PAYROLL SETTINGS  

Use this screen to make high-level choices for operating Costpoint Payroll. The information required in this screen includes general ledger accounts used for posting the Payroll Journal, a determination as to whether changes are allowed in Payroll Edit, a determination as to whether you will enable audit trail tracking for payroll functions, information on whether you will be posting to multiple general ledger accounts for SUTA accruals and expenses (or posting to only one default account), information as to whether SUTA reciprocity between states should be enabled, and information regarding a default pay cycle.

Enter this information when you initialize Costpoint Payroll. The selections in the Posting Accounts and SUTA Handling group boxes are not required at this time. You can enter this information when you are ready to post a payroll. If you have one pay cycle that is used frequently, return to this screen after you have set up Pay Cycles in the Pay Periods screen and choose that cycle as the default. This will save time when setting up employees and when the pay cycle is used throughout the module. The accounts you use here must first be set up in the Maintain Accounts screen in Costpoint General Ledger.

Posting Accounts

The accounts in this group box are used when you post the Payroll Journal. When you post the journal, the home organization of the employee is used for the expense accounts if you have not selected the Post Fringe Exp at Bal Sheet Level checkbox on this screen. If you selected this checkbox, the Balance Sheet Level from the Define Org Structures screen (in Costpoint General Ledger) for the home organization of the employee is used instead. The resulting account/org combinations are validated against the general ledger when the payroll journal is posted.

The organization at the Balance Sheet Level (see the Define Org Structures screen in Costpoint General Ledger) for the employee's home organization is always used for postings to the Payroll Variance, the withholding (including Advance EIC), and the accrual accounts.

All fields in this group box are required except for the Variance and Adv EIC fields.

Variance

Enter, or use Lookup to select, the general ledger account for posting of the payroll variance. The payroll variance is the difference between the employee's labor cost per the timesheet and the amount of the employee's normal pay period salary. Timesheet charges credit the accrued salary account, while the payroll journal debits the accrued salary account.

Enter a general ledger account in this field only if you want to accumulate such differences by pay cycle. Most payroll variances should be corrected when incurred and should never be posted to the general ledger. The variance account should be a contra-account to the accrued salary account. If variances are not corrected before the payroll is posted to the general ledger, then the variances end up in the accrued salary account, or, if an account is entered here, in the payroll variance account. Hence, the payroll variance account is only used as a way to separate the payroll variance items from the regular accrued salary amounts.

FIT Withholding

Enter, or use Lookup to select, the general ledger account to be used for the employee's Federal Income Tax (FIT) withholding amount. The organization at the Balance Sheet Level (see the Define Org Structures screen in Costpoint General Ledger) for the employee's home organization is used when posting the payroll journal. At posting, the account/organization linkage is validated against the G/L.

Soc Sec W/H

Enter, or use Lookup to select, the general ledger account to be used for the employee's Social Security withholding amount. The organization at the Balance Sheet Level (see the Define Org Structures screen in Costpoint General Ledger) for the employee's home organization is used when posting the payroll journal; the account/organization combination is validated against the G/L at that time.

Soc Sec Accrual

Enter, or use Lookup to select, the general ledger account to be used for the employer's Social Security accrual amount. The organization at the Balance Sheet Level (see the Define Org Structures screen in Costpoint General Ledger) for the employee's home organization is used when posting the payroll journal; the account/organization combination is validated against the G/L at that time.

Soc Sec Expense

Enter, or use Lookup to select, the general ledger account to be used for the employer's Social Security expense amount.

Medicare W/H

Enter, or use Lookup to select, the general ledger account to be used for the employee's Medicare withholding amount. The organization at the Balance Sheet Level (see the Define Org Structures screen in Costpoint General Ledger) for the employee's home organization is used when posting the payroll journal; the account/organization combination is validated against the G/L at that time.

Medicare Accrual

Enter, or use Lookup to select, the general ledger account to be used for the employer's Medicare accrual amount. The organization at the Balance Sheet Level (see the Define Org Structures screen in Costpoint General Ledger) for the employee's home organization is used when posting the payroll journal; the account/organization combination is validated against the G/L at that time.

Medicare Expense

Enter, or use Lookup to select, the general ledger account to be used for the employer's Medicare expense amount.

Adv EIC

Enter, or use Lookup to select, the general ledger account to be used when Advance Earned Income Credit is paid to the employee. This should normally be a liability account in the range of accounts with federal withholdings. The account will normally have a debit balance representing the amount by which to reduce the federal tax deposit for the EIC paid to employees. The organization at the Balance Sheet Level (see the Define Org Structures screen in Costpoint General Ledger) for the employee's home organization is used when posting the payroll journal; the account/organization combination is validated against the G/L at that time.

FUTA Accrual

Enter, or use Lookup to select the general ledger account to be used to accrue Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA). The organization at the Balance Sheet Level (see the Define Org Structures screen in Costpoint General Ledger) for the employee's home organization is used when posting the payroll journal; the account/organization combination is validated against the G/L at that time.

FUTA Expense

Enter, or use Lookup to select the general ledger account to be used to record the employer's expense for Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA).

Enable Audit File Tracking

Use the selections in this group box to designate whether all user modifications made to certain payroll records will be written to the associated "audit file" table. Changes are tracked only for user-initiated changes made in the associated maintenance screen(s). Changes made through other means in the system, i.e., batch changes like Print Paychecks and conversion from Deltek System1 are not tracked. The associated inquiry screen will display all fields contained in the maintenance screen table; you can verify the updated fields by comparing the most recent line to the previous line.

If a checkbox is selected, any additions, updates, and deletions to a given payroll record will also be written to the associated "audit file" table and will be retained until deleted by the Purge Audit File Data program. If a checkbox is not selected, any additions, updates, and deletions to the payroll records will not be written to the associated "audit file" table.

Basic Employee Info

Select this checkbox to enable audit tracking for adding new records, updating existing records, or deleting existing records in the Basic Employee Info screen in Costpoint Employee. These changes are available for display in the Basic Employee Info Inquiry screen. If this checkbox is later unchecked, all future record additions, updates, and/or deletions will not be written to the "audit file" table. The Basic Employee Info Audit table will still contain any records written when the checkbox was selected.

Salary Info and History

Select this checkbox to enable audit tracking for adding new records, updating existing records, or deleting existing records in the Salary Info and History screen in Costpoint Employee. These changes will be available for display in the Salary Info and History Inquiry screen. If this checkbox is later unchecked, all future record additions, updates and/or deletions will not be written to the "audit file" table. The Salary Info and History Audit table will still contain any records written when the checkbox was selected.

Employee Taxes

Select this checkbox to enable audit tracking for adding new records, updating existing records, or deleting existing records in the Employee Taxes table. These changes will be available for display in the Employee Taxes Inquiry screen. If this checkbox is later unchecked, all future record additions, updates, and/or deletions will not be written to the "audit file" table. The Employee Taxes Audit table will still contain any records written when the checkbox was selected.

Employee Deductions

Select this checkbox to enable audit tracking for adding new records, updating existing records, or deleting existing records in the Employee Deductions table. These changes will be available for display in the Employee Deductions Inquiry screen. If this checkbox is later unchecked, all future record additions, updates, and/or deletions will not be written to the "audit file" table. The Employee Deductions Audit table will still contain any records written when the checkbox was selected.

Employee Contributions

Select this checkbox to enable audit tracking for adding new records, updating existing records, or deleting existing records in the Employee Contributions table. These changes will be available for display in the Employee Contributions Inquiry screen. If this checkbox is later unchecked, all future record additions, updates, and/or deletions will not be written to the "audit file" table. The Employee Contributions Audit table will still contain any records written when the checkbox was selected.

Payroll Edit Table

Select this checkbox to enable audit tracking for adding new records, updating existing records, or deleting existing records in the Maintain Payroll Edit Table screen. These changes will be available for display in the Payroll Edit Table Inquiry screen. If this checkbox is later unchecked, all future record additions, updates, and/or deletions will not be written to the "audit file" table. The Payroll Edit Table Audit table will still contain any records written when the checkbox was selected.

Employee Earnings

Select this checkbox to enable audit tracking for adding new records, updating existing records, or deleting existing records in the Employee Earnings table. These changes will be available for display in the Employee Earnings Inquiry screen. If this checkbox is later unchecked, all future record additions, updates, and/or deletions will not be written to the "audit file" table. The Employee Earnings Audit table will still contain any records written when the checkbox was selected.

Employee Bond Info

Select this checkbox to enable audit tracking for adding new records, updating existing records, or deleting existing records in the Employee Bond Table in Costpoint Employee. These changes will be available for display in the Employee Bond Info Inquiry screen. If you later uncheck this checkbox, all future record additions, updates, and/or deletions will not be written to the "audit file" table. The Employee Bond Audit table will still contain any records written when the checkbox was selected.

Employee Bank Info

Select this checkbox to enable audit tracking for adding new records, updating existing records, or deleting existing records in the Employee Bank Info Table in Costpoint Employee. These changes will be available for display in the Employee Bank Info Inquiry screen. If you later uncheck this checkbox, all future record additions, updates, and/or deletions will not be written to the "audit file" table. The Employee Bank Info Audit table will still contain any records written when the checkbox was selected.

Deduction Processing Options

Select checkboxes in this group box to enable the Deduction Priorities Feature and Deduction in Arrears Feature.

Deduction Priority

Select this checkbox to prioritize how deductions should be taken on a company-wide basis or an employee basis.

Deduction in Arrears

Select this checkbox to print a report (after payroll is computed) that will list employees whose paycheck was insufficient to pay out all deductions due to a negative net pay condition.

SUTA Handling

Use this group box to establish whether you will be posting to multiple general ledger accounts for SUTA accruals and expenses, or to only one default account. The home organization of the employee is used for the expense accounts, if the Post Fringe Exp at Bal Sheet Level checkbox on this screen is not selected. If this checkbox is selected, the Balance Sheet Level from the Define Org Structures screen (in Costpoint General Ledger) for the home organization of the employee is used instead. The organization at the Balance Sheet Level for the employee's home organization is used for the SUTA accrual.

Accrue by State

Select this checkbox to accrue by state; this tells the system that the payroll journal should update a separate account for each state accruing state unemployment taxes. If you select this checkbox, you must then enter the SUTA posting accounts in the State Taxes screen. You cannot enter posting accounts for SUTA in this screen.

If you leave this checkbox empty, only the accounts you select in the Posting Accounts group box will be used for posting SUTA.

SUTA Reciprocity

Select this checkbox to enable SUTA reciprocity between states; this tells the system that employee SUTA earnings for one state should apply to the other states as well. If you select this checkbox, employee eligible SUTA wages will apply to the SUTA limit for other states for SUTA reporting. When an employee moves to another state, any SUTA eligible wages from the first state will apply to the second state as well.

If you leave this checkbox empty, the system will use the current functionality of having SUTA eligible wages apply to only one state’s SUTA limit. If the employee moves to another state, the SUTA earnings will reset to zero for the second state, the earnings from the first state will not apply.

Posting Accounts

If you did not select the Accrue by State checkbox, enter the appropriate accounts to be used for posting SUTA in the Accrual and Expense fields. If you selected the Accrue by State checkbox, you cannot access these fields.

Accrual

Enter, or use Lookup to select, the general ledger account to be used to accrue State Unemployment Tax (SUTA). The organization at the Balance Sheet Level (see the Define Org Structures screen in Costpoint General Ledger) for the employee's home organization is used when posting the payroll journal; the account/organization combination is validated against the G/L at that time.

Expense

Enter, or use Lookup to select, the general ledger account in to be used to expense State Unemployment Tax (SUTA).

Control

Use this group box to control access to the Payroll table and to establish a default pay cycle.

Allow Payroll Edit Changes

Select this checkbox to allow changes in the Maintain Payroll Edit Table screen. Typically, you would not select the checkbox until a need arises to make a change. At that time, you can temporarily select the checkbox so you can make the change, then return to this screen and uncheck it, thereby disabling changes to the Maintain Payroll Edit Table screen once again.

Default Pay Cycle

If you have a pay cycle you use for the majority of employees and you want to use it as a default, select it from the drop-down box. You should first set up pay cycles in the Pay Periods screen, and then return to this screen to choose the default. If you use multiple pay cycles, and no one pay cycle is used more than another, you may want to leave this field blank.

Fringe Posting

Post Fringe Exp at Bal Sheet Level

Select this checkbox to post fringe expenses, such as FICA, FUTA, and SUTA, at the Balance Sheet Level for the employee's home organization. The Balance Sheet Level is specified in the Define Org Structures screen in Costpoint General Ledger; the employee's home organization is set up in the Salary Info and History screen in Costpoint Employee.

If you do not select this checkbox, fringe expenses will be posted to the employee's home organization exactly as specified in the Salary Info and History screen.

Prorate Wages

Use this group box to establish prorated salaries for salaried employees.

Prorate Salaried Employee Wages

Select this checkbox to prorate salaried employees' salaries for the pay period in which their current hire and termination dates fall. If you select this checkbox, you must enter regular hours in the Pay Cycle Schedule table in the Pay Periods application in order for salaries to be correctly prorated for all pay cycles that have salaried employees. When you run the Compute Payroll application, Costpoint will calculate the prorated salary for all applicable employees whose hire or termination dates (in the Basic Employee Info screen in Costpoint Employee) falls within the given pay period date range.

A/P Vendor ID

Enter, or use Lookup to select, the A/P vendor ID for either tax type 941 or 940.

Tax Type 941

Enter, or use Lookup to select, the A/P vendor ID that will be used when creating A/P vouchers. When you use Lookup, only those vendor IDs who are not on "Hold" and whose PR Vendor checkbox is selected in the Maintain Vendors screen in Costpoint Accounts Payable will display. If you enter an A/P vendor ID in this field, you must assign account numbers to one or more of the following fields in the Posting Accounts group box: FIT Withholding, Soc Sec W/H, Soc Sec Accrual, Medicare W/H, Medicare Accrual, and/or Adv EIC.

Tax Type 940

Enter, or use Lookup to select, the A/P vendor ID that will be used when creating A/P vouchers. When you use Lookup, only those vendor IDs who are not on "Hold" and whose PR Vendor checkbox is selected in the Maintain Vendors screen in Costpoint Accounts Payable will display. If you enter an A/P vendor ID in this field, you must assign an account number in the FUTA Accrual field in the Posting Accounts group box.

Direct Charge Options

Use this pushbutton to select direct charge options and the related direct charge employer fringe expense accounts.

Table Information

Changes to this screen update the Payroll Settings (PR_SETTINGS) table.