During check preparation employees are assigned to pay cycles (weekly, monthly, etc.), where their earnings distribution may be set up (GL purposes) and their deduction balances (loan balances) are specified. Once this is done a payroll may be run by setting the standard hours and earnings for the pay cycle, making exceptions to those standards and then checking the final list before printing checks.
The three file maintenance programs are the final procedures before running a payroll. The Employee Pay Cycle F/M is used to assign employees to their pay cycles. For example, John Smith might be a weekly salaried employee (base) as well as a commissioned salesperson (commission). Therefore, he will be set up in the weekly pay cycle where he has standard earnings and standard taxes and deductions are taken out as well as the commission pay cycle where only taxes are deducted. If his earnings are to be distributed to various GL account numbers (other than by department) they will be set up in the Earnings % Distribution F/M. If he has any deduction balances (i.e., loan balances) they are to be set up in the Employee Deduction Balance F/M. Once these three steps are taken a payroll may be run.
The first step to running a payroll is to initialize a pay cycle. The initialization will set up each employee’s standard earnings, taxes and deductions in a work file (i.e., the hours and earnings/deductions entry file). Then you may use the Exception Entry program to make exceptions (changes) to any employee’s standard earnings and use the Deductions Exception Entry program to make exceptions to taxes and deductions.
The Earnings List prints employee earnings information for a specific pay cycle. The Pre-check Edit List is used to print a listing (edit list) of what each employee’s check will look like. You can make corrections in the Exception Entry and/or Deductions Exception Entry programs and reprint the Edit List as often as needed until the list is finalized. Once checks have been printed, no more changes may be made.