COMPUTE PAYROLL

Use this screen to create potential paychecks, including tax withholding calculations at the federal, state, and local level. Accruals for employer contribution calculations, workers' compensation, state unemployment, and federal unemployment will also be calculated.

Compute Payroll is always in a recompute mode. For example, it is not necessary to unflag timesheets in order to recompute payroll. Timesheets with dates falling within the current pay period are always selected for processing. Timesheets with dates before or after the current pay period are skipped.

In order for employees to be paid from timesheets, the timesheets must be processed to payroll. The Compute Payroll program performs the following functions:

Note:  To change a timesheet after computing payroll when the timesheet has not been posted or computed for other processes, run the Clear Timesheet PR Computed Flags screen for that timesheet. Change the timesheet and then recompute payroll for the employee.

The options available for printing and computing payroll are:

You must initialize the federal, state, and local tax data and tables before withholdings can be computed (see the Payroll Tax Controls menu). Before processing your first payroll, verify that the relevant data in the Payroll Controls menu screens and the Employee Setup menu screens have been provided. (Refer to Payroll Special Topic PR-2, "Processing the Payroll," for more information.)

Enter and appropriately edit all timesheets before executing this program. You cannot change an original timesheet once the timesheet is either processed to payroll (computed) in this module, or posted to the G/L in the Post Labor Distribution screen (in Costpoint General Ledger). However, if corrections need to be made, enter additional or correcting timesheets. You can also run the Clear Timesheet PR Computed Flags utility if the timesheet has not been posted to the G/L. You can then execute the Compute Payroll program again. If a check has not been issued (i.e., there is no check number in the Maintain Payroll Edit Table screen for the specific paycheck type (regular or bonus)), the new timesheet will be combined with the original timesheet to create a new paycheck.

You cannot create payroll in one pay period when there are items remaining in the Maintain Payroll Edit Table screen from a previous pay period. You can, however, still enter timesheets and post them to Labor Distribution, even though a previous pay period has not been paid. This control is important in that it keeps timesheets segregated by pay period and does not allow you to accidentally combine timesheets from more than one period into one paycheck.

Multi-state functionality has been added to a number of applications. This functionality allows the proper calculation of withholdings for employee who work in multiple states during a single pay period. Because new tables are needed for multi-state calculation, this application now looks at new tables to hold the tax data.

Select Pay Cycle

For any pay cycle code, there can be only one open (pay) period. For any given pay cycle code, only one pay cycle end date can be present in the Payroll Journal. If an old pay cycle period is in the Payroll Journal, you need to post that pay cycle period before computing payroll for the next pay period.

Warning:  Computing payroll after editing records in the Maintain Payroll Edit Table screen will result in the edits being lost for those employees selected for computing payroll. Payroll is always computed for the entire payroll period and updated in the Maintain Payroll Edit Table screen.

Cycle

Enter, or use Lookup to select, the four-character pay cycle code you want to process. If you compute payroll and the payroll cycle is a union payroll (i.e., there is a "local" associated with the pay cycle in the Pay Periods screen), the system will attempt to calculate union deductions.  Union deductions are assigned in the Union Profile screen in Costpoint Labor. The system will look for a Union Profile record based on the Union, Local, and GLC and where the timesheet date falls between the Union Profile start and end date. If the system finds a record, it will calculate a deduction amount for each combination of Union/Local/GLC based on the calculation method in Union Profile.

End Date

This field displays the pay period end date.

Select Timesheet Type

Use the options in this group box to select which timesheets to process. You can select regular timesheets (to include correcting) or bonus timesheets. You must process one type at a time, then print checks and post the Payroll Journal (but don't close the pay period) before you can process the other type. This control exists so that you cannot produce paychecks with questionable YTD FICA and other tax amounts.

Regular 

Select this radio button to process all regular and correcting timesheets.

Bonus

 Select this radio button to process bonus timesheets.

Deduction Schedule

Use the fields in this group box to enter the name of the turn-off schedule to be used for creating regular paychecks, or the turn-on schedule to be used for bonus paychecks. Set up these schedules in the Deduction Schedules screen.

Regular

Enter, or use Lookup to select, up to six alphanumeric characters for the schedule code to use for processing regular paychecks. This is an optional field.

Bonus

Enter, or use Lookup to select, up to six alphanumeric characters for the schedule code to use for processing bonus paychecks. This is an optional field.

Select Employees

All Employees

This checkbox is selected by default to compute payroll for all employees. If you do not want to compute payroll for all employees, leave this checkbox empty.

Select Specific Employees

ID

Enter, or use Lookup to select, the ID(s) of the employee(s) for whom you want to compute payroll in these fields. The All Employees checkbox must be unchecked in order to enter information here.

Name

This non-editable field displays the name of the employee whose ID number you entered in the ID field.

When you enter the employee ID, the employee's name will display to the right of this field.

Journal Status

This display-only field indicates whether the Journal Report has been printed in this session, and whether you can then proceed to compute payroll. If you change any of the previously selected criteria after printing the Journal Report, the field will be set to "Journal Not Printed," and you will have to print the Journal Report again before being allowed to post.

Note:  When you change any of the print options or selection criteria after having printed the Journal Report, the Journal Printed display field updates and the Compute button on the toolbar is disabled. You must print the journal reports again before the compute process can occur. If you select the Print/Compute button on the toolbar after having changed a parameter, the report prints automatically as part of the compute process, as discussed below.

Compute

When you first enter this screen, this button on the toolbar is disabled. If you select Compute after having printed the Journal Report as part of this session (this button becomes available after printing), you will receive a message box asking if you really intend to compute. If you answer "OK," the compute process will proceed.

If you selected the Deductions in Arrears checkbox in the Payroll Settings screen and a record is found where taking all deductions would result in a negative net pay, a message will display that "A negative net pay condition has occurred" and a report will be printed in Employee ID order showing the deductions for the employee, the assigned amount, the amount taken, and the arrears amount.

To adjust this record, go to the Maintain Payroll Edit Table screen and enter the adjustment.

Print/Compute

Select this button on the toolbar to receive a message box asking if you really intend to compute. If you answer OK, the Journal Report prints, and the compute process follows immediately. After computing has begun, several messages showing records processed, processing step, and percent of completion appear.

Table Information

Changes to this screen update the following tables:

Employee Payroll - PR_EMPL_PAYROLL         

Employee Payroll Pay Type - PR_EMPL_PR_PAY_TYPE         

Employee Payroll Worker's Comp - PR_EMPL_PR_WC

Employee Payroll Deductions - PR_EMPL_PR_DED      

Employee Payroll Contributions - PR_EMPL_PR_CNTRB          

Employee Payroll Local- PR_EMPL_PR_LOCAL           

Timesheet Header - LD_TS_HDR