Setting up payroll preferences

• Select None to not process payroll.
  This option removes payroll processing options from Ajera menus. Ajera still makes accrual entries to labor cost accounts and salaries payable. If you select this option, you must manually adjust your payroll cost and reduce your salaries payable.

Multi-company only. Do not select None if a company in your organization has a payroll type of Payroll Service or Process Payroll.

• Select Payroll Service to process payroll using a payroll service provider (outsourced payroll).
• Select Process Payroll to use Ajera to process payroll (in-house payroll).
  unavailable in ajeraCore unless you have the Payroll add-on

Multi-company only. Select this option if you want to print government forms for a company in your organization that processes payroll.

unavailable in ajeraCore unless you have the Payroll add-on

Select the state that you want to appear automatically for all employees when you process in-house payroll (requires a payroll type of Process Payroll).

If needed, you can change the state for an individual employee on the Setup > Employees > Payroll Taxes tab.

unavailable in ajeraCore unless you have the Payroll add-on

Requires a payroll type of Process Payroll.

Certified payroll tracks employee hours for government projects, prevailing wage projects, or any other contracts requiring certified reports.

If any of your firm's projects require certified payroll, select this check box to print or access the certified payroll report.

Requires a payroll type of Process Payroll or Payroll Service.

Wage rate tables enable you to set up different pay rates for employees based on employee, employee type, and/or activity for specific projects. You can also specify your fringe rates.

To enable the use of wage rate tables, select this check box.

unavailable in ajeraCore unless you have the Payroll add-on

Enter the date of the earliest timesheet entries that you want to use in processing in-house payroll (requires a payroll type of Process Payroll). Any entries on timesheets dated earlier than this date are not included in a payroll.

Multi-company only. This field is unavailable here; instead, it appears in Company > Companies.

Select this check box to print a duplicate paystub when you print paychecks.

Enter the company name and any additional text that you want to print on an employee's direct deposit paystub.

Multi-company. To enter company name and text for each company, go to the Company > Companies > Billing/Payroll tab.

Select this check box if you have employees who work in more than one state, and need to have withholding for multiple states on the same paycheck.

Only appears if you selected the Allow state taxes from multiple states on one paycheck check box.

Select this check box only when you want Ajera to handle complicated reciprocity agreements between states automatically .

These fields appear only if you selected the Allow state taxes from multiple states on one paycheck check box and then the Automatic SWH reciprocity calculations check box.

Use these fields when you want Ajera to automatically handle complicated reciprocity agreements between states. Enter the home state (state where the employee is a resident) involved in such agreements.

Enter the normal number of hours for each pay period at your company if different from the number currently displayed.

Ajera uses the pay period hours to calculate the standard hourly rateThe hourly rate for salaried employees calculated as (salary/number of hours in the pay period).. Enter these various pay period hours so that you can pay staff using different pay periods; for example, you may want to pay some employees weekly and others semi-monthly.

When you set up an employee, you assign a pay period to the employee.

• Select the Include premium pay in direct costs check box to distribute premium costThe cost amount representing the increase to the employee's pay to reflect pay for hours entered as premium time (such as overtime and double time). For example, an employee’s pay rate is $20 per hour with a premium time markup of 50%. When 1 hour is entered as premium time, the cost for that hour is $30. Ajera tracks this cost as $20 as regular cost and $10 as premium cost. as a direct labor cost to projects. Straight time cost and premium cost that are billable are allocated to the general ledger using the Billable account from the Payroll Expense Accounts area on the Company > Preferences > Income Statement Accounts tab.
• Clear the Include premium pay in direct costs check box to allocate straight time cost and premium cost that are billable to the general ledger as follows:

• Straight time cost uses the Billable account from the Payroll Expense Accounts area on the Company > Preferences > Income Statement Accounts tab.
• Premium cost uses the Overhead account from the Payroll Expense Accounts area on the Company > Preferences > Income Statement Accounts tab.
• In all other cases, Ajera uses the general ledger account for the billing type for the total cost.

• Select the Use effective cost check box if you want your project and general ledger information to reflect actual cost of salaried employees after you run payroll. Before running payroll, the information reflects standard cost.

Enter a start date for effective cost. Ajera uses only the hours entered after this date to calculate effective cost and locks down the timesheets. You cannot pay or reconcile unpaid hours entered before this date.

DPE/Overhead Distribution:

Use Direct Personnel Expense (DPE) and Overhead percents to mark up labor costs and present more accurate project profitability. Although it helps to manage your business, it is not required.

Select this option if you want to distribute DPE and overhead based on fixed percentages.

Enter a percent in the appropriate field.

Select this option if you want to distribute DPE and overhead based on direct labor costs.

Select this option if you want to distribute DPE and overhead based on direct labor hours.

The percentage applied to project labor costs to reflect direct personnel expense paid on behalf of employees. DPE consists of taxes and fringe benefits.

The percentage applied to project labor costs to reflect general operating expenses.

You are finished setting up preferences on the Payroll tab and with the instructions in this topic.

Proceed to the next step of these instructions.

Payroll service information:

Select the name of the provider you use to process your payroll.

Select the vendor that will be providing your payroll service.

When you perform the Manage Payroll task, Ajera automatically creates a vendor invoice to reduce your payroll liability and calculate the payroll variance. You can edit this invoice to add your payroll tax cost and service fees.