The Ledger : pay types

Payroll Post Notes: Update Compensation Types with Ease

Jennifer Maroney — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Do you have employees receiving pay raises or do you need to update benefits and deductions? Don't go through the process of first changing the existing record to inactive and then adding a new record, trying to remember the options selected on the original record; do it all at once using the Change Compensation Wizard. This wizard allows you to copy and update an existing pay type, benefit, or deduction while replacing the existing record.

Before we continue, I should let you know exactly what happens when you use this handy dandy wizard. The existing compensation type will be expired on the date of your choosing and the new updated compensation type will be automatically added to the employee record. Nothing too complicated, but I wanted to let you know that both compensation records will remain on the record as a paper trail.

Here's how to use the Change Compensation Wizard:

In Records, Employees, open the employee record.
Select the Compensation/Deductions tab.
Click Change Compensation.
In the Change Compensation Wizard, select Copy Existing [compensation type].
In the ID field, click the binoculars and select a compensation type to copy.
Note: You must select a compensation type currently assigned to the employee.
Mark the Expire this [compensation type] checkbox and enter an effective end date.
Mark the Increase/Decrease [compensation type] using checkbox and enter an amount.
Note: To increase the [compensation type], enter a positive number. To decrease the benefit, enter a negative number.
Click OK.

The new compensation type will become effective the day after the existing compensation type expires.

Enjoy your extra time and talk to you soon!

Payroll Post Notes: Add a New Pay Schedule

Jennifer Maroney — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:15:00 GMT

A common question you've been asking is how to add a new pay schedule so I thought this would be a good topic to cover today. Regardless of why you need to add the pay schedule, the process is always the same.

Let's get started:

In Configuration, Schedules, click New Schedule.
Enter a schedule ID, Description, and the year in the appropriate fields.
In the Pay Frequency field, select how often to issue payments:
- Monthly
  - Every [ ] month(s) on day [ ] – select the frequency of monthly payments and the date to pay them. For example, every month on the 15th.
  - Every [ ] month(s) on the [ ] – select the frequency of monthly payments and the day to pay them. For example, each month on the first Friday.
- Semi-monthly: In the Every [ ] month(s) on day [ ] and the [ ] field, select the frequency of semi-monthly payments and the dates to pay them. For example, every two months on the first and 15th.
- Weekly: Select the frequency of weekly payments and mark the checkboxes for the days to make payments. For example, each week on Friday.
- Quarterly: In the Every three month(s) on day [ ] field, select the day to make payments. For example, every three months on the second Friday.
- Bi-weekly: In the Every two week(s) on field, mark the checkboxes for the days to make payments. For example, you can make payments every two weeks on Wednesday.
In the Number of periods field, select the total number of pay periods for the year.
In the Starting on field, enter the earliest possible period end date.
In the Hours per day field, enter the number of hours an employee works per day on this schedule.
In the Days per week field, enter the number of days an employee works per week on this schedule.
The grid on the right displays details for the pay schedule as defined in the fields on the left. If you make changes, click Update grid and select from the drop-down list the column to update.
Click Save and Close.

Talk to you soon!

Payroll Post Notes: Prepare for the Minimum Wage Increase

Jennifer Maroney — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:45:00 GMT

I got a hot tip, well actually a great suggestion from a reader, for a blog post to help prepare for the minimum wage increase on July 24, 2008. Since I always want to make my readers happy, here you go . The first thing we need to do is create a list of employees that currently make less than the new minimum wage amount, $6.55. You can accomplish this by creating an employee query. Here's how:

Create a new employee query.
On the Criteria tab, select:
- Compensation/Deductions, Pay Types, Valid through date, Operator blank
- Compensation/Deductions, Pay Types, Amount/Percent, Operator less than, and enter a value of $6.55
On the Output tab, select Employee, Employee full name.
Select the Results tab to review the employees.
Save the query.

Now that we know which employees need to be updated, the current pay type needs to be expired, and a new pay type needs to be added for the increased amount. This process will depend on the number of employees to update and their new hourly rate.

If you only have a few employees currently below the new minimum, I would recommend manually expiring and adding the new record or using the Change Compensation Wizard on each record.

If you have a large number of employees currently below $6.55, you can use Create Group Assignment to globally expire and add the updated pay type. This process will also allow you to increase the current hourly rate proportionately if not all employees make the same amount.

I strongly recommend creating a backup of your database right before globally adding or changing anything in your database. This is one of those processes that can only be reversed by manually correcting each record, which defeats the purpose of the shortcut, or restoring to a backup, which will cause you to lose all data entered after the backup was made (hence the backup right before the change).

Here's the process to globally update the records:

In Payroll Processing, click Create Group Assignments.
On the Options tab in the What do you want to do? field, select Copy existing records onto employees.
Select Pay Type in the Copy existing field.
Select the appropriate pay type in the Pay Type ID field.
In the Effective date field, select Effective only on period ending dates from, and enter 07/24/2008 in the first field. Leave the through date field blank.
Mark the Expire this pay type checkbox, select the same ID as defined in the Pay Type ID field, and enter 07/23/2008 in the Effective end date field.
Mark the Increase/Decrease pay type using checkbox, select amount, and enter $.70 in the amount field. If you would like to proportionally increase the wage, select percent, and enter the appropriate percent.
On the Filters tab, change the Employee filter from All to Selected.
On the Employees screen, mark the Query option, select the query created above, and click OK.
Select the Assignment Grid tab to review the employees and new hourly wage amount. You can manually adjust the new amount if necessary.
If the employee information and amounts in the grid are correct, click Process Now.

Keep the suggestions coming! Talk to you soon.