pay, and special pay.  Tip credits are computed for both distributed and non‑distributed employees.  The computation is done as follows:  tip credits equal the federal minimum wage (this comes from Payroll Setup) minus the regular, overtime or special rate (if these rates were below federal minimum wage) multiplied by the number of hours worked at the substandard rate, up to the reported tips of the employee or the maximum allowable percentage of the Federal minimum wage.  This is the tip credit upon which the employer must pay FICA.  Tip credit will not be computed for vacation pay, sick pay, or holiday pay.

Calculation of Excess Pay

Excess pay will be calculated as the difference between; the employee’s hourly wage plus reported tips and the federal minimum wage.  The computed excess pay will be reported on the payroll register, and included as gross taxable wages for both the employer and employee.  The operator may go back to Time Transaction Processing and change the hourly rate, or the excess pay will be tracked in it's own accumulator.

Reported Tips

These are all of the temporary earnings entered in the Time Transaction Processing application, which are listed on the Deductions/Earning Code file as tips (type T).

Calculating Total Gross Pay

This is the total of all salary, regular, overtime, special, vacation, holiday, sick, excess and supplemental pay and earnings (temporary or permanent employee earnings) that are paid to the employee.  It does not include meals or tips.

Calculating Taxable Gross Pay for Federal Withholdings

This is total gross pay minus earnings exempt from FWT plus any deduc­tions that are not included in the FWT calculation.  Both are established as being included or exempt from FWT in the Deduction/Earning Code file.

Calculating Total FICA Payable

This is the employee's amount of social security that should be paid.  Currently this amount is equal to a percentage times the employee's taxable wages which includes meals, tips, earnings not exempt from FICA for the employee, and deductions not included in FICA for the employee. It is the amount that should be paid.  (The employee's net pay may not be enough to take the computed amount of FICA from his check so this amount shows what should have been taken.)  If sick pay is exempt from FICA, then this amount is deducted from taxable gross before the calcu­lation is done.

The percentage and maximum wages are computed from the figures entered onto Payroll Setup.  If the employee is exempt from FICA, then this amount is zero.

Calculating Actual FICA

This is the amount of FICA actually taken from the employee's check.  It is computed as explained above for FICA Payable.

Calculating Federal Withholding Tax

This is the amount of federal withholding tax taken from an employee's check.  This can be computed in one of three ways, or a combination of these three.

A.    The employee wishes to have a fixed amount withheld from his check.  This is done if the Employee record contains 99 for the employee's federal withholding tax exemptions (entered in the Employee File Maintenance application) and there is an amount in the employee's added federal withholding tax field (also entered in the Employee File Maintenance application).

       This added amount is withheld from the employee's check.  If there is no added amount, then no FWT is taken.

B.    The employee wishes to have a percentage of his income withheld.  This is done if the Employee record contains 98 for the federal withholding exemptions and there is an amount (percent) in the employee's added federal withholding amount field.  The taxable amount for the employee (taxable gross plus meals and tips) is multiplied by this percentage.

C.    The employee wishes to have his pay withheld by the federal government's annual withholding tax table method.  In this case, the tables entered onto Payroll Setup will be used.

Calculating State Withholding Tax

State withholding tax may be calculated in the same way as methods A and B described above for Federal withholding, or the table method may be used.  A full explanation of the use of the state and city tables is given in the Application Overview section entitled State and City Tax Calcula­tion.

Calculating Other State Tax Payable

The method used for OST withholding is similar to the method for with­holding FICA.  That is, a percentage (entered on the State/City Tax Code File) for the Employee's State Tax code is multiplied by the taxable wages for the employee (including tips, meals, and supplemental pay).  The resulting amount can be taken up to a maximum dollar limit (also given in the State/City Tax Code File).  This method may not be correct for all states, in which case there would need to be a modification to the CALCULATE program.  The amount derived is the amount that should be taken from the check if there is enough pay remaining.

Calculating Actual Other State Tax

This is computed in the same manner as for other state tax payable.  This is the amount that is actually withheld from the employee's pay.

Calculating City Withholding Tax

This is computed in one of three ways, identical to those used for calculating state withholding tax.  See the Application Overview section entitled State and City Tax Calculations for full details.

Calculating Savings Bond Deductions

This is deducted from an employee's pay if the frequency of the savings bond deduction matches one of the frequencies that was entered by the user at the beginning of the application.

Once again, the amount actually deducted depends upon the original amount to deduct (in the Employee record) and the amount of pay remain­ing in the check being processed.

Union Deductions

The union deductions can be taken by one of three methods.

Method A:  A fixed amount is deducted from the wage for each regular, overtime or special hour worked.  The frequency on the Employee record must match one of the frequencies entered by the user at the beginning of this application.

Method B:  A percentage of all-regular, overtime pay and special pay is deducted.

Method C:  A fixed amount is deducted from the employee's pay.

Loan Deductions

This is based on the amount of loan deduction given on the Employee record.

The deduction is taken until the amount reaches the limit given on the Employee record.  Once again the frequency of the deduction given in the Employee record must match one of the frequencies that the user entered for this run.

Garnish Deduction

The garnish deduction is taken as a fixed amount or as a percentage of total gross pay or net pay. By answering Yes to the Garnish By % Of Net Pay? question in Payroll Setup, the deductions will be taken from net pay. This amount is deducted up to the limit specified in the Employee record.

Calculating Permanent Employee Deductions

A permanent deduction is taken (as specified on the Employee record) if its frequency matches one of the deduction frequencies entered for his run.  Only the amount of the deduction actually taken is recorded on the employee's Time Transaction record (in the case where there is not enough net pay to cover all deductions).

Calculating Net Pay

This is the amount that is actually paid to an employee after salary/ regular pay, overtime pay, special pay, vacation pay, sick pay, holiday pay, EIC pay, taxable earnings, supplemental pay, non‑taxable earnings have been computed and FICA, federal withholding tax, state withholding tax, city withholding tax, other state tax, union, loan, garnish, sav­ings bond, temporary deductions and permanent deductions have been taken from the check.  It is zero when there are more deductions than there are earnings or pay.

Calculating Employer FICA

This amount is calculated in a way similar to the method used for cal­culating the employee FICA.  A percentage of taxable gross pay is taken up to a maximum amount.  If sick pay is exempt from FICA, it is deducted from the taxable gross pay.  The employer does not pay FICA on the employee's tips, or deductions or earnings that may be exempted or excluded from employer FICA.  If the employee has tip credit, then the tip credit amount is added to taxable gross in computing employer FICA.  The employer also pays FICA on meals, if any.

When Deductions Exceed the Amount of the Check

A warning will be printed on the Payroll Register and/or Deduction Register for the checks where this situation occurs.

When a Calculated Result Exceeds the Capabilities of the Package

In some rare instances a computed result may exceed the capabilities of the package.  If this happens the field that holds the amount that exceeded the limit will have all nines in it.  The transaction will be ignored and no check will be printed for this transaction, nor will any vacation checks be printed.  One need not worry much about this occur­ring.  For example, if the

employee's hours worked were 99 in one week, and his hourly rate were 99.00 dollars an hour, his regular pay would exceed the limits of this package.  Totals on the Registers are unpre­dictable in this case.

The Order of the Calculations

First, all Vacation records that might exist from a previous run are deleted.  Then new Vacation records are created for any regular tran­sactions for the current period in which the employee was advanced from one to four vacation weeks.

Then the gross pay and earnings are calculated.  The employee may be salaried in which case the pay is his regular salary amount.  For distributed employees, all of the regular, overtime, special, vacation, holiday and sick pay distributions are used.  The regular, overtime, special, vacation, holiday and sick pay are calculated from the distributions.  If the company is a restaurant and this employee is hourly and is eligible for tip credit then the tip credit is computed if the pay rates are below the federal minimum wage.

Non‑distributed pay is calculated for regular pay, overtime pay and special pay by multiplying the hours entered times the appropriate rate.

Temporary earnings (tips, meals, taxable or non‑taxable earnings) are now calculated.

Permanent earnings are then calculated as appropriate.  These can be taxable or non‑taxable earnings.

Gross pay is calculated.

Taxable gross pays are calculated next.

The amount that the employee will be liable for paying taxes on (including meals and tips) is computed next.

EIC pay is now computed, if the employee is eligible for it.  This amount is added to the gross pay and stored in a work field.

The deductions for taxes now are computed.  FICA comes first.  This is computed for both the employee and employer.  OST is then calculated for the employee.

In general, each deduction is subtracted from the amount remaining to be paid in the check until (possibly) the amount remaining in the check is less than the deduction.  In this case, the deduction to be taken is made equal to the amount remaining to be paid and the resulting amount remaining to be paid becomes zero.

The federal withholding is taken next, then state withholding, and then city withholding.

Now, other non‑tax deductions are taken, i.e., garnish, loan, union, temporary deductions, permanent employee deductions, savings bond deductions.  The total deductions actually taken are now arrived at.

The net pay is now set equal to the amount remaining to be paid.

The Payroll Time Register

This is exactly the same as the Payroll Time Edit List (described in the Time Transaction Processing application), except that it is meant to be used as the final audit trail document for this payroll run.

Payroll Register

This is a report of all the pay calculated for an employee as well as all federal, state, and city taxes withheld.  All temporary and perma­nent earnings are listed after the pay and taxes have been printed.  Tip credit is also shown.  Totals are given for each department and a grand total for the company.  Year‑to‑date figures represent the year‑to‑date employee totals including the current transactions.

Department totals print on a separate page.  The department totals list the total checks, regular checks and vacation checks.  The total of all the standard pay and taxes for the department is printed out.  The Year‑to‑Date‑In field is the total for all employees for the department regardless of whether they were paid on this run or not.  Department totals for tip credits are printed.  Next, all the temporary or perma­nent earnings taken for employees in the department are shown. Finally, the employer's FICA liability is shown.

NOTE:  The payroll register is not printed for departments that have zero checks to be printed.  These department totals are included in the company totals for the pay run.

Payroll Deductions Register

This is a report of all savings bonds, union, loan, garnish and tempo­rary and permanent employee deductions that were taken.  These are the amounts that were actually taken.  If a deduction could not be taken, it is shown with a zero in the amount field.

Department totals give a simple breakdown of the total savings bonds, loan, union, garnish and temporary and permanent deductions taken, along with the General Ledger accounts that these deductions are attri­buted to.  A description of the General Ledger account is also printed.

NOTE: This report will not print if the employee has no savings bond, union, loan, garnish, permanent or temporary deductions. 

Run Instructions

    Select Calculate Payroll from the pull down PR Processing window.  The following screen will then be displayed:

Calculate Payroll Entry Screen

The following options are available:

 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

NOTE: This Payroll package permits the payment of the current payroll check for the pay period used in the Time Transaction Processing, and for up to four advanced vacation pay checks.  Each advanced vacation check has its permanent employee deduction/earnings taken based on the frequencies entered for that advanced vacation week.  Up to six different frequency codes can be specified for each period's calculations or All codes can be specified by in the first frequency field for one of the periods, then no permanent deductions or earnings will be taken.

Each period's pay calculation includes deductions and earnings speci­fied on the Employee's file if the frequency for the deduction or earning matches one of the frequencies entered here.

Pressing the RETURN key in a Frequency Entry field terminates entry of Deduction/Earning frequencies for that period.  The ESC key pressed in the first field of a line will start the entry over again.  The ESC key pressed in any other field but the first will start any line over.

Screens

Calculate Payroll