Table Of Contents

Overview

As in all of the BMS modules, the flow of processing is outlined on the menus themselves. If you need further help, there are help screens available in most screens. In most screens, there are additional detailed help available. This will be indicated by a statement at the bottom of the screen such as Press F1 for more detailed help.

There are also examples of various screens found in Payroll included in this manual. These will help you become more familiar with the look of BMS module screens. Since the modules are integrated, the Payroll manual will refer to other modules. To find more information on those modules, check the appropriate manuals.

As in most of the BMS modules, a few basic "rules" or keystrokes are in effect for Payroll. They are the following:

All functions must be performed in CAPITAL LETTERS

<F1>=Help
<F9>=Clears screen
<Esc>=Exit
<Tab>=Find
<Backspace>=Clears the line

This manual is intended to be used as a guide in learning the Payroll program. We are not responsible for changes made by federal or state agencies regarding the tax percentages or laws. Check with your accountant for current information on a yearly basis at the least. This manual is not a replacement for a manager's direction. Some processes in the Business Management System are subjective and require specific instructions from a manager as to how your company would like a particular situation handled. Executive Computer Systems is not responsible for any actions taken based upon information found within this manual.  Top.

Payroll Menus

Note: Your system is a customized system. Therefore, the menus may not have exactly the same order or options. Nor may you have all of the same programs listed in this manual.

The following is an example of the main menu in payroll.

Any of the processes needed to be done in Payroll are accessed off of these menu options. The Tax Tables & Maintenance selection is highlighted because this is where you will start the initial setup described in the next section.  Top.

Initial Setup

Before using the payroll program, there are a few setup procedures that must be completed. The following is a description of these procedures. Please keep in mind, payroll processes require information that must be obtained from your accountant or directly from the government.

From the main menu (click here to view sample menu), select the Tax Tables and Maintenance option. The following menu will appear.

Select Federal Tax Tables and the following screen comes up.

Select the State Tax Tables and the following screen comes up.

When your software is installed the information for both tables will be pre-loaded. The information is supplied from Table 7 of the New Jersey Employer Tax Guide mailed to each employer. There are two tables that must be entered for the federal tax table; one for single and one for married. The state table requires three tables be setup; one for single, one for married and one for head of household. It is your responsibility to check with your accountant to verify the information or if you have some unique situation that requires different information. Press page down to scroll the tables. <F10> will save any changes you may make.

Setup FICA, Medicare and FUTA percentages.
From the Tax Tables and Maintenance menu (click here to view sample menu), select Payroll Control File.

The following is a sample of this screen.

The FICA, Medicare and FUTA percentages and maximums should also be pre-loaded. There is no maximum on Medicare. These fields are located at the top of the first screen. These figures also come from information sent to employers from government agencies. If you are unsure or require different information, contact your accountant.

Setup Other Deductions
From the Tax Tables and Maintenance menu (click here to view sample menu), select Payroll Control File (see above for sample). On the right hand side of the screen under Other Payroll Deductions is where any miscellaneous deductions would be entered. For New Jersey, deduction 1 is reserved for SUI and deduction 2 for SDI. Other deductions may be setup starting with number 3. These deductions may be for insurance, loans or any type of deduction that is be taken out of payroll. If you are adding to an employee’s pay rather than deducting (ie. auto allowance), setup that "deduction" here as well. There is a space for six characters to describe the deduction. This description prints on reports and checks. For example, for an insurance deduction, you would type "INS" or something similar. In places where a GL (general ledger) number is requested, you must enter one, even if you are not using the General Ledger program. In that instance you would make up a 4 digit number. The miscellaneous deductions will not be processed without a GL number assigned.

If you are using the General Ledger program, you must enter the appropriate general ledger account numbers for the appropriate accounts. If you do not, your general ledger will not be accurate. If you are unsure of the correct account numbers, you can reference your chart of accounts or your accountant.

The following is a sample of page 2.

Setup SUI/SDI
From the Tax Tables and Maintenance menu (click here to view sample menu), select Payroll Control File.

Press <F7> to access page 2 of this screen (see above for sample screen). Here is where you will fill in the information about SUI and SDI (state unemployment and state disability). For New Jersey, the information is pre-loaded. Again if you are unsure or need to make changes – check with your accountant.

Once you have entered the information here, press <F7> to access the third page. The following is a sample of page 3.

This is where you will enter the maximum amounts for SUI/SDI and your federal and state id numbers. These federal and state id numbers are used on tax reports and W2 forms. Press <F3> to go to the top line to edit the information here. Press Enter through the payroll tax number on the line you are working on and the entry is saved.  Top.

Entering New Employees

From the payroll menu select Tax Tables & Maintenance (click here to view sample menu).  Select the Employee Master Maintenance option. This will bring up the following screen.

In this screen you will enter new employees or edit information for existing employees. If you are entering a new employee, do not enter anything in the record # field. This number is assigned by the software.

Next enter the employee’s personal information, ie. name, address, social security number & telephone number.

After providing the personal information, you must then enter the federal and state status and number of dependents being claimed by the employee. This information should be obtained from the employee or from their W4 form. If the tax state is different from the work state then enter the appropriate information in these fields.

The home general ledger number is next. If you are not integrated to the general ledger then this field in not required. If you are integrated, you must enter the appropriate general ledger number here. If your payroll account numbers are broken down by department, make sure you are entering the correct number per the employee’s department.

Payroll type field refers to how the employee will be paid. Fill in (H) for hourly, (S) for salary, (S) for commission, (T) for terminated. Next enter how often the employee will be paid. The choices are (W) for weekly, (B) for biweekly, (S) for semimonthly, (M) for monthly.

The next section is optional and for informational purposes. You may record the employee’s date of birth, starting date, termination date and review date.

The bottom section of the screen is to record the employee’s payroll history. The history will track the last five dates the employee’s rate was changed. Enter to the "current" field. Under the date column, enter the date of the rate change and then enter the new rate in the rate column. If you are entering a pay rate change for an existing employee you will be typing over the information that is there. The old date and rate will scroll up a line. The current rate will now be used when payroll is calculated.

After recording the rate, enter to the overtime and special fields. The overtime rate will be calculated by multiplying 1.5 times the current rate. The special rate will be calculated by multiplying 2 times the current rate. Both of these rates can be edited if necessary.

The next field is where you will record the full-time or part-time status of an employee.

Once this screen is completed, press <F7> to access the following screen.

This screen contains the accumulated YTD payroll earnings for the employee. These figures cannot be edited. If the employee chose to have additional federal or state taxes taken out for each payroll (rounded to the nearest dollar) enter that information in the appropriate field.

Enter nothing in the benefit rate per hour. This field is strictly for unions.

In the field "Skip This Pay", enter a N for no initially. This field will be answered Y for yes if the employee is not receiving a check for a specific pay period. If the employee is an hourly employee, by not entering hours for that pay period the same result is accomplished.

Vacation, sick and personal hours should all have entries under hours allowed. These amounts should be entered in hours not number of days. Leave the used column blank unless you are starting mid-year. As payroll hours are entered, you will have the opportunity to breakdown time according to vacation, sick or personal. Salaried employee hours can also be tracked. This will be explained in detail at a later point in this manual.

If you had setup other deductions in the payroll control file, you will now enter the deduction amount, type, maximum and frequency. The deduction amount is the dollar amount or percentage amount to be deducted from the total payroll amount.

The type field is where to enter the code as to how this deduction is to be calculated. On the bottom right of this screen is a list of type codes from which to choose. CB (Cafeteria) type is a special pre-tax plan that employers (usually large or union employers) can offer their employees. PA (% after Tax) is a percentage amount to be deducted after taxes are calculated. PB (% before Tax) is a percentage amount to be deducted prior to taxes being calculated. DA (Ded after Tax) is a dollar amount to be deducted after taxes are calculated. DB (Ded before Tax) is a dollar amount to be deducted prior to taxes being calculated. HA (Rate after Tax) is an hourly rate to be deducted after taxes are calculated. HB (Rate before Tax) is an hourly rate to be deducted prior to taxes being calculated.

Maximum is the total amount that can be deducted in a year’s time. The software will read this field and stop deducting if the maximum has been reached. If there is no amount entered, the system will automatically put 999999.99 and take this deduction every time.

The (FRQ) frequency and (U) update fields require a specific code. By pressing <F1> the following screen will appear.

Frequency is how often this deduction should be taken. 0 is for every check, 1 for week 1 of the month, 2 for week 2 of the month, etc. Update is either a Y for year-to-date or P for paid-to-date. Most deductions are a "Y". A "P" example would be a loan given to an employee that would have a balance at the end of the year and is still owing. If the loan is setup as a type "P", the remainder of the loan (the maximum) would roll over to the next year. If it was setup as a "Y", it would be zeroed out.

SUI and SDI deductions will be calculated and filled in for each employee each time payroll is processed. The system will go through each employee and multiply the rates setup in the payroll control file and set them up for each employee.

After entering the deductions, the cursor will move to the Union field. Press Enter to skip this field. If you have unions, special arrangements will be made to accommodate how your company work with unions.

Once this screen is completed, press <F7> to access the third and final screen. The following is a sample of this screen.

Tax flags have to be indicated here so the appropriate tax will calculated from the employee’s payroll. Enter a "Y" or "N" as to whether each specific tax should be deducted for this employee. You can skip pension. Employee number will be filled in by the program, you will not make an entry here. The other time clock data will be skipped as this is used for companies that have a time clock system linked to the payroll. Notes 1-6 are just places you can keep miscellaneous information about each employee, such as a spouses’ work number or beeper number, etc.

To save the record, press enter all the way through to the end of the screen. If you are making changes to an existing employee on any of the three screens, press <F10> to save after you have made the change.  Top.

Entering Manual Payroll Check Figures

This program is used if you are posting a manual check or an after the fact payroll. This program will not print a check. It is used to record payroll figures that were not calculated through the payroll system. You would also use this program if you have to void a payroll check. You would then enter negative figures into this program to reverse the figures recorded by the voided check. Select the Payroll Processing menu. From there select the Manual Check Entry program. The following is a sample screen of this program.

Determine if you need to record the hours and if you can use the employee’s FICA and Medicare figures for the employer’s liability. Once you have answered the last question, press Enter. The following screen will then come up.

Enter the month and year the check was issued. Enter the 941 day that is closest to the check date. Then enter the day the check was issued. Enter to the employee record number field. Bring up the employee by paging up or down. Press Enter and your cursor will now go to the regular hours paid field if you have chosen to record the hours. Enter the regular, overtime and/or special hours here. If any of the hours are vacation, sick and/or personal, enter those hours. Again if you are paying someone for 40 hours worked and 8 are to be recorded as vacation – put 40 in the regular hours field and 8 in the vacation hours field.

Press Enter and the cursor will move to the gross amount field. If you chose not to record the hours, the cursor will skip the hours fields and go directly to the gross amount field. Enter the gross payroll figure. Then enter the tax amounts and any deduction amounts taken out the check. Once all appropriate fields have been entered, enter all the way through the screen to the net amount field. If this figure is accurate press Enter again. The cursor will move to the check number field. Enter the check number and press enter. The system will ask you if this is correct. If it is correct – answer Y for yes. If it is incorrect – answer N for no. This will put the cursor at the employee number field and you can go through and edit the information.  Top.

Payroll Processing Procedures

If you have entered all of your employees information and checked your tax tables for accuracy, you are ready to process payroll. On payday, there are several steps to be run to process payroll. The following will describe these payroll processing procedures.

Time Card Entry
If the payroll you are processing includes hourly employees, you must enter the hours worked. Select Payroll Processing from the main menu in the payroll program. This will bring up the following menu.

From this menu select Time Card Entry. The following is a sample of this screen.

Page up or down to find the employee you are working with. Once you have the employee up, press Enter. This will take your cursor to the "REG" or regular field. This is where you would enter the amount of regular hours. Enter the hours then enter to rate. This field should not have to be edited as it is calculated based upon the information entered in the Employee Master Maintenance file. If there are overtime or special hours, enter those in the appropriate field. For example, if you are processing a weekly payroll and the employee worked 32 hours and took one vacation day, you would enter 40 in the "reg" field and then 8 in the vacation field at the bottom of the screen.

Continue for each hourly employee. Press <Esc> when finished and a time card report will print. Check this report for accuracy. To make any corrections, go back into the program, pull the employee and edit the record (E for edit). Then Enter through the end of the screen to save the changes.

Salaried Employees Special
There are no entries required for salaried employees unless you are tracking the vacation, sick and personal time or process additional taxable income. To enter any of the above information, select Salaried Employees Special from the Payroll Processing menu. The following is a sample screen.

Use page up or down to bring up the employee. Enter down to the field you want to record and enter the hours for that paycheck. Enter through the screen to save your entry. Once you have finished press <Esc> to exit. These hours will then be recorded in the employee maintenance file.  Top.

Special Checks

This program allows entry of an unprinted payroll check outside the regular payroll routine. For example, you need to give an employee a second check for vacation in the same payroll week a regular check is done. Or you may need to do a quick, on the fly payroll check and print it without doing any of the payroll processing routines.

Select Payroll Processing from the Payroll main menu. From that menu, select Special Checks. The following is a sample of this screen.

Enter to the employee record number field. Bring up the employee by paging up or down. Press Enter and your cursor will now go to the regular hours paid field. Enter the regular, overtime and/or special hours here. If any of the hours are vacation, sick and/or personal, enter those hours. Again if you are paying someone for 40 hours worked and 8 are to be recorded as vacation – put 40 in the regular hours field and 8 in the vacation hours field.

Press Enter and the cursor will move to the gross amount field. Enter the gross payroll figure. Press Enter past the tax and deduction fields. The system will calculate these amounts for you based on the tax tables and what is setup in the employee maintenance file. Enter all the way through the screen to the net amount field. If this figure is accurate press Enter again. The system will ask you if this is correct. If it is correct – answer Y for yes. If it is incorrect – answer N for no. This will put the cursor at the top of the screen and you can go through and edit the information.

You can now continue to the Check Processing menu. From there select Backup to Alternate Area. Once the backup is complete, select Print Payroll Checks. See page 21 for details on this program.  Top.

Check Processing Procedures

The next step after entering time card information is to process payroll checks. This is done by selecting Check Processing from the payroll main menu. Then select Create Payroll Checks from the following menu.

The following screen will come up.

If you are using branches and departments select the ones for which are creating payroll. The cursor will then move to the 941 pay period day field. This is the day the 941 payment is due and is normally the next date available on the screen after the check day. It is used on tax reports. Then enter the General Ledger/Payroll Date that is to be recorded. For example if you are running payroll on a Thursday but the pay date is Friday, enter Friday’s date.

Next enter the pay period being reported. If you are running a weekly payroll enter "W", biweekly enter "B", semimonthly enter "S" or monthly enter "M". Payroll will then be calculated for the employees setup with that specific code in the Employee Master Maintenance. If you are calculating biweekly, weekly will be calculated automatically; if calculating monthly, semi-monthly will also be calculated. If processing monthly and weekly payroll, process monthly first and then go back to process weekly.

Next field is the week number for which payroll is being computed. Once you have completed all of the information, choose "C" to continue and the computer will calculate the payroll. If you do not want to continue choose "A" to abort. Payroll will not be computed. Nothing will print at this time.

Print Precheck Audit Report
After you have finished with the check processing procedure, continue with the Print Precheck Audit report program. This is the second option found on the Check Processing menu. See page for sample menu.

This will print a report of the payroll checks that have been calculated but not yet printed. Choose C to continue and the report will print. Check the report for accuracy. The system will then ask you if the checks printed ok. If many of the checks are incorrect, answer N for no. The unprinted checks will then be deleted. Make the appropriate corrections and run Create Payroll again. Time card entries will not have to be re-entered but can be edited if that is where the problem lies. If you are printing special checks with the payroll, you will have to re-enter that information.

If you answer Y for yes, the unprinted checks will not be deleted. The payroll checks are then ready to be printed. If processing several checks and only one of them has incorrect information, you can answer yes and edit that check through the Fix Payroll Check Amounts.

Fix Payroll Check Amounts
To fix check amounts after responding yes to the precheck audit report, select Fix Payroll Check Amounts from the Check Processing menu. This will bring you to the following screen.

Edit the appropriate field. Enter through the screen until the information clears. This will save your changes. Make sure the information is accurate prior to exiting this program. Once finished editing the payroll information, you must run Create Payroll Checks again and then print the Precheck Audit Report. If the information is accurate on the report, continue to Backup to Alternate Area.

Backup to Alternate Area
Before printing the payroll checks, you must backup to alternate area. This will make a copy of the data exactly as it is before checks are printed. Select Backup to Alternate Area from the Check Processing menu. All users must be out of the Payroll and General Ledger files while the backup is being done.

If you do not make a backup and something goes wrong during the Print Checks program, you may have to incur support charges if we have to fix any information.

Print Payroll Checks
If you have backed up to an alternate area, you are ready to print checks. Select Print Payroll Checks from the Check Processing menu. The first screen that appears asks if you want to run a test alignment, abort the process or continue directly to the check printing screen. If you are working with a laser printer, you do not need to run a test alignment. If you are using a continuous feed printer, the we recommend running a test alignment. This will prevent having to void all of checks if the alignment is off.

If you have run your test alignment or chose to go directly to print checks, the following screen will come up.

Select the bank account from which payroll is to be deducted. Enter the starting check number and the check date that you want recorded. For example if you are printing checks on Thursday but Friday is the actual pay date, enter Friday’s date. Select C to continue or A to abort if there is a problem.

If you selected continue, the checks will then print. Once the checks have finished printing, there is a general ledger report that must be printed.

Recap Pay Period and Update GL
This program must be run after printing payroll checks. It will come up immediately after the payroll checks have finished printing. Select C to continue and the recap report will print. If for some reason you chose abort and do not print the report, you can select it off of the Check Processing menu and print it that way. You must print this report or the payroll information will not be recorded in the employee record. This would mean that all tax reports, employee payment history reports, and the W2 forms run at the end of the year would all be incorrect.  Top.

Employee Reports

There are many reports available that can be run by employee. You will have to print them to see if they might be useful to your company. From the main payroll menu, select the Employee Reports option. The following menu will come up.

Employee Master Listing
This report will detail the payroll information for the employees within the selected range. It will show if the employee is full or part-time, how they are paid, when they are paid, the exemptions claimed, social security number & other personal information, date of hire, vacation & sick time allowed, used and available, the pay rate, what taxes are being computed, employee number.

Employee Earnings History
This report will show the earnings history for the employees within the selected range for the selected date range. It will show the check dates & numbers, gross check amounts, tax amounts broken down per tax, amount of other deductions, and the net check amount.

Terminated Employees Report
This report will show the same information as the Employee Master Listing report but it will only list those employees who have been terminated in the employee master maintenance screen.

Vacation/Sick Eligibility
This report will list by employee the vacation, sick and personal time allowed, used and available.

Employee Earnings Breakdown
This report lists regular earnings, overtime, double time, sick, vacation, holiday, additional pay and gross in dollar amounts by employee.

Employee Review Report
This report will list all of the employees that are due for a review within the selected date range.

Employee Deduction Register
This report lists earnings and taxes for the selected date ranges. You can select a one month period, a three month period or a year end period (which give year to date information). The year to date period does not have to be the full calendar or fiscal period. You can enter the date up to which you want the information.

401(K) Report
For those companies making 401K deductions from employee’s payroll, the report will give you a breakdown of what has been deducted. The report will list per employee what deductions have be made during the selected date range.  Top.

Tax Reports

There are tax reports available that can be run to provide tax information for any monthly or quarterly reports. From the main payroll menu, select the Tax Reports option. The following menu will come up.

Federal Form 941 Report
This report will breakdown payroll information within the selected date range. It will list the gross, cafeteria gross, taxable amount, employee FICA & medicare, employer FICA & medicare, federal withholding amount, federal liability and state liability. This does not breakdown by employee but by total payroll

Federal Form 940 Report
This report will print the FUTA liability to date. It will list the gross amount, the taxable amount and the excess over the predetermined amount. The tax liability due is calculated and listed separately.

FICA Tax Report
This report will list the FICA tax liability per employee during the selected date range. It will list the employee and employer liabilities separately.

Medicare Tax Report
This report will list the Medicare tax liability per employee during the selected date range. It will list the employee and employer liabilities separately.

Federal Unemployment
This report will list the FUTA tax liability per employee during the selected quarter. It shows the gross, taxable and excess amounts for each employee during the selected quarter. The tax liability is calculated for you and shown on the report.

WR-30 Report
This program will list the state unemployment liability for each employee during the selected date range. It will calculate the tax liability amount due for that date range.

Print W-2 Forms
This program will print W-2 forms for each employee for during the current payroll year. It will allow you to run a test alignment to make sure it prints properly on your forms. We do recommend that you do a test run of the W-2 forms.  Top.

There are tax reports available that can be run to provide tax information for any monthly or quarterly reports. From the main payroll menu, select the Tax Reports option. The following menu will come up.

Check Register
This report will give a breakdown of payroll checks by the individual check per employee within the selected date range. The breakdown includes check date and number, gross amount, all tax amounts, other deductions taken, and the net amount.

Payroll Trial Balance
This report will give a breakdown of all earnings and taxes within a selected date range. This is not per employee but totals of gross amounts, taxes, and deductions.

Deduction Register
This report will give totals for each deduction taken (other than taxes) and then give a total amount per employee within the selected date ranges. You can choose to have the date range be month-to-date, quarter-to-date or year-to-date.

P/R Check Reconciliation Report
This will print a reconciliation report within the selected date range. You can choose to run the report with all checks, only those reconciled or only those that are outstanding. The report will list by check number, name to which the check was issued, check date, reconciled date and amount. It will also give a total of what is outstanding.

Department Register
This report give a complete breakdown per employee per department within the selected date range of totals for gross earnings, taxes, deductions, sick, vacation, holiday and additional hours, overtime and double time hours and the net amounts. It will give a total for each department and a grand total for all payroll.  Top.

Year End Processing

To year-end in payroll or access last year’s payroll data, select Year-End Processing from the main payroll menu. This will bring up another menu with two choices. They are Close Out Current Payroll Year and Last Year’s Payroll Menu.

At the end of the calendar year (your fiscal year may be different), you must close out the current payroll year. If you do not, you will not be able to process payroll for the following year. The first step to closing out the year is to run the W2’s for the employees. 

Once you have run W2’s, you must backup to alternate area before preceding. This can be found on the Check Processing menu. All users must be out of the Payroll system prior to backing up.

This program will zero out all of the appropriate fields in the payroll records. This program should only be done after a complete backup is done and under a manager’s supervision. Again make sure you have backed up prior to running this program. This will ensure an accurate data restoration should there be a problem while running this program.

Last Year’s Information
If you should need to access the prior year’s payroll information, it is accessible from Last Year’s Payroll Menu from the Year End Processing option from the main payroll menu. The following menu will come up.

The programs listed here are the same programs used for the current year. You are not required to switch year’s or go through any other process. The information is only available for one prior year. Not all of the reports available for the current year are available for the prior year’s information.

It is strongly recommend that you make a Year End tape backup once a year. You should keep these tapes in a safe place for an extended period of time. This will ensure access to that year’s data should you ever need to access it.  Top.